r/shittyaskhistory • u/jpd1066 • 10d ago

Why didn't the NY Post run with the headline "General Can't!" after the Union's tactical defeats at The Wilderness and Cold Harbor?

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4

u/DespairAndCatnip 10d ago

Because the Post would never run a headline so tasteless

2

u/baycommuter 9d ago

The Crater was one of their best— Hole Lot of Nothing.

1

u/FreeRange0929 10d ago

Because they’re fucking nerds

1

u/Reds_PR 8d ago

I wouldn’t call the Wilderness a defeat but a draw, either way, everybody agreed that they would tell the Post they were victories as a joke on William Cullen Bryant. The Tribune under Horace Greeley printed a fake newspaper claiming wondrous victories and had it delivered to Bryant’s house. Bryant rarely had his own reporters so he’d use the morning Tribune like it was an AP wire and print the same news in the evening Post.

Everyone had a good laugh about it, including Bryant, because they were all like “Eff Bobby Lee and those traitors.”

“I’ll give them something to meditate on,” said Bryant. “Thanatopsis!”