Joe Howard, Jr.

Who was Joe Howard, Jr.?

Joseph "Joe" Howard, Jr. was an American journalist, war correspondent, publicist and newspaperman. He was one of the top reporters for The New York Times, city editor of the Brooklyn Eagle and longtime president of the New York Press Club. One of the most colorful reporters of the era, he was a popular lecturer and discussed journalism and his life from 1886 until shortly before his death.

During the American Civil War, he and fellow reporter Francis A. Mallison were responsible in creating a forgery falsely declaring another conscription order in New York City by President Abraham Lincoln. This document was published in both the New York World and the Journal of Commerce and, less than a year after the New York Draft Riots, a minor riot ensured when a mob gathered outside Journal of Commerce. Howard was eventually arrested for what became known as "Howard's Proclamation" or the "Great Civil War Gold Hoax" and held as a prisoner of war at Fort Lafayette.