Beginning January 1, 2011, The News & Advance will mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and the end of slavery with a daily, and weekly, look at Central Virginia and its people during the war years.
We’ll bring the era to life using excerpts of actual news items published in The Daily Virginian, a predecessor of The News & Advance, which was founded in 1866.
The Virginian, Monday through Friday, was one of the more prominent papers in the state and was filled with news of the war, of slavery and of daily life.
For example, here’s a glimpse at the editorial in The Virginian on Jan. 1, 1861:
“We shall search the pages of history in vain for a parallel to our folly; and in vain seek through all the records of national humiliation, degradation, and final overthrow, for an event so stupendous in results as those that will follow the Dissolution of this Union and the extinction of American nationality.”
And here’s an advertisement, painful to read in retrospect because it deals with slavery, which provides some insight into the local economy: “I have for hire four or five NEGRO MEN, among them is one Blacksmith, one No. 1 Drayman, and one good Carter, and one that can do any work in a tobacco factory. D.B. Payne.”
Not all the news was war-related. The Virginian’s main local news story on Jan. 1, 1861 reported on the local tradition of “young men of good manners” dressing in their finest clothes and visiting their female acquaintances.
Each week, The News & Advance will publish a special feature compiling the local news of that same week during the Civil War.
Each day, the newspaper will publish on www.newsadvance.com and via Facebook a brief excerpt from the news of that same date 150 years ago.
The state and national commemoration of the war will culminate in 2015 at Appomattox, where the war ended, and our coverage will also include a monthly column National Park Service staff there as detailed in an accompanying story today.
The News & Advance will serve as a clearinghouse for local events and information about Civil War and emancipation commemorations, and we encourage readers to send that information to us.
Please send information about any Civil War-related events to news@newsadvance.com, or to Newsroom/civil war, The News & Advance, Box 10129, Lynchburg, VA, 24502.
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