From Blood to Ink

The first book ever on how the press covered the Gettysburg campaign, From Blood to Ink chronicles the rise of the press through the Civil War and how its coverage of Gettysburg not only misled the people of two warring factions but also misshaped the battle’s meaning for generations to come. As Matthew J. Larson reveals, newsmen on both sides transformed the battle into what they needed it to be rather than what it truly was. While the Northern press elevated Gettysburg into America’s Waterloo, the Southern press polished it into another hard-won success for Confederate General Robert E. Lee. In both cases, facts bent to bias, narrative eclipsed reality, and Gettysburg itself became the final casualty.