Originally aired on December 22, 1995 - In part 69 of our Civil War series, Virginia Tech history professor James Robertson shares some comments of both Union and Confederate forces on the four yuletide seasons they endured during the conflict.
#69 – Christmas during the Civil War
At the time of the Civil War, Christmas was nothing like today’s delirium of gift-giving. German immigrants had introduced the Christmas tree; Dutch settlers had brought with them St. Nicholas, the patron saint of children; Christmas cards, mistletoe, and Christmas carols were all in place, thanks to the English influence. Yet Christmas in the mid-19th Century was the occasion when families came together for no other reason than love. The climax of the day was not in exchanging presents but in sitting down together for a festive meal.
That banquet – or the lack of it – was ever on the minds of Union and Confederate soldiers during the four yuletide seasons of the Civil War. Christmas, 1861, produced sharp pangs of homesickness. James Peifer of the 46th Pennsylvania was sorely disappointed by his first Christmas dinner in camp. He noted: “It consisted of rice-soup boiled with salt pork, which was nearly rotten, and we flung meat and soup out of the tent, as we could not eat it.”
A Louisiana soldier expressed similar feelings that day. “I wish I was home by my fireside…I have seen enough of a soldiers life to satisfie me that it is not what it is cracked up to be.”
By Christmas, 1862, an increasing number of men blamed their superiors as well as the war for the loneliness they were experiencing. Edward Edes of Massachusetts wrote home: “The men have seen so much…bloody slaughter that all patriotism is played out.” A Maine soldier added: “That delusive fantom of hope that has so long burnt dim has at last vanished….Our leaders are incompetent and unprincipled. The whole thing is rotten to the core.”
A year later, things were not better. From a prisoner-of-war camp at Johnson’s Island on Christmas Day, 1863, Major James McCreary noted: “Today the sweet memories of Auld Lang Syne come thronging and crowding into my mind, so that the bleak present makes me restless and sad…I humbly trust that the next Christmas will find me more pleasantly quartered.”
It did not, for Christmas, 1864, was the worst of all for both sides. “The soldiers are badly out of heart,” a Georgia infantryman confessed, “for they have been suffering for nearly four long years and there is no prospect of doing better.”
Behind the lines in the Confederacy, people sat down to almost bare Christmas tables. Counting the empty chairs through eyes blinded by tears was difficult. What was left of the families could only sit there and seek consolation in memories of happier Christmases.
The situation was equally bad with soldiers. On Christmas Day, 1864, Captain Robert Park was a prisoner at Point Lookout, Maryland. He commented in his journal: “How keenly and vividly recollections come to my mind!”
Park thought of his family gathering around the table late that day, and he wondered if any of them might be thinking of the lines in a familiar soldier-song:
Do they miss me at home,
Do they miss me?
‘Twould be an assurance most dear
To know that some loved one was saying
To-day I wish he were here.
Christmas is always joyful, to those who have a source for joy. When loneliness exists instead of companionship, when a desolate place exists where home ought to be, when loss of faith dominates love of life, Christmas can be the saddest of times. It was so with Johnny Rebs and Billy Yanks. Their feelings of emptiness and despair will ever be a reminder of how cherished home can – and should – be.
With that thought, and from our home to yours, go heartfelt wishes for a most joyous holiday season.
