Milblogging: Francis Lieber and the Loyal Publication Society

In 1863, the Civil War was at a bloody stand still. Neither the South nor the North seemed to make enough progress to create the conditions for victory. There seemed to be little possibility for one decisive battle to end the war though each army had made several attempts to destroy the other. News from the front was scarce. Letters from friends and family were passed around or read out loud at gatherings. Reports in established newspapers touted a never ending list of casualties, destruction and pending defeat of the Union cause. Good news was far and few between.

In congress, many proclaimed the war could not be won. They advocated ceasing military action and making a political agreement with the Confederate States. The first rush had turned into depression in the North as the realization set in that this was not going to be a short war.

Enter Francis Lieber and the Loyal Publications Society. Francis Lieber is best known as the father of modern day laws of warfare. At the request of the Union government, he wrote an extensive essay regarding the practices of war, the treatment of prisoners, civilians and property. This eventually became known as the "Lieber Code" and was disseminated as General Order #100 to the Union Army.

This code of conduct was adopted by militaries around the world as well as the International Red Cross, andthe Hague Conventions. The Hague Conventions led to the adoption of the Laws of Warfare. Lieber's Code also influenced the Geneva Conventions.

At the height of the Civil War, Lieber was keeping a correspondence with Gen. Halleck. Among their correspondence, Lieber often complained of the lack of good news and reports of decisive actions coming from the front. The Lincoln administration had not developed any official information programs or put forth much effort beyond Lincoln's occasional speeches and letters to various editors or public officers that were then published for general edification.

At the same time, the South had put together a tremendous propaganda effort including writing, publishing and distributing books supporting their views on economics, politics, the constitution and slavery. These were widely distributed in the North and South. Regular editorials and prepared reports were sent to numerous papers across the country. Prepared materials were provided to politicians, organizations and individuals including foreign papers where they hoped to gain support for their cause. The Confederates had their own state run propaganda paper called The Index.

The Confederacy also sent numerous envoys to foreign nations presenting their cause as a case for liberty, rights and economy, astutely avoiding any mention of slavery that had already been outlawed by many nations. Lincoln barely put together an assembly of four "diplomats" of varying degrees of capability that attempted to combat the propaganda, dissuade support or interference by those nations and maintain existing treaties on such national interests as trade and sovereignty of the United States.

The blockading of the South not only effected Southern trade and economy, but also that of many European nations. As the Confederate book on "King Cotton" noted, over 5 million people in England relied on cotton from the South. For economic purposes alone the Confederates believed that England should support their efforts to remain economically and politically viable, even with the use of slave labor.

Lincoln could not totally ignore the impact of the blockade on other nations, but he also needed to insure that the United States remained whole, without interference and that, once the war was over, the United States could continue good relations with these nations. A war might be won, but survival of the nation would depend on continuing trade and developing economics to recover from the devastation of war.

The Lincoln Administration's lack of a coordinated information program left a huge hole in the Union's psyche that was quickly being filled up with ever depressing news and Confederate propaganda. This left the task of spurring and maintaining support for the Union and the war to largely private citizen organizations that created patriotic citizen groups in cities across states such as the Union League.

The Union League of Philadelphia was established in 1862 to organize and recruit Union supporters on behalf of the war effort and President Lincoln's policies. Other Union Leagues quickly sprang up across the north following the same practices. These organizations would present speakers to other groups and events, organize patriotic events, print literature supporting the Union and raise money to supply the troops and care for the wounded.

In New York, Francis Lieber, along with other well known Unionists and Abolitionists, formed the Loyal Publication Society. In the beginning, the society simply scanned existing newspapers and broadsheets for "good news" to be collated into one pamphlet and distributed among the troops and citizens. The organization would quickly contact the papers for the type setting before it was broken up and print it on their own paper.

Soon they expanded to printing original essays and speeches on broad subjects ranging from slavery, black men in the army, the Union cause, rebutting Confederate propaganda or political speeches as well as rebutting reports from various newspapers including the Chicago Times and the New York Tribune. The tracts would also reprint soldiers' letters and essays as "Voices from the Army".

One such publication rebutted the ever present dirge that it was only the poor who were fighting and dying for nothing more than the capitalist rich men in the north. The practice of accepting payment in lieu of drafting, wealthy and middle class men paying other men to take a draftees position along with anti-draft and nativist proclamations of discrimination had led to riots in New York and other cities.

In addressing these organizations and the cries of discrimination, the publication printed an essay describing the calls as such:

They have labored to spread the idea that every man who came to the United States and became a citizen, acquired ipso facto a right to lifelong ease, comfort and prosperity and that any action on the part of the Government, in defense of honor and existence, which curtailed the smallest of a working man's comfort, was a fraud and an imposition.

They rejected those claims and instead called all men to "take up" their "duty", insisting that there was no promise of leisure and only the ability to pursue their dreams.

"We guarantee him freedom of mind and body, and promise him wealth and honor in proportion to his merits. But, we warn him, when he comes here, it is not to roam over rich pastures and chew the cud, a fat ox among fat oxen. He comes to be a freeman in a free community, jealous of its honor, of its integrity and of its glory, prepared to make whatever sacrifices, down to the last drop of blood, to preserve every one of them without stain or blemish.

Democrats who had whole heartedly crossed the line to support the Union and made no claims of defeat were attacked verbally and in print by other party members. In rebuttal, a piece of an address given by the Union Democracy War Party of Indiana was reprinted under "Country, Not Party":

Reproachful names have no terrors while the broad banner of our republic, the emblem of civil liberty, is over us, and we hold up its standard. We stand by our government, seeking no favors from it and pledging no support for individuals in it and we will uphold it a the chosen type of our country and freedom during this attempt to destroy it. Our duty is to "our country, our whole country, and nothing but our country". If that country falls, we ask no shield from its fate.

In another tract, they printed rebuttals to articles in foreign papers as well as re-printing foreign articles that supported the Union. In this tract, was a short essay called "The Limits of Patriotic Criticism" on the difference between loyal criticism of the government and declamations of enemies within.

The criticism of one who is friendly to the Government, and who is anxious that it shall succeed and be preserved, and who points out its errors that they may be corrected, is wholly different from the denunciation which seeks to bring the Government into contempt and render it odious to the people, thereby withdrawing from it its life, when struggling in battle with a powerful enemy.

Many of these self organized citizens groups, publications and their topics would sound very familiar to milbloggers today. The tools of the free press and the names of the organizations may have changed, but the sentiments have remained the same: to support the country in a time of war, rebutting claims by opponents, refuting false claims of intended casualties or recruiting practices, addressing issues with the government and war strategy with "patriotic criticism". Even including discussions about religion in public life and the government.

The article, "Outside", Oct 1863, discusses a movement in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to have an amendment added to the Constitution acknowledging the United States as a Christian nation. The Loyal Publication Society replied:

We find the above in many of our exchanges, and the movement is regarded as one very worthy and proper. We would suggest that the best way for us, as a nation, to recognize and acknowledge God and his Sovereignty, would be in conforming our national action and character to those eternal principles of Justice, Freedom and Humanity. Until we do this, any outward and formal acknowledgment would be a pretense, and would not "clearly show that we are a Christian people."

Some people considered Francis Lieber to be a "fanatic" for his unwavering support of the Union and President Lincoln, even in the face of acts that continue to be challenged as unconstitutional. He wrote an essay that appeared in a Loyal Publications Society pamphlet on Presidential Powers During War Time that was rebutted by an opposition group that had formed to protest Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus and various acts of arrest and court martial by military authorities.

The Loyal Publication Society continued throughout the war and sometime after. Several Union League organizations existed for several decades after the war, promoting civic duty and becoming active in politics. The Philadelphia Union League is one of the few that still exist today.

In times of war, it has not been unusual for citizens to band together, either through established government organizations or through volunteer citizen groups, in order to sustain morale among themselves, promote patriotism among other citizens and provide assistance to the soldiers. It has been true since time immemorial. It's been true in this country during every war. What seems to change is not the need or the desire, but simply the means by which communication and organization are reached.

The internet has allowed ad hoc groups and individual citizens to organize across thousands of miles, sharing ideas within light seconds and self publishing to hundreds and thousands of readers at such a reduced cost as to make citizen publishing what the founders of this nation could only dream about.

While many milbloggers and their supporters did not necessarily start out as "war-bloggers", the need to support fellow soldiers, family, friends and like minded citizens became an imperative. What started out as individuals seeking their own voices became a real effort to support the troops, support the war effort and support the country. Milbloggers stand on the shoulders of such men as Francis Lieber and the Loyal Publication Society who showed the power of citizen volunteers in information warfare and maintaining national morale in a long war.

Other documents of the Loyal Publication Society:

New York Times Ad for Purchase of Publication Pamphlets, 1864
New England Loyal Publication Society Broadsides, scanned images
McClellen or Lincoln? An appeal to German Americans to support Lincoln's re-election.
Loyal Publication Society, #28: Death of Slavery
Biography of Francis Lieber