The Death of the Rebel Press

Kentucky’s Union occupiers suppressed the state’s secessionist papers as treasonous. A few editors were arrested, but most were soon released. Walter Haldeman employed an elaborate ruse to flee to the Confederates at Bowling Green after federal authorities shut down his Louisville Courier. He resurrected the Courier in the Warren County seat but later retreated from Kentucky with the rebel army. The paper reappeared now and again in Confederate territory. Editor Thomas Bell Monroe suspended the Kentucky Statesman, joined the rebel army, and was fatally wounded at Shiloh. The Paducah Herald and Hickman Courier also ceased when their editors donned rebel gray. The Frankfort Yeoman and other papers toned down their secessionism, but the Yeoman’s presses were ultimately stopped too. Other rebel papers faded away and remained silent for the war’s duration.