correspondent, which asserted that "Lincoln writes English that passes muster in America, but that would not be tolerated in a British school for young men." This was taken as a direct insult to the President and numerous newspapers which had criticized his military campaigns came at once to his defense as a writer" of English.
CLEVER TRICKS OF CORRESPONDENTS
Some of the tricks employed by war correspondents to get news through the lines were unusually clever. A Union soldier released from Libby Prison walked into the office of a New York newspaper, cut a button from his military coat, and handed it to the man in charge of the office. When the button was pried apart it was found to contain a letter written on thin tissue paper from a war correspondent still in prison. The notes of the letter, when expanded, made a long article. Another correspondent wrote an account on thin tissue paper which he wrapped in tin foil and put inside a quid of tobacco. This he gave to a soldier about to be exchanged. When the latter was being searched, his mouth was examined, but in preparation for such an investiga- tion he had taken the quid from his mouth and no one thought enough of the matter to look at the tobacco. The correspon- dence, save for a slight yellow stain or two, reached successfully a Northern newspaper. Another common trick was to rip a pocketbook apart, insert the news-letter, and then resew the wallet. In a similar way, news items were literally carried on foot by insertion in the leather sole of a shoe of the messenger. In the attempts of various correspondents to give their papers a beat on various encounters, resort was made to all sorts of devices to hold the telegraph wire: on one occasion a corres- pondent instructed the operator when to add the first chapter of Genesis to the dispatch. This chapter was sufficiently long to delay other reports until his newspaper secured a lead which enabled it to be first on the street with the report of the battle.
LEADING EDITORIALS OF THE PERIOD
The most important editorial printed during the Civil War Period was probably the one from the pen of Horace Greeley.
