You could also contact the Richmond Times-Dispatch, as was not Douglas 
Southall Freeman an editor there; and the Museum of the Confederacy 
Library in Richmond --

Frankie

David Roberts wrote:

>Carol:
>
>In the large city papers column after column of the dead were printed
>following major battles. My guess is that the papers serving smaller
>communities would pick up the lists from the city papers and then print the
>names of local men.
>
>I need to check the "long Islander" from Huntington, Suffolk County, L. I.
>to see how it handed the war dead. My death-marriage indexes of that paper
>begin in 1878.
>
>My great-great-grandfather from Smithtown, Suffolk County, L. I. died during
>the Petersburg Campaign in 1864. He was in the 139th New York. My
>great-great-grandmother's brother from Babylon, Suffolk County, L. I. died
>during the Union occupation of Yorktown and the Virginia Peninsula in 1863.
>He was in the 127th New York. How my two great-great-grandmothers found out
>about the death of the one's husband and the other one's brother, I really
>don't know. This would be an interesting question.
>
>I worked on an index for the local St. Mary's County, Maryland, paper for
>our public library, starting in 1852. The local paper was shut down by the
>Lincoln government for being critical of the Lincoln administration and for
>running pro-Confederate editorials. The editor was sent to Fort Lafayette
>[where the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge now stands] and rode out the war in
>prison ..... so much for "freedom of the press."
>
>I suppose the local Confederates found out about war deaths via the Richmond
>papers ?
>
>I'll see what I can find from members of my Civil War Round Table in
>Fredericksburg, Virginia, & from a friend w/ the National Park Service at
>Chickamauga National Military Park in North Georgia.
>
>David
>
>David Roberts
>Hollywood, MD
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "carol kammen" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 10:21 AM
>Subject: [NYHIST-L] Civil War death notices
>
>
>  
>
>>Dear All
>>
>>I have a feeling I should know the answer to this, but don't.
>>How were families in upstate New York notified when loved
>>ones in the Civil War were killed.
>>I cannot imagine a soldier coming to the door; rather, I
>>think it must have been a telegram.
>>
>>Could anyone tell me?
>>
>>with much appreciation
>>
>>Carol Kammen
>>Tompkins County Historian
>>
>>    
>>
>
>  
>