Was Alfred Pleasonton a Newspaper Humbug?
Like Judson Kilpatrick and “Kill-Cavalry,” Alfred Pleasonton and “newspaper humbug” go together today like peanut butter and jelly. Unlike the questionable origin of Kilpatrick’s nom-de-guerre, we know exactly who pinned the tag line on Pleasonton and when. The larger question is why? On May 12, 1863, Capt. Charles Francis Adams, 1st Massachusetts, wrote “if you…