Here’s a promising review of a new-ish book about Kentucky’s newspapers during the Civil War. Judging by some of the anecdotes related, it could be a fun as well as enlightening read!

Readers will learn which editors favored the Union and which supported the Confederacy. George D. Prentice, unlike the vast majority of editors, possessed a college education and edited the Louisville Journal, a pro-Union – but also pro-slavery – paper, and William N. Haldeman, the editor of the Louisville Courier, was a secessionist who fled south after his paper was shut down by the Union army. After the war, Haldeman returned to Kentucky and joined together both papers to create the Courier-Journal with Henry Watterson, a former Confederate officer, as editor. Craig’s descriptions of editors and their writing are lively, with pockets of humor here and there, and some accounts of events, like the arrest of A.J. Morey, the pro-Confederate editor of the Cynthiana News, might spur instant laughter in readers. When arrested, he was subdued by two Union soldiers, one of whom referred to Morey as “a pompous little fellow.” Without thinking, Morey challenged the Yankee, who was much larger, to a duel. The challenged Yankee possessed under the rules of duels the right to choose weapons. The Yankee chose “knives at one pace”; Morey quickly had second thoughts and withdrew his challenge.

Source: Book review: ‘Kentucky’s Rebel Press’ | Community | bgdailynews.com