Brown, Dale E.

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US Army War College Press (USAWC)

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters Volume 34 Number 3 Parameters Autumn 2004 Article 1 8-1-2004 From the Archives: Sherman and the Reporter Dale E. Brown Follow this and additional works at: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters Recommended Citation Brown, Dale E.. "From the Archives: Sherman and the Reporter." The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters 34, 3 (2004). https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol34/iss3/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by USAWC Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters by an authorized editor of USAWC Press. From the ArchivesSherman and the ReporterDALE E. BROWNDespite the recent successes of embedding, relations between the military andthe press sometimes are contentious. Yet even the greatest animosities of ourcurrent era seldom reach the depth of the hatred that existed between General Wil-liam Tecumseh Sherman and the newspapermen who followed his army. Enragedby newspaper listings of the Union order of battle prior to engagements, Shermanbanished reporters from his lines and referred to them as “dirty newspaper scrib-blers who have the impudence of Satan.” A reporter for the New York Tribunewrote that being “a cat in hell without claws is nothing to [being] a reporter inGeneral Sherman’s army.” His brethren were not so kind; they circulated reportsof Sherman’s alleged insanity.The tension reached a head when a reporter for the New York Herald,Thomas Knox, defied Sherman’s orders and forwarded an account of the Uniondefeat at Chickasaw Bluffs. Sherman had Knox arrested and bound over forcourt-martial. The reporter responded, “Of course, General Sherman, I have nofeelings against you personally, but you are regarded as the enemy of our set andwe must in self-defense write you down.” The court found Knox guilty and or-dered him banished from the theater. As the Herald was a strong supporter of Lin-coln, the President countermanded the sentence on the condition that Sherman’ssuperior, U. S. Grant, agreed. Grant would do no such thing, and Knox was forcedto appeal to the man he defamed. Sherman’s reply:Come with a sword or musket in your hand, prepared to share with us ourfate . . . and I will welcome you as a brother; but come as you now do ex-pecting me to ally the reputation and honor of my country and my fellow-soldiers with you as the representative of the Press which you yourselfsay makes so slight a difference between truth and falsehood and my an-swer is Never!Knox left the theater.Source: Joseph H. Ewing. “The New Sherman Letters.” American Heritage, July-August 1987.

From the Archives: Sherman and the Reporter

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From the Archives: Sherman and the Reporter

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