Nineteenth-Century Press Coverage of Memorials to the Common Civil War Soldier

This chapter examines newspaper coverage of monuments to the common soldier after the US Civil War. By promoting monument building and highlighting fundraisers, cornerstone layings, and related Memorial Day observances and orations, the press conveyed and reinforced the values and ideologies of those who brought the monuments to their communities, whether North or South. This chapter seeks to discover how newspapers contributed to the creation of those complex meanings, from heroism and reconciliation to white supremacy and the Lost Cause, and to the memory of the Civil War soldier—a subject we still debate today.