The New South Archive

The Port Royal New South (1862-67) holds the distinction of being one of the first occupation newspapers published in the Confederacy during the Civil War. Unlike many of its successors, however, the New South not only outlasted the war but served as a witness to the political and social changes transforming Beaufort County, South Carolina, in its aftermath.

Union Army postmaster Joseph Henry Sears launched the New South on March 15, 1862. Recognizing the historical importance of his endeavor, he remarked, "Not often has a newspaper occupied so singular a position as that filled to-day ... Issued in a military command, addressed mostly to soldiers at the seat of war, its audience is yet not purely military." Within two weeks' time, Sears was forced to suspend publication as a concession to the supply needs of Union Army troops under the command of General David Hunter. The New South returned on August 23, 1862, and it remained a reliable news source for the duration of the war. Newspapers as far-flung as the  Daily Evansville (Indiana) Journal,  Daily Green Mountain Freeman (Montpelier, Vermont),  and Brownville Nebraska Advertiser picked up and carried its reports on the whereabouts of military companies and ships.  By September 1863, circulation rates for the New South approached 10,000 copies.

Several of the men who worked for the New South went on to distinguished careers. In addition to serving as editor, Union Army General Adam Badeau also served on General William T. Sherman’s staff. He later published a number of historical works, including Military History of Ulysses S. Grant (1881) and Grant in Peace (1887). Badeau's successor, Henry Jacob Winser, went on to serve as United States Consul General at the Court of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1869-81), chief of the information bureau of the Northern Pacific Railway Company, assistant editor for the New-York Commercial Advertiser, and managing editor for the Newark (New Jersey) Daily Advertiser.

The details on the final days of the New South are scarce and contradictory, due to gaps in the newspaper record. The newspaper apparently changed hands sometime in 1865, the same year it was moved from Port Royal to Beaufort. As late as August 1866, the Charleston (South Carolina) Daily News named Joseph Sears as an agent for the New South, but the few surviving issues from that period only identify Lewis Thompson, the former publisher for the Anti-Slavery Society of Philadelphia, as proprietor. Contemporary scholarly sources have since surmised that the New South ceased in 1866, but an account of a destructive fire in Beaufort appearing in the Columbia (South Carolina) Daily Phoenix on March 9, 1867, indicates the New South was still a viable concern. The latest issue known to exist is dated September 29, 1866.