Chuck Roots
5 December 2016
www.chuckroots.com
A Civil War
Christmas
The American Civil War, despite its
savagery and enormous loss of life, still was the cause for many changes to our
nation, which has been largely forgotten in the historical telling.
The celebration of Christmas during
wartime is always interesting, and particularly so during horrific encounters
between the Union and Confederate forces during this nineteenth century four-year
societal carnage.
The thought that first comes to mind
is: Christmas is a time of celebration, a reminder of God’s intervention in the
world of man to bring peace with God through Jesus, to give and receive gifts
and cards with family and friends alike, and a time to gather with family
around a table loaded with sumptuous quantities of food and conversation. Yet,
we’re engaged in a war of attrition, killing off our countrymen, and even
family members, at a frightening pace. How could Christmas be enjoyed in the
midst of this hellish war?
As it turns out, we humans have an
amazing adaptability, especially during the most traumatic and stressful of
times.
Christmas was a well-established special
time of the year in the United States leading up to the start of the Civil War.
However, the war itself would cause many to reflect on its continued
recognition and enjoyment. Both Northerners and Southerners made the most of this
special day throughout the war, even though battles and military maneuvers continued
unabated. In 1870, five years after the war ended, then President Ulysses S.
Grant made it official that Christmas would henceforth be a national holiday, in
part in an attempt to further heal the rift that still festered between North
and South.
Ever wonder how the image of a jolly
fat man with rosy red cheeks, an expansive girth, and a bright red suit of
clothes came about? Once again, the Civil War takes center stage. One Thomas
Nast, an editorial cartoonist for Harper’s Weekly, was asked by the editor,
Fletcher Harper, to make a drawing for the Christmas edition which hit the
streets January 3, 1863. Nast had a complete mental block as to how to go about
fulfilling his assignment. He spent an evening with his school teacher sister
who was visiting him for Christmas, where they reminisced about the Santa
character, known as Pelznikel from their native Germany. Later that evening
Nast had the inspiration for the cover for the paper. Santa was center stage in
the drawing, visiting soldiers in the field, handing them presents. This began
the evolution of the Santa character to what we have today.
Tom Nast did something a bit
different for the Christmas edition of Harper’s Weekly in 1864. The end of the
war was coming to a close, with the North victorious after the long and bloody
conflict. The title of the article was, “The Union Christmas Dinner.” The
drawing showed an openhearted President Lincoln extending his arms to Confederate
President Jefferson Davis and General Robert E. Lee, welcoming them back into
the fold of the United States.
Another Civil War addition to
Christmas had to do primarily with decorating the Christmas tree. Hanging items
on the tree was nothing new, for this had been done for many years. However,
due to shortages, and lack of decorative items due to the demands of wartime,
creativity took over as men in their camps would hang such items as were
available. This even included hardtack (what sailors called a ship biscuit), a tough, durable,
saltless biscuit that had a nearly endless shelf life. Often, soldiers would
receive trinkets or other items from home which would end up on their unit’s
Christmas tree. The men were encouraged to add items to the tree that were more
colorful, in hopes of brightening the spirits of the men in an otherwise dreary
and drab setting.
One soldier wrote his thoughts on
Christmas Eve in a lengthy poem, entitled, “Christmas Night of ‘62”. William
Gordon McCabe, a Confederate, was in a melancholy mood, clearly wishing for a
return to hearth and home. Did he survive the war and return home? I don’t
know. But you can sense his yearning, as all who wear the uniform of our
country so yearn when far away from home during Christmas.
“My thoughts go wandering to and
fro,
vibrating ‘twixt the Now and Then;
I see the low-browed home again,
the old hall wreathed in mistletoe.
“And fairly from the far-off years
comes borne the laughter faint and
low,
the voices of the Long Ago!
My eyes are wet with tender tears.
“I feel again the mother kiss,
I see again the glad surprise
that lighted up the tranquil eyes
and brimmed them o’re with tears of
bliss.
“As, rushing from the old hall-door,
she fondly clasped her wayward boy –
Her face all radiant with joy
she felt to see him home once more.”
No comments:
Post a Comment