About

The Atlanta Daily Register began as an Eastern Tennessee newspaper titled the Knoxville Daily Register founded by J. A. Sperry in April 1861. Politically, the paper reflected the Unionist sentiments of its region but became a supporter of the Confederacy as the war continued. Similar to the Memphis Daily Appeal and the Chattanooga Rebel owners, Sperry moved his paper to Atlanta as fighting forces approached Knoxville in 1863. Once in Atlanta, Sperry partnered with M. W. Hutchinson and merged the Register with Hutchinson’s Atlanta Gazette to form the Atlanta Daily Register. In the early issues of their newly merged paper, the partners announced they would not support any political candidates who spoke in favor of rejoining the Union. The Register notably had a female war correspondent that reported under the pseudonym E. L. McE. Other contributors to the Register during its Atlanta residency include L. J. Dupre, Howell Cobb, and L. Q. C. Lamar. Sperry, Hutchinson, and Company ran the newspaper for about a year before deciding to leave the city in anticipation of General Sherman’s impending Atlanta Campaign. According to the June 18, 1864 issue of the Southern Confederacy, J. A. Sperry left for Charlotte, North Carolina, where he attempted to reestablish the Knoxville Register. Although the original Atlanta owners were gone, the Atlanta Daily Register gained new proprietorship under Brown, Whitner & Company who made a minor masthead adjustment to the Daily Atlanta Register. The paper stayed in Atlanta for a few months in 1864 before the publishers left for Augusta as Civil War fighting drew closer to Atlanta. In its new location, the paper became the Daily Register and ceased printing in 1865.