Robert H. Patton - Hell Before Breakfast: Americas First War Correspondents Making History and Headlines, from the Battlefields of the Civil War to the Far Reaches of the Ottoman Empire

Copyright 2014 by Robert H. Patton

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House LLC, New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, Penguin Random House companies.

Pantheon Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Patton, Robert H. (Robert Holbrook), [date]
Hell before breakfast : Americas first war correspondents making history and headlines, from the battlefields of the Civil War to the far reaches of the Ottoman Empire / Robert H. Patton.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-307-37721-0 (hardcover). ISBN 978-0-307-90890-2 (eBook)
1. War correspondentsUnited StatesHistory19th century. 2. WarPress coverageHistory19th century. I. Title.
PN 4823. P 38 2014 070.433309730922dc23 2013036725

www.pantheonbooks.com

Jacket images: (top) Fort Sumter, April 1213, 1861. Wood engraving from a contemporary American newspaper. The Granger Collection, N.Y.; (bottom) Virginia newspaper vendor, 1863, by Alexander Gardner. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Jacket design by Pablo Delcn
Book design by Iris Weinstein

v3.1

for Vicki, of course
and for Tom, Chris, Rob, & James
adventurers all

There are heroisms even in the profession of journalism of which the newspaper reader in the morning over his coffee and rolls never thinks. But they are real, and without them there might sometimes be nothing for the man with his coffee and rolls to read.

GEORGE W. SMALLEY , Anglo-American Memories (1911)

James Gordon Bennett, Jr. (Richard OConnor, The Scandalous Mr. Bennett, Doubleday, 1962)

William Howard Russell (Corbis)

Dedicated to Young America! (Library of Congress)

)

)

)

The New York Herald (Library of Congress)

Abraham Lincoln (Library of Congress)

The Great Ocean Yacht Race (Library of Congress)

Charles Dickens (Library of Congress)

Otto von Bismarck (Library of Congress)

Horace Greeley (Library of Congress)

The Great International University Boat Race (Corbis)

Mark Twain (Hannibal Free Public Library, Hannibal, MO)

Januarius MacGahan (Dale Walker Collection, Robert E. and Jean R. Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections, Ohio University)

)

George W. Smalley (F. Lauriston Bullard, Famous War Correspondents, Little, Brown, 1914)

The Effect of the Mitrailleuse in the Battle of Gravelotte (Corbis)

John R. Robinson (Harpers Magazine)

)

Siegreicher Einzug in Paris (Library of Congress)

Victor Hugo (Corbis)

Januarius MacGahan (Dale Walker Collection, Robert E. and Jean R. Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections, Ohio University)

Paris barricade (Corbis)

Vendme column (Corbis)

Jaroslav Dombrowski (Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University)

Summary Executions in Paris (Corbis)

Henry M. Stanley (Corbis)

Varvara Elaguine (Dale Walker Collection, Robert E. and Jean R. Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections, Ohio University)

Eugene Schuyler (Eugene Schuyler, Selected Essays. With a Memoir by Evelyn Schuyler Schaeffer, Scribners, 1901)

Desert nomads (Corbis)

Khiva (Corbis)

Cossacks (Harpers Magazine)

)

)

Pandora (J. A. MacGahan, Under the Northern Lights, Sampson, Low, Marston, 1876)

Frank Millet (Syracuse University Library)

Charles Francis Adams, Jr. (Adams National Historical Park)

A Bashi-Bazouk (authors collection)

Lady Strangford (authors collection)

Ulysses S. Grant (Library of Congress)

Mikhail Skobelev (Library of Congress)

Bringing Down the Wounded from the Turkish Left Attack in the Shipka Pass (Corbis)

The Corn Field (Harpers Magazine)

Circassian Cossack and Prisoner (Harpers Magazine)

Osman Pasha Brought Before the Czar at Plevna (Corbis)

Burial of a Comrade (Harpers Magazine)

Joseph Gourko (Corbis)

Januarius MacGahan and Frank Millet (F. Lauriston Bullard, Famous War Correspondents, Little, Brown, 1914)

Archibald Forbes and Frederic Villiers (Frederic Villiers, Peaceful Personalities and Warriors Bold, Harper & Brothers, 1907)

John Russell Young (Corbis)

Walt Whitman (Library of Congress)

Archibald Butt (Library of Congress)

Millet-Butt Memorial Fountain (National Park Service)

Stephen Bonsal (Library of Congress)

Herald Square (Library of Congress)

The New York Herald

James Gordon Bennettfounder, publisher, editor in chief

James Gordon Bennett, Jr.publisher, editor in chief

Henry Villardcorrespondent

Henry M. Stanleycorrespondent

J. A. MacGahancorrespondent

Francis D. Milletcorrespondent, illustrator

John Russell Youngcorrespondent, foreign affairs editor

Stephen Fisketheater critic

Edward T. Flynneditor

Stephen Bonsalcorrespondent

The New York Tribune

Horace Greeleyfounder, publisher, editor in chief

Charles A. Danamanaging editor

John Russell Youngmanaging editor

Whitelaw Reidmanaging editor

George W. Smalleycorrespondent, London bureau chief

Holt Whitecorrespondent

M. Mjanelcorrespondent

Samuel L. Clemenscontributor

The New York Times

Henry J. Raymondfounder, publisher, editor in chief

Daily News (London)

Charles Dickensfounder, editor

John R. Robinsonmanager

Archibald Forbescorrespondent

J. A. MacGahancorrespondent

The Times (London)

William Howard Russellcorrespondent

The Graphic (London)

Frederic Villiersillustrator

S ometime between the American Civil War and the Spanish-American War, it became understood by many young men that being a war correspondent was the greatest job in the world. One reason was foreshadowed in a Punch cartoon published in London in 1854, after news arrived from the Crimean War that a brigade of British cavalry had been wiped out in a desperate assault against impossible odds. The cartoon depicts a family reacting to the report, the mother and daughters weeping, the enraged father holding a newspaper in one hand and swinging a fireplace poker in the other. Meanwhile, a young boy peers over his dads shoulder at the dire headline. He looks thrilled.

We cant blame the correspondent who broke the news for the boys inappropriate joy. William Howard Russell of The Times of London wrote his dispatch in a state of grief after helplessly watching the slaughter from a nearby hilltop. But neither his appalled description of Russian cannons shredding his countrymen nor his candor about the bungled order that launched the attack dispels the wonder of the scene. Thanks to Russells account, the Charge of the Light Brigade has endured in poems, books, and movies as a stirring piece of history. The last thing he wanted was to make it seem romantic. Some people just saw it that way.