Home > Back to Search Results > "Memphis" newspaper printed in Atlanta, Georgia... Jefferson Davis' stirring address to his soldiers...
Click image to enlarge 680889
Show image list »

"Memphis" newspaper printed in Atlanta, Georgia... Jefferson Davis' stirring address to his soldiers...



Item # 680889

February 14, 1864

THE MEMPHIS DAILY APPEAL, Atlanta, Georgia, Feb. 14, 1864 

* Very rare Confederate title
* Publisher on the run


See the bottom of this listing for the fascinating history of this newspaper.
Among the front page items are: "President Davis' Address to the Army" which is rather lengthy & signed in type: Jefferson Davis. This is a very nice, rousing address to his soldiers having near the end:"...Soldiers! Assured success awaits us in our holy struggle for liberty & independence & for the preservation of all that renders life desirable to honourable men..." & much more. Other ftpg. items include: "Exciting News from Mississippi" "From the Peninsula" "From the Rapidan--Official Dispatch" which is signed in type: R. E. Lee; "Siege of Charleston" "Tennessee" and much more.
The back page has more good war content with: "The Situation in Mississippi" "Abolition Rule in North Alabama" "The Front" "Escape of 109 Commissioned Yankee Officers from the Libby Prison...", and more.
Memphis was a Confederate stronghold up through the Battle of Memphis on June 6, 1862, at which time the Yankees moved in and it became a Yankee city. The "Memphis Daily Appeal", dedicated to the Southern cause rallying both civilians & soldiers, it was the most important newspaper of the region, soon famously known as the "Moving Appeal."
On June 6, 1862, the presses and plates were loaded into a boxcar and moved to Grenada, Mississippi, where it stayed for a few months, until approaching Federal troops threatened again, forcing a move in November 1862 to Jackson, Mississippi, where it published until May 1863, when Federal troops again arrived. By this time, the Appeal had gained notoriety among Union forces as a rebel sympathizer while it remained on the run. The next stop was Meridian, Mississippi, from where, one issue and two days later, the wandering journalists moved on to Mobile, Alabama, then to Montgomery, and ultimately to Atlanta, the economic heart of the Confederacy. Publication from Atlanta began in June 1863 and continued through July 1864, when it returned to Montgomery, where it published from September 1864 to April 1865. Its final move was to Columbus, Georgia, where Federal forces finally caught up with it. It resumed publication following the war in Memphis on November 5, 1865. During just a four year period this newspaper published in nine different cities. (credit: Tennessee State Library & Archives)
Complete as a single sheet newspaper in very nice, clean condition. A nice issue of a Memphis newspaper printed in Atlanta, Georgia.

Category: Confederate