Both sides went into the war thinking that one battle would settle the whole thing. In fact spectators from both the Union and the CSA came and watched the first battle of Bull Run (Manassas). Each side thought that they were one battle away from winning. Both sides published that they were "about to march on Richmond/Washington". Casualty numbers were typically inaccurate for quite some time after battles. The sides could typically only gauge victory by whether they had reserves left and if they had given up ground, both of which can be misleading. The public was not in the dark but it was in the twilight. They had some facts but some of the were wrong and the others were mostly correct. Information about Lee's insistence on Pickett's charge was not publically accepted for years. General Longstreet became one of the most hated men in the south for attempting to bring it to the public view.