America's First Black War Correspondent, Thomas Morris Chester-- Part 1

From the Feb. 15, 2022, History  "America's first black war correspondent reported from the Civil War front lines" by Farrell Evans.

During the Civil War, hundreds of  reporters from the Union and Confederacy published stories about the war.  Only one of them was a black man, named  Thomas Morris Chester, the nation's first black war correspondent.

The invention of the telegraph in  1844  by Samuel Morse had made it possible for newspapers to report the news  in a matter of hours, not days.  The  correspondents reporting the war were all white men except for Chester and they reported the war through the eyes of the white troops.

But, the white-owned Philadelphia Press hired Chester  in 1864, to cover black troops in Virginia.  

The 30-year-old from Harrisburg native wrote under the pseudonym "Rollin."    His mother had escaped slavery.

His beat was with the United States Colored Troops in the Army of the James from August 1864 to June 1865.  Chester had actively recruited Blacks into the ranks and gave  voice and dignity to them as they  struggled for their right to fight, for parity with white troops and for he respect that should come to men willing to lay their lives down for their country.

--Old Secesh