Monthly Archives: December 2009

Civil War Christmas Days

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Thomas Nast was a cartoonist and magazine illustrator. In 1860, Nast created campaign posters for Abraham Lincoln during Lincoln’s bid for the presidency. In 1862, Thomas Nast was working for Harper’s Weekly magazine and he was given the task to draw the Harper’s Weekly Christmas cover. Supposedly, President Lincoln asked Nast to draw a picture of Union troops being visited by Santa Claus.

Nast met Lincoln’s Santa Claus magazine cover request. The January 3, 1863 Harper’s Weekly magazine cover has Santa Claus on his sleigh passing out presents to Union soldiers at a snowy United States Army camp.

Civil War Christmas

Civil War Christmas

The soldiers are happy to have Santa visit their camp and two of them sit in the snow behind Santa’s sleigh as they open and play with their presents. Other soldiers are gathered with Santa as he gives them their Christmas gifts. A soldier on the left of the illustration has received a present of socks, socks would have been a greatly appreciated gift for a soldier during the Civil War. A sign with the words “Welcome Santa Claus” is prominent in the background, and in the distance you can see other soldiers coming on their way to see Santa Claus. Santa’s suit has stars and stripes on it, and at the bottom the magazine illustration has the words; “Santa Claus In Camp.”

Nast’s Harper’s Weekly Civil War Santa Claus cover is a patriotic theme for the magazine. Before January 3, 1863 both Antietam and Fredericksburg had claimed many Union lives, and without much, or any, progress for the Union war effort. The mood of the Union at this time was gloomy, on both the battle and home fronts. The Harper’s Weekly Civil War Santa Claus cover was designed with hope that it might raise Union morale. Nast would go on to draw many more Santa Claus illustrations for many years.

In general, wintertime was a time of military inaction during the Civil War as the armies of both the North and South would hunker down in camp to wait out winter. The winter weather, with its resultant snow, rain, ice, sleet, mud and muck and the complications of moving troops in these conditions made campaigns mostly impractical in Civil War times.

Despite the entertaining story of Thomas Nast, Abraham Lincoln, and Santa Claus on the cover of Harper’s Weekly, on Christmas day during the Civil War, fighting and dying did not pause for celebration of the Savior’s birth. Mankind’s sinful nature was fully demonstrated on Christmas day as the Civil War was fought.

Events of Civil War Christmas Days:

1860 – A Tuesday.

  • This quote is actually from before the Civil War began, but these words written in a Camden, Arkansas diary reveal the concerns of people in December, 1860 as conflict between the North and South seemed inevitable. People were not at peace:
    “Another Christmas has come around in the circle of time but it is not a day of rejoicing. Some of the usual ceremonies are going on, but there is gloom on the thoughts and countenance of all the better portion of our people.“

1861 – A Wednesday.

  • In Washington, D.C., the Cabinet met to discuss Mason and Slidell, two Confederate commissioners to Britain who were being held in Boston after they were removed from a British ship by a Union warship.
  • President Lincoln and his family had a dinner at the White House for guests .
  • Confederate Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson celebrated Christmas with his wife in Winchester, Virginia. This would prove to be Jackson’s last Christmas spent with his wife. Jackson would learn in 1863 at Chancellorsville that those who live by the sword, die by the sword.
  • The Confederate schooner William H. Northrup was captured by the U.S.S. Fernandina off Cape Fear, North Carolina.
  • Skirmishing took place at Cherry, in western Virginia, and there was a Union expedition in operation close to Danville, Missouri.

1862 – A Thursday.

  • President Lincoln spent Christmas day in Washington, D.C. hospitals visiting injured soldiers.
  • Confederate raider John Hunt Morgan and his men spent Christmas day continuing their Kentucky raid with fighting at Green’s Chapel and Bear Wallow.
  • William Tecumseh Sherman and his corps were on their way to Vicksburg, they were near Milliken’s Bend, north of Vicksburg.
  • A skirmish occurred near Warrenton, Virginia.
  • A Union reconnaissance took place from Martinsburg to Charles Town in western, Virginia.

1863 – A Friday.

  • Bear Inlet, North Carolina Confederate salt works were destroyed by Union troops.
  • Beverly, West Virginia was reached by Union cavalry (the State of West Virginia had now been made from western Virginia).
  • Union gunboats were busy in the Stono River, in South Carolina.
  • The U.S.S. Marblehead came under heavy fire from Confederate batteries located on John’s Island, near Charleston, South Carolina. The U.S.S. Marblehead was hit twenty times, and the U.S.S. Pawnee and the mortar schooner C.P. Williams returned fire on the Confederate island battery. After an hour the firing stopped and the Confederates left. Two eight-inch sea-coast howitzers were captured by the Yankees.

1864 – A Sunday.

  • The Federal bombardment of Fort Fisher, North Carolina continued with nearly sixty warships in action. The Yankees landed two miles north of the fort, took a battery, and moved close to Fort Fisher. As darkness came, Confederates came in from the north. The Federal fleet eventually wound up returning to Hampton Roads, and the last of their troops left Fort Fisher on December 27. At the entrance to the Cape Fear River, Fort Fisher remained under Rebel control, for now.
  • In Fort Valley, Georgia Private Jackman of “The Orphan Brigade” wrote of his Christmas day:
    “For breakfast had fresh pork, biscuit, sweet potatoes, etc. Cool disagreeable morning. At noon cold rain commenced falling. Bad prospect for a Christmas dinner — can’t cook in the rain. Slept all evening. Rain pouring down. Has been a most gloomy day — being the fourth birth day spent in the army. At night sat up late chatting around a smoky fire built under the sheds in the rain …“

Ulysses S. Grant Facts

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Ulysses S. Grant was born on April 27, 1822 at Point Pleasant, Ohio. Point Pleasant is a community east of Cincinnati on the Ohio River. Grant’s father Jesse, was a tanner.

Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant

  • When Grant arrived at West Point he found his appointment was in the name of Ulysses S. Grant. Grant’s parents named him Hiram Ulysses Grant. Grant never bothered to change the clerical error and was known as Ulysses S. Grant. Later, Grant was called “Unconditional Surrender Grant” after Confederate Simon Boliver Buckner surrendered Fort Donelson to him. Grant was also often called Sam Grant.
  • While a cadet at West Point, Ulysses S. Grant was known as an exceptional horseman. Grant did not stand out as having exceptional talents in anything else while at West Point.
  • Ulysses S. Grant wanted a commission in the cavalry when he finished at West Point. Instead, Grant wound up in the infantry because the cavalry had no vacancies. Grant was a horseman, and this assignment to the infantry must have been a disappointment for him.
  • Ulysses S. Grant served with generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott during the Mexican War.
  • After the Mexican War, Ulysses S. Grant was stationed in California. He was without his wife and children, and very bored. Grant took to excessive drinking. He resigned his commission in 1854 and his resignation was accepted by the United States Secretary of War. The Secretary of War accepting Grant’s resignation from the United States Army was Jefferson Davis. Davis was the future president of the Confederate States of America.
  • Grant’s favorite horse during the Civil War was Cincinnati. An admirer gave Cincinnati to Grant after the battle of Chattanooga. Cincinnati was seldom ridden by anyone other than Grant. One notable exception being President Abraham Lincoln, when Lincoln last visited City Point, Virginia. Other horses Grant had in the Civil War were; Jack, Fox, and Kangaroo. Kangaroo was left on the Shiloh battlefield by the Confederates. This horse was described as ugly and raw-boned. Grant however, having an eye for horses, knew that Kangaroo was a thoroughbred. After becoming a Yankee horse, Kangaroo got rest and care and he became a fine horse.
  • Ely Samuel Parker was a Seneca Indian, a son of a famous Seneca chief, and also a Union officer. He first studied law but was refused admission to the bar because he was not a citizen. Parker graduated from Rensselaer as an engineer. In 1857, Ely Parker was working in Galena, Illinois where he became a friend of a store clerk named Sam Grant. Sam Grant, was Ulysses S. Grant and during the Civil War Ely Parker became General Ulysses S. Grant’s military secretary. Ely Parker’s penmanship was exceptional. When Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Ely Parker transcribed the official copies of the surrender documents.
  • Ulysses S. Grant never swore. His explanation for this:

“Well, somehow or another, I never learned to swear, when a boy I seemed to have an aversion to it, and when I became a man I saw the folly of it. I have always noticed, too, that swearing helps to rouse a man’s anger; and when a man flies into a passion his adversary who keeps cool always gets the better of him. In fact, I could never see the use of swearing. I think it is the case with many people who swear excessively that it is mere habit, and that they do not mean to be profane; but, to say the least, it is a great waste of time.”

  • On April 14, 1865 Abraham Lincoln’s day was spent visiting with callers and attending a Cabinet meeting, which included General Grant. Lincoln explained to General Grant that he was having a recurring dream about a ship “moving with great rapidity toward a dark and indefinite shore.” Now that the Civil War was over, topics of discussion during the Cabinet meeting included the problems of reconstruction, and the treatment of Confederate leaders. That evening, the Lincolns went to Ford’s Theater to see the play “Our American Cousin.” While enjoying the play at Ford’s Theater Lincoln was shot by assassin John Wilkes Booth.
  • After the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant became an author, Secretary of War under President Johnson, and in 1868 became President of the United States. Grant served two terms as president.
  • Ulysses S. Grant finished his two-volume autobiography; Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, only days before he died of throat cancer in 1885. Grant’s memoirs were published by Mark Twain’s firm and 300,000 copies were sold. These sales earned $450,000 for Grant’s widow, Julia. Grant’s autobiography is thought to be one of the best autobiographies written in the English language.