Civil War Christmas
The most beloved symbol of the American family Christmas—the Christmas tree—came into its own during the Civil War. The decorations were homemade: strings of sugared fruit, ribbon, popcorn, pine cones, colored paper, silver foil, and spun-glass ornaments. Greenery, holly, and mistletoe were used to decorate mantels windows, and tables.
Thomas Nast was a German immigrant working as a writer and artist at Harper's Weekly. His first illustration of Santa Claus appeared in 1863. When Nast was asked to provide a drawing to accompany Clement Clark Moore's 1821 poem, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, he called upon his Bavarian childhood to create our modern image of Santa Claus. Santa brought gifts to the children, such as carved toys, cakes or fruit.
A pre-war Southern Christmas menu might consist of baked ham, turkey, oysters, winter vegetables from the root cellar: squash, cabbage, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, and apples. Preserves, pickles, relishes, breads, pies, puddings would also be added to the table. Over the years some foods had become synonymous with the Christmas season: mince pie, eggnog, and plum pudding.
Christmas carols were sung both at home and in the camps by homesick soldiers during the Civil War. Some of the most popular were “Silent Night,” “Away in the Manger,” “Oh Come All Ye Faithful,” and “Deck the Halls.” But Christmas also made the heart ache for home and loved ones.
In Virginia, Lucy Rebecca Buck wrote in her diary on December 25, 1861:
“I cannot but feel a little sad this morning for my thoughts continually revert to those dear absent brothers who were wont to share our Christmas cheer and gladden the hours of this festive season for us. Poor boys! I wonder if they think of the blazing hearthstone at old Bel Air (the family home) and wish for a place in the home-circle. I think of it all and sicken when I think.”
In Richmond, Sallie Brock Putnam spent her Christmas of 1861 sewing caps, stockings, and scarves for the soldiers. She and her fellow citizens found the comfort of the soldiers during the coming winter to be foremost in their minds.
By 1863, the Union blockade of the Southern coasts had made it nearly impossible for Santa Claus to visit homes in the South. Quite a few mothers explained to their children that even Santa Claus would not be able to run the blockade.
In Georgia, Confederate nurse, Kate Cumming, was up before daylight making eggnog for the patients in the hospital where she worked. She couldn’t find enough eggs to serve everyone so the holiday treat was given to the wounded, the cooks, and the nurses. One of the doctors had provided turkeys, chickens, vegetables, and pies—a wonderful meal, but Kate’s enjoyment was dampened by the thought that the men on the battlefield had not fared so well.
In South Carolina, Emma Holmes described her holiday dinner as consisting of a ham—a gift from a friend—a turkey she had raised, and bread pudding sweetened with sorghum, a delicious meal for the times. But she couldn’t enjoy it for worrying about her family members in the army, who probably had little or nothing to eat.
As the Civil War dragged on, deprivation replaced the well-set table, and familiar faces were missing from the dinner table. Instead of “bringing in the tree” and caroling in church, the soldier in winter camp was scavenging for firewood. The holiday most associated with family and home was a contradiction. It was joyful and sad, boisterous and subdued.
In Georgia, Julia Johnson Fisher wrote of the Christmas of 1864:
“On Christmas day, we fared sumptuously. Mrs. Lynn dined with us and furnished the turkey. We had some chickens and a piece of fresh pork. Gussie had been off ten miles and brought oysters—so we had an oyster stew and chicken salad, minus the greens, potatoes and rice. The turkey was dressed with corn bread. Our dessert was a corn meal pudding…how we did relish it! We are always hungry— hungry the year round, but do not grow fat.”
Near Atlanta, Dolly Lunt Burge, a widow living on a plantation with her daughter and her slaves, wrote on December 24, 1864:
“This has usually been a very busy day with me, preparing for Christmas not only for my own tables, but for gifts for my servants. Now how changed! No confectionery, cakes, or pies can I have. We are all sad; no loud, jovial laugh from our boys (her slaves) is heard. Christmas Eve, which has ever been gaily celebrated here, which has witnessed the popping of fire-crackers (a Southern Christmas custom) and the hanging up of stockings, is an occasion now of sadness and gloom. I have nothing even to put in Sadai's (her daughter) stocking, which hangs so invitingly for Santa Claus. How disappointed she will be in the morning, though I have explained to her why he cannot come. Poor children! Why must the innocent suffer with the guilty?”
And on December 25, 1864:
“Sadai jumped out of bed very early this morning to feel in her stocking. She could not believe but that there would be something in it. Finding nothing, she crept back into bed, pulled the cover over her face, and I soon heard her sobbing. The little negroes all came in: "Christmas gift, mist'ess! Christmas gift, mist'ess!" I pulled the cover over my face and was soon mingling my tears with Sadai's.”
Christmas decorations were hit or miss in the South as the war continued. Children cut out colored pictures and hung them on the Christmas tree, along with strings of popcorn and red berries.
In Richmond, Mrs. Judith McGuire wrote in her diary that her family had received a box sent to them by a young officer who had captured it from the Yankees. The McGuires had to flee their home in Alexandria early in the war, and Judith insisted on sharing the contents of the box with friends who were also refugees.
In Winchester, Virginia, Cornelia Peake McDonald had worked tirelessly preparing rusks (light, sweetened biscuits) and cakes for her children for the holiday, when Union soldiers filled her yard. When a soldier tried to run off with the Christmas turkey, she ran into the yard and demanded that he give it back to her. She retrieved the turkey, but discovered that her kitchen had filled with soldiers who were eating her baked goods.
For the Southern slaves, the Christmas season usually meant a break from their duties for a day or two, and they celebrated with singing, dancing, and possibly a brief reunion with separated family members. Some received small gifts from their masters and their semi-annual clothing allotment.
The most famous Christmas gift of the war was sent by telegram from William Tecumseh Sherman to Abraham Lincoln on December 22, 1864. “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with 100 and 50 guns and plenty of ammunition, also about 25,000 bales of cotton.”
But General Sherman’s soldiers didn’t forget about the impoverished Southerners. On Christmas Day, they loaded several wagons full of food and supplies. Using tree branches as antlers, they turned their mules into “reindeer,” and delivered their gifts in the ravaged Georgia countryside.
The final Christmas of the war saw Lee's starving army lurking behind entrenchments around the city of Petersburg. Confederate General John B. Gordon wrote from his headquarters near Petersburg: “The one worn-out railroad running to the far South could not bring us half enough necessary supplies: and even if it could have transported Christmas boxes of good things, the people at home were too depleted to send them.”
His wife presented him with a special treat for Christmas—real coffee brought from home “to celebrate our victories in the first years and to sustain us in defeat at the last.”
The events of 1865 once again influenced Christmas holiday celebrations. The nation was still reeling from the assassination of President Lincoln, but the conspirators had been hung or imprisoned. The 13th Amendment to the Constitution became law on December 18, 1865, abolishing slavery in the United States forever. What better reason to celebrate?
I wish peace, love, and joy to my readers and their families—and to Civil War buffs everywhere.
Copyright © 2006 Maggie MacLean
