In an essay entitled, "The Educational Value of 'News,'" published in the Dec. 5, 1905, edition of The State of Columbia, S.C., George Helgesen Fitch wrote, "The newspapers are making morning after morning the rough draft of history. Later, the historian will come, take down the old files, and transform the crude but sincere and accurate annals of editors and reporters into history, into literature. The modern school must study the daily newspaper." For those who would like to study the Civil War's "rough draft of history," a very useful resource is "The Civil War Extra – From the Pages of The Charleston Mercury & The New York Times" (1975, Arno Press, New York), edited by Eugene P...
