Front pages from Northern and Southern newspapers show both Union and Confederate viewpoints on the war while illuminating the challenges faced by reporters on the battlefield and the new technologies that revolutionized war reporting.

An exchange of "open letters" between the abolitionist and publisher Horace Greeley and President Lincoln reveals how the president balanced the goals of preserving the Union and ending slavery and how he used the press to help pave the way for the Emancipation Proclamation.