THE WORLD, New York, Oct. 11, 1861  Among the front page column heads on the Civil War: "THE SOUTHERN REBELLION" "Another Federal Advance" "No Rebel Force Within Six Miles of Our Lines" "The Enemy Indrenched at Big Sewell" "3,000 Rebels Leave Kentucky for the Southern Coast" "Polk at Columbus With 30,000 Troops" "Price Fleeing from Fremont" and more.
Eight pages, never bound nor trimmed, two creases, various foxing, some margin wear.

Background: This October 11, 1861 issue of The World serves as a rare and significant primary source, capturing the American Civil War at a fragile, transitional moment when the ultimate fate of the divided nation was entirely undecided. Published just months after the humiliating Union defeat at Bull Run, this eight-page edition reflects a frantic northern public hungry for good news, utilizing the era's characteristic "stacked" single-column headlines to broadcast real-time telegraph dispatches from multiple fronts. The historical significance of these specific dispatches is immense: they document the critical, early maneuvering to secure the volatile border states of Kentucky and Missouri—highlighted by Confederate General Leonidas Polk’s occupation of Columbus and Union General John C. Frémont’s pursuit of Sterling Price—while simultaneously charting the failure of Robert E. Lee’s Western Virginia Campaign at Big Sewell Mountain, a muddy stalemate that permanently secured the region for the Union and paved the way for the creation of West Virginia. Because many newspapers from this era were printed on unstable wood-pulp paper or destroyed during the war, surviving copies of The World from late 1861 are highly scarce, offering historians an unedited, incredibly rare window into the anxiety, military strategy, and media landscape of a nation teetering on the edge of a prolonged total war.