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Newspaper Shreveport News (Shreveport [La.]) 1864-1865 Shreveport weekly news

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About Shreveport News (Shreveport [La.]) 1864-1865

Considered the “second city” of Louisiana until being surpassed in population by Baton Rouge in the late twentieth century, Shreveport was founded on the banks of the Red River in 1836 by steamboat captain Henry Miller Shreve of Pennsylvania. The city quickly became an important cotton shipping center and staging point on the route to Texas. In 1860, its population was approximately 3,500, of which about 1,300 were slaves.

The first issues of the Shreveport Daily News and the Shreveport Weekly News were published in April 1861. Their editor, John Dickinson (b. ca. 1831), was a Brooklyn, New York, native and a former manager of the Natchitoches(LA) Chronicle. Publishing both a daily and a weekly newspaper soon proved to be too difficult for Dickinson, and in November 1861, he consolidated the papers to form the Shreveport Semi-Weekly News, the title of which changed several times over the next five years. By February 1863, the Shreveport Weekly News was again issued alongside the semiweekly edition, but failed four months later. It was revived for a third time in 1866.

The Civil War was the main subject of Dickinson’s reporting. In addition to news of battles and troop movements, he printed official military correspondence together with his personal opinions on subjects such as abolition and the use of African-American troops. Recognizing Shreveport’s importance as a railroad hub and river shipping center, Dickinson promoted southern industry; many of his papers carried the motto “Home Manufacture.” Reports of the Louisiana state legislature, which fled to Shreveport from Opelousas in 1863, are available, as is information on Shreveport’s brief period as the last capital of the Confederacy following the fall of Richmond in April 1865.

The cultural life of Shreveport during the Civil War was reported in some detail, with announcements of concerts, plays, minstrel shows, and other public entertainments. A “Ladies’ Corner” carried recipes, household tips, and fashion advice. Articles such as “Gov. Morehead’s Experience in a Yankee Prison” and “What the Yankee Soldiers Say and Think” may have been printed to bolster the resistance movement as Union troops advanced up the Red River toward Shreveport.

By 1867, the Shreveport Weekly News (described by a New Orleans newspaper as “that lively and flourishing journal”) was being edited by Rev. A. L. Hay (b. ca. 1820), a former Indian missionary and a graduate of Georgetown College in Kentucky. His wife, M. B. Hay (b. ca. 1836), a poet of some distinction, also contributed to the paper’s management. In 1869, it claimed a circulation of 600 in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. Publication appears to have ceased by 1870, by which time the Hays had moved to nearby Marshall, Texas.

Provided By: Louisiana State University; Baton Rouge, LA

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Shreveport News (Shreveport [La.]) 1864-1865

Other Title

  • Shreveport weekly news

Dates of Publication

  • 1864-1865

Created / Published

  • Shreveport [La.] : Jno. Dickinson

Headings

  • -  Shreveport (La.)--Newspapers
  • -  Caddo Parish (La.)--Newspapers
  • -  Louisiana--Caddo Parish
  • -  Louisiana--Shreveport
  • -  United States--Louisiana--Caddo--Shreveport

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Began in Mar. 1864.
  • -  -old ser., v. 7, no. 48 (June 10, 1865).
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format as part of the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Description based on: Old ser., v. 6, no. 33 (Mar. 8, 1864).
  • -  Shreveport semi-weekly news (Shreveport, La. : 1865) 2163-7016 (DLC)sn 83016484 (OCoLC)9865025

Medium

  • volumes ; 69 cm

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn83016485

OCLC Number

  • 9865097

ISSN Number

  • 2163-7032

Preceding Titles

Succeeding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Shreveport News Shreveport La. -1865. (Shreveport, LA), Jan. 1 1864. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83016485/.

APA citation style:

(1864, January 1) Shreveport News Shreveport La. -1865. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83016485/.

MLA citation style:

Shreveport News Shreveport La. -1865. (Shreveport, LA) 1 Jan. 1864. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn83016485/.