I may here state that the Confederate authorities have complete
control of the press, so that nothing is ever allowed to appear in
print which can give information to the North or dishearten their
own men. In this it appears to me that they have an unspeakable
advantage over the North, with its numberless papers and hundreds of
correspondents in the loyal armies. Under such a system it is an
absolute impossibility to conceal the movements of the army. With
what the correspondents tell and surmise, and what the Confederates
find out through spies and informers of various kinds, they are able
to see through many of the plans of the Union forces before they
are put into execution. No more common remark did I hear than this,
as officers were reading the Northern papers: "See what fools these
Yankees are. General A---- has left B---- for C----. We will cut him
off. Why the Northern generals or the Secretary of War tolerate this
freedom of news we can not imagine." Every daily paper I have read
since coming North has contained information, either by direct
statement or implication, which the enemy can profit by. If we meant
to play into the hands of the Rebels, we could hardly do it more
successfully than our papers are doing it daily; for it must be
remembered that they only need hints and scraps of information,
which, added to the antecedent probabilities that our army is about
to proceed to a certain point, will enable them to forecast with
almost absolute certainty the movements of their enemies. Sure am I,
that if a Southern paper would publish such information of their
movements, as do the Northern of theirs, the editor's neck would not
be safe an hour.

Does any reader aver, "But we see information often quoted from the
Southern papers of their movements." Never, until they are made. It
is safe to conclude, if you see in a Southern paper any statement