One of the primary sources Southern newspapers had for war correspondents was soldiers who would write letters about their experiences. Soldiers also used newspapers to tell their sides of stories about why battles were won or lost, why officers should be cashiered or promoted, or why they were so superior to enemy fighters.

Soldier correspondents were important for Southern newspapers because they did not have the money to send journalists to the front like so many of the larger and wealthier newspapers from Norther metropolises like New York or Chicago or Cincinnati. Only handful of the larger dailies in the South, and an occasional weekly, could afford to keep professional journalist-correspondens in the field.

Sometimes, those soldier correspondents were printers or editors who had volunteered for service or, in the case of printers, who had been drafted into the army. Most often, however, soldier correspondents were men who wanted to share their experiences with their family and friends back home, and they used the mechanism of the newspaper to do that.

In this section, you will read several articles written by soldier correspondents. Compare them with articles written by the professionals, especially Peter W. Alexander and Felix G. de Fontaine, to get a better idea of the differences between a soldier's view of a battle and a journalist's.