Dr. George W. Bagby was the faithful Richmond correspondent of the Charleston Mercury. Bagby was perhaps drawn to reporting for the Mercury because he, like the paper's editors, despised Confederate President Jefferson Davis. As a Richmond correspondent, Bagby's job was to gather news from the Confederate War Department, but he sometimes also covered the battles in person. Before the Civil War, Bagby was editor of the Southern Literary Messenger, a magazine Edgard Allen Poe had edited a few years previously.

Bagby also reported for the Mobile Advertiser & Register, the New Orleans Crescent, and the Columbus (Ga.) Daily Sun.