Technology during the American Civil War was on the rise with the invention of the telegraph, the locomotive and steam presses. These advances made it possible for news from the battlefield to reach the homefront within hours and for the Civil War to become the first “instant news” war.
It was during the Civil War that modern American journalism was born, and an increasingly literate America quickly developed a need for information on casualties from the battlefield and other war activities. Visitors to the new Museum at Gettysburg National Military Park can explore the encounters of the nation’s first war correspondents and their accounts of the war that preserved the nation.
| The Correspondents’ Perspective Backgrounder (PDF) |  |
