Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.21.2004

1863. Evening Bulletin debuts

The Evening Bulletin, the afternoon paper published by The Providence Journal, made its debut on Monday, Jan. 26, 1863.

The publishers announced that the regular afternoon paper would take the place of the frequent "extras" the paper had published throughout the Civil War. The first edition sold for two cents. The front page was covered with telegraph dispatches on the resignation of Rhode Islander Ambrose E. Burnside as commanding general of the Union army.

An editorial in the first edition summarized the paper's mission:

"The Bulletin will lend a hearty, earnest and patriotic support to the administration in the great work of rebuking, combatting and punishing traitors wherever found, and of prosecuting the war with all possible vigor . . ."