You certainly can pick nits well.
It's called putting things in context, something that the southron contingent really, really hate. The gentlemen in question were in contact with leaders of the rebellion. They offered, in writing, support for that rebellion. They were arrested for that, not because of anything they did in their roles as journalists which is what had been alleged. Can you honestly say that Union supporters under similar circumstances in Richmond would have met with a different fate, all other things being equal?