Transcript Civil War Christmas - Military History Teacher-Home

Civil War Christmas
© Nicholas Noppinger 5/6/14
Civil War Christmas
 Fun
 Boredom
 Family visits
 Starvation
 Caroling
 Disease
 Snowball fights
 Battle
 Feasting
Civil War Christmas
 Christmas was NOT a National Holiday during the Civil War.
 There were still parts of the country that discouraged the
celebration of Christmas, or were just starting to celebrate
the Holiday after years of official and unofficial suppression.
(New England)
 Popular in the South. Alabama 1831.
 If you worked for the Federal Government and a few state
Governments you were expected to show up for work if it
did not fall on a Sunday.
 In many parts of the country schools were open.
Civil War Christmas Traditions
 The following Holiday practices were either started or
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popularized during the American Civil War or the immediate
years proceeding it.
The modern image of Santa Claus-Thomas Nast
Christmas Cards
Christmas Trees
Rebirth of Christmas Caroling
Many or most started in Europe but moved to America
American Christmas
 Most of our current Christmas traditions were given to us by
early German, Dutch, and English settlers, with a few
provided by France and Spain.
German Christmas
 Christmas Tree via Queen Victoria
 German Christmas Tree dates to at least 1500
 There is a recording of a tree as early as 1804, Fort
Dearborn, but definitely by 1832.
 However, it was Queen Victoria and Prince Albert that
helped popularize the tree in America.
 1842 the first recorded tree in America in a non-German
setting, Williamsburg
Godey’s Lady’s Book December 1850
Christmas Tree
 First known Christmas tree erected at the house in 1842
 William & Mary Professor Charles F.E. Minnigerode, a political refugee
from the principality of Hesse-Darmstadt, put up Williamsburg's first
recorded Christmas tree at the house in 1842. He was a friend of
Tucker's son Nathanial Beverley Tucker. Minnigerode enjoyed Nathanial's
children and put up a tree for them in the Tucker parlor in the German
Yuletide tradition. A small tree, emblematic of the occasion, now is left
each Christmas on the porch.
German Christmas
 Jenny Lind was presented a Christmas tree by the people of
Charleston, SC
 R.E. Lee had a Christmas tree while Commandant of West
Point, 1853.
 Pres Franklin Pierce-the First White House Tree. 1856.
F.A. Chapman 1850
Harper’s Weekly Dec. 25, 1858 by
Winslow Homer
Dutch Christmas
 Dutch- Sint Niklass to Sinter-Claes or Klass
 German- Sint Nikolaus
 Americanized to Santa Claus
 In spite of rejecting Roman Catholicism the Dutch kept St.
Nicholas.
 Santa Claus’ appearance would often change in response to
current political events.
Saint Nicholas
Dutch Santa
 No universal depiction of Santa in Northern Europe.
 Usually on elf, Bishop, or an Old man.
 Sinter Klas and Black Peter
 Pelsnickel
 Grandfather Frost
 In Antebellum Baltimore Saint Nicholas and Pelsnickel would
travel together.
 December 6
 Would merge with December 24
 Washington Irving
Santa in America
 Sometime during the early 1800’s in America, Santa became
associated with Christmas Eve and not December 6
 1821 The Children’s Friend 1st time in print
 1822 Clement C. Moore, A Visit from Saint Nicholas, better
known as Twas the Night Before Christmas.
Thomas Nast-Harpers Jan. 3, 1863
Santa Claus History in the USA begins
4 centuries ago
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1600's: The Puritans made it illegal to mention St. Nicolas' name. People were not allowed to exchange gifts, light a candle, or sing
Christmas carols.
17th century: Dutch immigrants brought with them the legend of Sinter Klaas.
1773: Santa first appeared in the media as St. A Claus.
1804: The NewYork Historical Society was founded with St. Nicolas as its patron saint. Its members engaged in the Dutch practice of
gift-giving at Christmas.
1809: Washington Irving, writing under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker, included Saint Nicolas in his book "A History of New
York." Nicolas is described as riding into town on a horse.
1812: Irving, revised his book to include Nicolas riding over the trees in a wagon.
1821: William Gilley printed a poem about "Santeclaus" who was dressed in fur and drove a sleigh drawn by a single reindeer.
1822: Dentist Clement Clarke Moore is believed by many to have written a poem "An Account of aVisit from Saint Nicolas," which
became better known as "The Night before Christmas." Santa is portrayed as an elf with a miniature sleigh equipped with eight reindeer
which are named in the poem as Blitzem, Comet, Cupid, Dancer, Dasher, Donder, Prancer, and Vixen. Others attribute the poem to
a contemporary, Henry Livingston, Jr. Two have since been renamed Donner and Blitzen.
1841: J.W. Parkinson, a Philadelphia merchant, hired a man to dress up in a "Criscringle" outfit and climb the chimney of his store.
1863: Illustrator Thomas Nast created images of Santa for the Christmas editions of Harper's Magazine. These continued through the
1890's.
1860s: President Abraham Lincoln asked Nast to create a drawing of Santa with some Union soldiers. This image of Santa supporting
the enemy had a demoralizing influence on the Confederate army -- an early example of psychological warfare.
English Traditions
 Yule Log
 Mistletoe
 Christmas greens
 Christmas Feast/revelry
 Caroling
 Christmas Cards
 Charles Dickens
English Christmas
 Medieval Renaissance England-Feasting, drunken revelry, bawdy
carols, gambling, harkening back to Roman and Pagan fertilization
rites, Saturnalia, Bacchanalia, Druidic/Celtic midwinter festivals.
 Banned by Puritans- not entirely accepted, including riots and
arrests mid 17th Century
 Restored in 1670’s
 Revelry exists but is more subdued. Christmas for the first time
become’s Christ centered.
Charles Dickens
Christmas Cards
 Most were handmade.
 The 1st commercial card date’s to 1843 in England, but it was
not until 1873 that commercial cards were used widespread
in the United States
Popular Civil War Carol’s
 God Rest ye Merry
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Gentleman
Deck the Hall’s
O Come all Ye Faithful
We Three Kings
Up on the Housetop
It Came Upon a Midnight
Clear
 Hark the Herald Angel’s
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Sing
Away in a Manger
Jingle Bell’s
Silent Night
O Little Town of
Bethlehem
What Child is This?
Angels We Have Heard on
High
Christmas Civil War
South
North
 Much more popular
 Christmas Tree
 Gunpowder expenditure
 Santa Claus
 Boisterous
 Feasting
 Gift giving
 12 Day celebrations
 Religious revival in the
South
 Just becoming popular in
New England
Christmas for Slaves
 Generally received time off work (not including House staff)
 Were allowed to feast and relax
 Usually received gifts from their master’s
Christmas 1860
 1849 1st Department Store Santa (Philadelphia)
 Stocking’s
 Advertisement’s
 Tree’s
 Caroler’s
 Card’s
Civil War Christmas
 Hopefully less duty
 1861-sense of adventure
 1862-sense of loss
 1863-sense of despair and exhaustion
 1864-sense of exhaustion, but hope in the North, despair in
the South
 Christmas meant a large amount of gift boxes.
1861
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James Williams, on the Alabama coast with the 21st Alabama Regiment, told his wife his desire, and how he and his comrades celebrated the
holiday. “A Merry Christmas! I wish my darling! oh! that I had a furlough to share it with you tomorrow we would both get ‘tight’ on egg-nog
wouldn’t we?” Williams continued, “Christmas began this morning before daylight … two glasses of eggnog came for each before we were out
of bed, which took away our appetites for breakfast.” A raucous parade followed reveille, with soldiers following “the band all through the
regiment singing and tin-panning to the tune of ‘Dixie’… I mustn’t close my letter without giving a little description of our Christmas dinner,
Bob Weir who presides over the ‘last chance mess’ invited us to dine; and a grand dinner it was I tell you!” He then laid out the “Bill of Fare”
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Cold Turkey
Roast Beef
Pigeon Pie
Rice
Salt
Pepper Sauce
Jelly Cake
Eggs
Bread
Mince Pie
One kind of Cake
Pepper
Turnips
SugarSweet Potatoes
Another Kind of Cake
Sugar-Topped Cake
Vinegar
Mustard
Port Wine
Sherry Wine
From the Front
 Alfred Bellard of the 5th New Jersey remarked
about the arrival of the newly popular Christmas
icon to his camp along the lower Potomac River.
 "In order to make it look much like Christmas as
possible, a small tree was stuck up in front of our tent,
decked off with hard tack and pork, in lieu of cakes and
oranges, etc".
From the Front
 Robert Gould Shaw, then a 2nd lieutenant in the 2d
Massachusetts Infantry, writes in 1861, about guard
duty near Frederick, MD. He would later earn fame
as the commander of the heroic African American
unit, the 54th Massachusetts.
 "It is Christmas morning and I hope a happy and merry
one for you all, though it looks so stormy for our poor
country, one can hardly be in merry humor."
From the Front
 From the diary of Private Robert A. Moore, a
Confederate soldier:
 Tuesday, Dec 24th, 1861, camp near Swan's...
 "This is Christmas Eve but seems but little like it to me"
 Wednesday, Dec. 25th, 1861, camp near Swan's...
 "This is Christmas & and very dull Christmas it has been to
me. Had an egg-nog to-night but did not enjoy it much as we
had no ladies to share it with us."
Lee to his daughter
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My Dear Daughter,
May God guard and preserve you for me, my dear daughter! Among the calamities of war, the hardest to bear,
perhaps, is the separation of families and friends.Yet all must be endured to accomplish our independence and
maintain our self-government. In my absence from you I have thought of you very often and regretted I could do
nothing for your comfort.Your old home, if not destroyed by our enemies, has been so desecrated that I cannot
bear to think of it. I should have preferred it to have been wiped from the earth, it’s beautiful hill sunk, and its
sacred trees buried rather than to have been degraded by the presence of those who revel in the ill they do for
their own selfish purposes.
I pray for a better spirit and that the hearts of our enemies may be changed. In your homeless condition I hope
you make yourself contented and useful. Occupy yourself in aiding those more helpless than yourself.Think
always of your father.
R.E. Lee.”
From the Front
 Entry in clothing account book for Co. C 4th KY CSA
 Dec 25th, 1861 The birth of out Christ our redeemer finds
our country struggling in the holy cause of liberty with the
vile horde of robbers and assasins (sic) sent to burn and
destroy by their master Abraham Lincoln who occupies the
char at Washington.
From the Front
 One of the dreariest accounts of Christmas during the Civil War came from
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Lt. Col. Frederic Cavada, captured at Gettysburg and writing about
Christmas 1863 in Libby Prison in Richmond:
"The north wind comes reeling in fitful gushes through the iron bars, and jingles a
sleighbell in the prisoner's ear, and puffs in his pale face with a breath
suggestively odorous of eggnog...."
"...Christmas Day! A day which was made for smiles, not sighs - for laughter, not
tears - for the hearth, not prison."
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From the diary of Robert Watson of Key West, Florida.
 December 25, 1863 at Dalton, Georgia after action at Chickamauga
 "Christmas day and a very dull one but I find a tolerable good dinner. I had one
drink of whiskey in the morning. There was some serenading last night but I took
no part in it for I did not feel merry as my thoughts were of home..."
From the Front
After a miserable Holiday, Levi McCormick wrote in a letter to his wife:
 Dec 27th 1864
Camp 4th Del Vol 3 Brg 2 Dev 3 Corps
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Dear wife I will send you a few lines stating how we are I have bin down with the diarier
for about a weak it has bin the most sevear that I hav ever ha but I feel better to day & I
hav washed all of my cloaths & I borrowed some cloathes while mine are drying I cant write
you mutch this time but if I keep wel I will try and write you a interesting leter some of those
days we hav got houses built up wonce more but Christmas was a very dul day hear we have
not had it yet but the war news is good we have had a despatch from G Shairman he has
done more than we could of asked of him I hope this will find you all wel Samey is not very
wel he had a cold we hav bin very mutch exposed but I dont want to write about You can
sea the reason why I hav not wrote I send my love to all from you ever true and loving
Husband
 Levi McCormick
good by
send on your box
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From the Front
 In one amusing anecdote, a Confederate prisoner relates how the
realities of war intruded on his Christmas celebrations: “A friend
had sent me in a package a bottle of old brandy. On Christmas
morning I quietly called several comrades up to my bunk to taste
the precious fluid of…DISAPPOINTMENT! The bottle had been
opened outside, the brandy taken and replaced with water…and
sent in. I hope the Yankee who played that practical joke lived to
repent it and was shot before the war ended.”
The Homefront
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Eggnog, sometimes served with accompaniment of spirits, was standard in most homes during the
holiday season until the war made even such a simple staple a luxury out of reach of most
Southerners.
Prewar decorations utilized exotic fruits such as pineapples, lemons, limes, pomegranates, and
kumquats along with cuttings of holly, bayberry, china berry, mistletoe, magnolia, ivy, and pine
cones.
Confederate nurse, Kate Cumming, was up well before daylight making eggnog for the hospital in
which she worked. She was unable to procure enough eggs to serve everyone so the holiday treat
was given to the wounded, the cooks, and nurses. The doctor had done his best to provide a holiday
meal which consisted of turkeys, chickens, vegetables, and pies. Kate's delight with the meal was
contained due to her knowledge that the men in the field had not fared as well.
Shortages were felt in different degrees at different times, but generally throughout the
Confederacy. Myra Inman of East Tennessee made brief mention in her diary of Christmas 1860
and 1865 as being pleasant but did not mention the years during the war leading us to believe they
were sparse.
Flouride Clemson, granddaughter of John C. Calhoun was typical of prominent families who
endured shortages during the war. She noted in 1863 her only gift at Christmas was a pair of sleeve
buttons.
The Homefront
 By 1863, the Union blockade of the Southern coasts had
made it nearly impossible for Santa Claus to visit homes in
the South; scarcity of goods and the consequent high prices
put both store-bought presents and raw materials for
homemade gifts out of the financial reach of many Southern
consumers. Quite a few mothers explained to their children
that even Santa Claus would not be able run the formidable
blockade.
The Homefront
 Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas of Augusta, Georgia, told how a simple act of
faith on the part of her children caused her to dig deeper for a holiday offering
on Christmas Eve:
 I have written so much that it is now after 9 o'clock and yet I have said nothing
of Turner's and Mary Bell's party which we gave them last week in lieu of the
Santa Claus presents. Mary Bell has been told that Santa Claus has not been able
to run the blockade and has gone to war–Yet at this late hour when I went
upstairs Thursday night of the party I found that the trusting faith of childhood
they had hung their little socks and stockings in case Santa Claus did come. I had
given the subject no thought whatever but invoking Santa Claus aid I was
enabled when their little eyes opened to enjoy their pleasure to find cake and
money in their socks–Jeff was delighted
The Homefront
 Sallie Brock Putnamm, of Richmond, devoted some lines in
her memoirs to Christmas in Richmond during the third year
of the war. She plotted the course Santa Claus needed to
follow to avoid the blockade to bring presents to Southern
children and Christmas boxes to soldiers in the field.
Healing a Nation
 Sometimes Santa Claus worked behind the scenes of wartime savagery
to bring a bit of Christmas cheer to those who otherwise had little
reason to celebrate. Following Union Major General William T.
Sherman's capture of Savannah, Georgia, and presentation of it as a
Christmas gift to Lincoln in 1864, about 90 Michigan men and their
captain in turn gave a token of charity to Southern civilians living
outside the city. On Christmas Day the soldiers loaded several wagons
full of food and other supplies and distributed the items about the
ravaged Georgia countryside. The destitute Southerners thanked the
jolly Union Santa Clauses as the wagons pulled away under the power of
mules that had tree-branch "antlers" strapped to their heads to turn
them into makeshift reindeer.
Military Action
 Military exercises also took place on December 25. In 1861, a blockade runner was
caught by the Union navy, and there were two skirmishes in Virginia and Maryland.[In
1862, there were several skirmishes, and Confederate general John Hunt Morgan
engaged in his famous Christmas Raid in Kentucky; on that single day, Morgan's men
destroyed everything he possibly could of the improvements that the Louisville &
Nashville Railroad had made along 35 miles of track from Bacon Creek to Lebanon
Junction.[There was also a military execution for desertion that the soldiers were forced
to witness.[ In 1863, Union forces destroyed Confederate salt works at Bear Inlet, North
Carolina; there were also several skirmishes between Confederate artillery and the
Union navy on the Stono River and near Charleston in South Carolina. In 1864, the
Confederates fiercely repelled the Federal assault of sixty warships on Fort Fisher, while
in the western theater of the war there were several skirmishes fought.[