Christmas in the Union Army

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Once again, 'tis "that time of year" to trot out my old article on how men in the Irish regiments of the Army of the Potomac celebrated Christmas during the Civil War years. Click here for the illustrated version:

http://www.thewildgeese.com/pages/civwar.html

and here for Part 2:

http://www.thewildgeese.com/pages/civwar2.html

I hope others can post on this thread other accounts or essays of how Christmas was celebrated during the Civil War.

Merry Christmas! :)

[MBond057]

Kevin,

There was interesting articles on the Central Rappahannock Regional Library website.

Christmas at the Time of the Civil War
http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~jw3u/Library04.htm
A brief description of Civil War traditions at Christmas time.

Fredericksburg Christmas
http://www.awod.com/gallery/probono/cwchas/fredxmas.html
A letter from Talley Simpson to his sister, Anna Simpson, written December 25, 1862.

The Spirit of Christmas Past
http://home.att.net/~smerela/varina.html
Christmas in the Confederate White House as recalled by Mrs. Jefferson (Varina) Davis.

Reference:
History Point. Com. A website of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library
http://www.historypoint.org/civil_war_xmas.html

[redleggeddevil]

I was curator for an exhibit on the Union Home Front at a museum in New York some years back. The family that owned the home was quite well-to-do, and left plentiful records of their lives in the 1860's.

I decided to contrast their lives with those of soldiers at the front. Christmas presented me with a perfect opportunity to bring the point home. We set their dining room for Christmas dinner, 1863, using a contemporary menu:

Oysters
Lobster farci
Canvasback duck
Coconut ice cream
etc., etc.

For contrast, I reproduced a letter from a New York soldier, Charles Barber of the 104th NY. On picket duty near the Rapidan, he wrote of his Christmas dinner:
"We have been on short rations again my Christmas days rations was only three crackers two oz of meat and coffee with salt in it instead of sugar..."

In spite of this dismal holiday fare, Barber closed on an upbeat note: "8 or 9 months more I hope will bring me safe home again and the months are speeding by fast as the untireing wheels of time can roll on."

A far better man than I!

[sigman]

Great thread Kevin. 12th New Jersey had recently arrived in the vicinity of Falmouth only a week before Dec. 25th. They had completed building winter quarters. Sickness immediately laid a number of men low, indeed some would succumb to disease in the early part of the new year. Their remembrances were of spending the holiday in dampened spirits. But did gather for prayer and song on Christmas.

Andy Siganuk

[sbl]

LOBSTER FARCI
(Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, 1896)

1 cup chopped lobster meat.
Yolks 2 hard boiled eggs.
1/2 tablespoon chopped parsley.
1 cup White Sauce.
Slight grating nutmeg.
1/3 cup buttered crumbs.
Salt.
Pepper.

To lobster meat add yolks of eggs rubbed to a paste, parsley, sauce, and seasonings to taste. Fill lobster shells, cover with buttered crumbs, and bake until crumbs are brown.

MMMMMMMM..

[Ephraim_Zook]

I'd like to share an entry from Sgt Jacob Zorn's diary. The 142d didn't have a particularly merry Christmas that year. I may have quoted this in a previous year but I think it bears looking at again.

"Frid. Dec 25th -- Christmas 1863 -- Culpepper

Head Quarters Culpepper Virginia. This morning I got up at four oClock I could not Sleep it was too Cold. we had news papers laying on the ground. but the cold appeared to draw right through them. and I was as cold as though I lay on the bare ground.
Christmas, but a dull one for us. this morning we had no Rations atal. but I drew three days Rations today.
The officers of Genl Kenleys Staff are haveing a Jubilee and I think its raiseing pretty high in the heads of Some of them. their Servants are profiting by it as they appear to have a christmas Jollification this evening. and we have no Jolification not even comfortable quarters to Sleep in. while others around us enjoy evrything as though they were at home"

(Original spelling and grammar)

[FloridaConfederate]

Wow.

Period References and more than one in a post !!

on CWrenenactors.com ?

What a positive trend.

Bully for you Yanks...

Keep the period words coming.

[Soreback]

And of course this old bit, penned by E.P. Roe, Union army chaplain and writer, about Christmas, I THINK, 1864 (the book was stolen from me), at an army hospital. Slightly edited by the poster.

It helps to read this in a quiet moment, one of my favorite witnesses from the war.

"We are told that 'the desert shall blossom as the rose'. We believe it, for even the hospital-the house of disease and wounds, the spot ever shadowed by the wings of the dark angel-even this place of somber associations can wreathe itself in festive garlands and resound with songs.
All efforts to celebrate the holidays with spirit have received [the surgeon's] hearty sympathy and cooperation. Though winds blew high and cold, still, throughout Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, the axes rang merrily in the woods. Huge masses of holly, cedar, and pine might be seen moving toward the different wards, and approaching near you would find a nurse or convalescent staggering along beneath the green and fragrant burden. Under the magic of many skillful hands the pliant boughs are soon tied and twisted into a thousand devices. Men with only one hand worked with the rest. Men possessing but a single leg were busy as the others. Thump, thump, over the floor go the crutches, as old battered veterans hobbled about in all directions, to view in different lights the artistic and fantastic results of their labors. Even the dull face of chronic pain lights up and wanly smiles, while dim eyes, fast closing on earthly scenes, gaze wistfully on the fragrant evergreens and query to themselves if they are to be the symbols of their memories at distant homes.
But though many wards blossomed out into holiday garlands, the crowning glories of the kind were to be found in Ward C. Quaint devices, hanging festoons, wreaths and shields and graceful arches, draped the place in varied beauties like the tapestry of old, which turned rough and gloomy apartments into warm and silken bowers. The feathery cedar, tasseled pine, and far-famed laurel formed the rich background for the bright berries of the Christmas holly which glistened like rubies set in emerald folds. Flags were looped across the stage, and the curtains in the rear also showed the stars and stripes. The hospital choir and glee-club had there prepared an entertainment most agreeable to the tastes of all.
As darkness fell a throng surrounded every door. Up the high steps to the main entrance, an hour before the doors were opened, crowding, jostling hundreds gathered, seeming like a human wave lifted by some powerful impulse from the sea of heads below. Around the building in circling eddies, knots of men sauntered talking, wondering, and anticipating concerning the pleasures of the evening. Above the swaying masses numerous crutches might be seen. Thus raised aloft they seemed like standards, showing well the spirit of our soldiers. It is not in wounds to keep them at home. If they have the sad misfortune not to have two legs beneath them, they are sure to go out on one if anything unusual calls them out. Within, now, the lamps are lighted, down the long and echoing ward, and through the festoons and glistening arches, they wink and twinkle like fireflies in a cedar forest. The doors are opened and, under Doctor McClellan's wise and careful supervision, at least a thousand persons are soon admitted and seated. Those not so fortunate as to get seats fill every space of standing room. The hall is full and those who cannot gain admittance crowd around outside the windows, where faces gleam in the fitful light, liked framed and grotesque pictures.
At a given signal the orchestra commenced, and the hum and buzz of many voices dies away like a breeze in the forest. But it is useless to attempt to describe music-songs and anthems that seem like living spirits which by powerful spells may be called up to float and pass before you, and stir the soul with magic influence. It was no rude affair. Ears that have been educated at the Academy of Music would have tingled with novel and delightful sensations, could they have heard those deep, rich soldiers' voices accompanied by our lady nurses, and the lady teachers of the Tyler House, chanting our national anthems or exciting irresistible mirth by their comic songs.
But where all perfectly performed the parts assigned them, it is almost invidious to make distinctions. Mr. Metcalf, the leader of the choir, must have been satisfied with the performances, as certainly all others were. "Home Sweet Home", closed the entertainment, and carried us all back to that dear and never-to-be-forgotten place. Again, in fancy, we gathered around the familiar hearthstone, made warm and bright by blazing fire and sweet memories of other days. God grant that another Christmas day may find us all there.
But in the hospital there were hundreds confined by sickness, wounds, and weakness to their beds. However good their will may have been they were physically unable to join with their more fortunate companions in outside enjoyments. They were not forgotten or neglected. On Sabbath afternoon the choir again assembled, and commencing with Ward One, we passed through fourteen wards, making the old walls ring again with Christmas anthems. This, with wishing the patients a merry Christmas, and that another return of the happy day might find them all safe at home, and the reading, Luke ii., constituted the simple service. On Monday there was much high feeding. Sleek cattle and corpulent pigs were roasted whole, and there was a powerful mortality in the hospital poultry yard. Men who could never carve their fortunes showed wonderful ability in carving turkey. These substantial luxuries, seasoned by the recent victories, made for a royal feast, to which the sovereigns in blue sat down with unmingled satisfaction."

[jthlmnn]

Exercerpted from a letter written by Sgt. August Horstmann, 45th New York Infantry Volunteers, to his parents, dated Stafford Court House, Va, January 11, 1863:

"I spent Christmas and New Year's in such a way that I don't even know when they were. Nothing at all, not the slightest festivity, no joyful shooting in the air, no punch, no beer or wine, and no change in the bill of fare to remind us that these otherwise so richly celebrated days had gone by. No one even wished anyone else a Merry Christmas, and most of the men were more in the mood for cursing. With salted bacon, cracker and cafee, camping in the snow, etc. you can't expect much else. I lay down on my bed of fir sprigs with my blankets wrapped around me, observed the moon and the stars for a while and sent them on their way with greetings to my friends, and then I went to sleep."

(Germans in the Civil War: The letters they wrote home, Kamphoefner & Helbich eds., Vogel transl.,English edition-University of North Carolina Press, 2006, p. 123)

[jthlmnn]

A different tone is found in a letter from Sgt. Albert Krause, 116th NYVI to his parents and siblings, dated February 27, 1863 and sent from Ship Island:

"For Christmas on December 25th, our colonel provided us with some entertainment-he reduced himself and all the other officers to the rank of common soldier, while we elected a colonel and other regimental officers from our own ranks. The latter exchanged uniforms with their superiors, and then the demoted officers and we had to treat them with the same respect we always show our superiors. It was only a simple thing, but it gave rise to all sorts of fun and amusing jokes, and many of the men who are usually very quiet and serious brightened up for a day. We didn't have to do any of the jobs normally done by common soldiers. That day the officers had to fetch water from the well,chop wood, make the fires, use spades, rakes and brooms to clean the paths in front of our tents and stand guard. {unpopular fficers were given a rough time; details}"

(Germans in the Civil War, p.203)

[JEG]

Hi Kevin, as usual we also highlighted the link to your Christmas article on our home page too.

Joe G
http://www.thewildgeese.com/

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Hi Kevin, as usual we also highlighted the link to your Christmas article on our home page too.

http://www.thewildgeese.com/

Hello Joe! I hope you and Gerry like the slight "boost" for The Wild Geese Today provided by this thread. I hope all's well with you and yours. :)

[JEG]

Hello Joe! I hope you and Gerry like the slight "boost" for The Wild Geese Today provided by this thread. I hope all's well with you and yours. :)

Yes, actually, I was checking our accesses to the site and followed one back to here and registered on the site.

Hey, that picture on my profile is from one of me drawing a pint behind the bar of a pub in Shinrone, Co. Offaly. We were over for two weeks at the end of September and stayed in a nice cottage there. The bartender invited me back there for a "photo-op." First time I rented a car over there. It was "interesting" to say the least.