I would rather be defeated with the soldier vote behind me than to be...

[RJNorton]

Here is what Henry Wing wrote:

"I crawled out of a rebel camp at Manassas Junction at
dusk Friday, May 6, 1864, and hustled down the railroad
track to Bull Run, where I came into our lines and learned
that our people had no news from the front. I realized that
I was probably the only one of four or five newspaper men
who had succeeded in getting through. As my paper would
have no issue after the following morning until Monday,
May 9, my news would be stale unless it went through that
night. There was no train, I could not get a horse, so I
offered $500 for a hand-car and two men to run it, but all to
no avail. So I kept on until I reached a military telegraph
office and asked the operator to let my report go through;
but he refused, his orders being to send no newspaper reports
over government wires. I then sent a despatch to my friend,
Charles A. Dana, Assistant Secretary of War, to the effect
that I had left Grant at four o'clock that morning. That
waked up the Department in which there was the utmost
anxiety. Instantly Secretary Stanton asked me where Grant
was when I left him. This assured me I had a corner on
the news from the front. I replied that my news belonged
to the "Tribune," but if he would let one hundred words go
through to my paper I would tell him all I knew. Stan-
ton's response was a threat to arrest me as a spy unless I
uncovered the news from the army. This made me very
anxious, but still I refused. I was disgusted that after all
my enterprise my paper would not get my important news.
But just then Lincoln must have come into the War Office
for I was asked if I would tell the President where Grant
was. I repeated my previous offer and he accepted the
terms at once. I did not have a scrap of paper about my
person (discreet correspondents in the field never took any-
thing of that sort through the lines), so I dictated to the
operator while he transmitted my despatch, which Lincoln
would not limit to one hundred words and which was tele-
graphed direct to New York and appeared in Saturday's
Tribune," May 7. Mr. Lincoln ordered a locomotive to be
sent out on the road to bring me to Washington, about
thirty miles; and at two o'clock in the morning I reached the
White House travel-stained and weary, but delighted at
my success in having brought the first news from Grant's
army, and especially in being honored by the President's
special favor. That early morning interview with Lincoln
was the beginning of a strong friendship accorded to me, a
mere boy, by that wonderful man, the memory of which is
a precious treasure in my heart. Mr. Lincoln told me that
to relieve the anxiety of the whole country regarding Grant's
first contest with Lee he decided to let my despatch come
through; also that he had arranged with Managing Editor
Gay to give a summary to the Associated Press to appear
in all the papers."

Source: pp. 245-247 of David Homer Bates' Lincoln in the Telegraph Office.