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1861

Men of the 5th New Hampshire engaged in a hilarious greased pig chase as their Christmas entertainment. From Frank Leslie's Illustrated History of the Civil War.

Events proceeded quickly in 1861, hastening war. Abraham Lincoln became the 16th president of the United States in March and the bombardment of Fort Sumter occurred in April. Southern states seceded and the Confederates claimed their first major victory at the first battle of Manassas. For the shopkeeper or farm boy or student away from home for Christmas the first time, melancholy set in.

Robert Gould Shaw, then a 2nd lieutenant in the 2d Massachusetts Infantry, writes about guard duty near Frederick, MD. He would later earn fame as the commander of the heroic African American unit, the 54th Massachusetts.

"It is Christmas morning and I hope a happy and merry one for you all, though it looks so stormy for our poor country, one can hardly be in merry humor."

James Holloway, writing from Dranesville, VA tells his family that Christmas:

"You have no idea how lonesome I feel this day. It's the first time in my life I'm away from loved ones at home."

On the civilian front, Sallie Brock Putnam describes Christmas, 1861 in Richmond, VA.

"Never before had so sad a Christmas dawned upon us. Our religious services were not remitted and the Christmas dinner was plenteous of old; but in nothing did it remind us of days gone by. We had neither the heart nor inclination to make the week merry with joyousness when such a sad calamity hovered over us."

Yet Christmas 1861 also saw soldiers full of bravado, still relatively well fed and equipped, and eagerly anticipating Christmas boxes of treats from home. Often officers authorized extra rations of spirits and men engaged in greased pig-catching contests, footraces, jumping matches, and impromptu pageants dressed as women. Soldiers erected small evergreen trees strung with hardtack and pork. Some were excused from drills, although other references point to the need to haul logs and forage for firewood no matter what day of the year it was.

Artist Winslow Homer depicts soldiers' joy at receiving holiday boxes from home in this 1861 Harper's Weekly illustration.

1862

By Christmas, 1862, Thomas Nast had allied Santa Claus with the Union Army. From Harper's Weekly, January 3, 1863.

This sad year brought forth the war's impact full force with battles at Shiloh, Manassas, and Antietam, and campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley and the Peninsula. Many Fredericksburg, Virginia citizens were homeless or fled their town just prior to Christmas.

Harper's Weekly illustrator Thomas Nast, a staunch Unionist, is now depicting Santa Claus entertaining Federal soldiers by showing them Jefferson Davis with a cord around his neck. Abraham Lincoln would later refer to a politicized Santa as "the best recruiting sergeant the North ever had." More moderate illustrations show soldiers decorating camps with greens and firing salutes to Santa. Ironically, it was Nast who fixed Santa's home and toy workshop address at the "North Pole" "so no nation can claim him as their own."

Officers of the 20th Tennessee gave their men a barrel of whisky to mark the day. "We had many a drunken fight and knock-down before the day closed," wrote one participant. But there were other more somber occurrences recorded for Christmas 1862. One account tells of soldiers being forced to witness an execution for desertion and another grim letter describes how men firing their weapons in a funeral salute were mistakenly punished for unauthorized holiday merrymaking.

1863

Children still found Christmas morning joyful in this 1864 Harper's Weekly edition. Note that the youngster on the right is equipped with sword, drum, kepi and a haversack with "U.S." prominently displayed.

This year saw the battles of Gettysburg and Vickburg and the beginning of the end for the Confederacy. Thomas Nast portrayed Santa Claus in a patriotic uniform, distributing to Yankee soldiers to raise their morale. Southern parents were gently preparing their children that Santa Claus may not "make it through the blockade" to deliver presents this year. Harper's Weekly depicted a tender reunion scene of a soldier husband and father briefly reunited with his family during furlough.

Holiday boxes and barrels from home containing food, clothing and small articles of comfort were highly anticipated by soldier recipients. Depending on their duty assignment, Christmas dinner may have consisted of only crackers, hard tack, rice, beans and a casting of lots for a single piece of beef too small to divide. Those lucky enough to receive boxes from home could supplement a meager meal with turkey, oysters, potatoes, ham, cabbage, eggnog, cranberries and fruitcake.

One of the dreariest accounts of Christmas during the Civil War came from Lt. Col. Frederic Cavada, captured at Gettysburg and writing about Christmas 1863 in Libby Prison in Richmond:

"The north wind comes reeling in fitful gushes through the iron bars, and jingles a sleighbell in the prisoner's ear, and puffs in his pale face with a breath suggestively odorous of eggnog."

Cavada continued:

"Christmas Day! A day which was made for smiles, not sighs - for laughter, not tears - for the hearth, not prison."

He described a makeshift dinner set on a tea towel-covered box. Each prisoner brought his own knife and fork and drank "Eau de James" (water from the nearby James River.) Cavada reported he combed his hair for the occasion and further related that the prisoners staged a "ball" with a "great eal of bad dancing" during which hats were crushed and trousers torn. Sentries called "lights out" at 9 p.m.

1864

General William Tecumseh Sherman is host at a celebratory Christmas dinner in Savannah after presenting the captured city to President Lincoln as a holiday.

The final wartime Christmas came as the Confederacy floundered, Lee's Army behind entrenchments in Petersburg and Richmond. Abraham Lincoln received a most unusual holiday - the city of Savannah, GA - presented by General William Tecumseh Sherman via telegram. Union and Confederate sympathizers were hoping this Christmas would be the last at conflict.

Johnny Green, of the 4th Kentucky's Orphan Brigade, expressed this sentiment:

"Peace on Earth, Good will to men should prevail. We certainly would preserve the peace if they would go home and let us alone..."

Green further reports he and his comrades received an unexpected and very welcome holiday:

"Our commissary sends word for each Orderly Sergeant to come to his wagon & he will issue one piece of soap to each man. This is indeed good news. Since the Skirmish began at Stockbridge Nov 15 we have not had a chance to wash any more than our faces occasionall & never our feet or bodies until now...."

Holiday season charity was not forgotten this year. On Christmas Day, 90 Michigan men and their captain loaded up wagons with food and supplies and distributed them to destitute civilians in the Georgia countryside. The Union "Santa Clauses" tied tree branches to the heads of the mule teams to resemble reindeer.

Many other units, however, were on the march, either trying to evade capture or pursuing the opponent for better position. Soldiers left in the squalid conditions of prison camps spent the day remembering holidays at home, as did others in slightly more comfortable settings. Confederate General Gordon, writing from his headquarters near Petersburg, wrote of fighting famine as well as General Grant:

"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, who was with him at headquarters, presented him with a most precious treat for Christmas 1864 - "real" coffee brought from home 'to celebrate our victories in the first years and to sustain us in defeat at the last.'

Moods were more bouyant in Washington and New York, where celebrants supped on substantial feasts and attended the theatre.

"Snowy Morning on Picket" from Harper's Weekly January 30, 1864.

On this Day In history

Birthdates which occurred on December 26:
1194 Frederick II, Iesi Italy, German Emperor (1212-1250)/King of Sicily
1716 Thomas Gray (poet: Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard: "The paths of glory lead but to the grave"
1738 Thomas Nelson merchant, signer of the Declaration of Independence
1792 Charles Babbage, English inventor (calculating machine)
1809 William Nelson Pendleton Brigadier-General (Confederate Army), died in 1883
1837 George Dewey (Admiral of the Navy: Spanish-American War: hero of Manila: "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley.")
1861 Friedrich Engel, German mathematician (group theory)
1891 Henry Miller (author:Tropic of Capricorn, Tropic of Cancer)
1893 Mao Tse-Tung (communist-revolutionist: founding father of the People's Republic of China) (mass murder)
1914 Richard Widmark (actor-The Bedford Incident, The Frogmen)
1917 Rosemary Woods, Nixon's secretary
1921 Steve Allen (comedian, author, musician, composer, TV host: The Tonight Show, The Steve Allen Show)
1927 Alan King (Irwin Kniberg) (comedian)
1936 Kitty Dukakis 1st lady of Massachusetts/wife of Michael (Governor-MA)
1940 Phil Spector (record company producer: originator of Wall of Sound)
1947 Carlton Fisk (baseball: Boston Red Sox catcher: American League Rookie of the Year (1972)
1954 Ozzie Smith Mobile AL, infielder (St Louis Cardinals)

Deaths which occurred on December 26:
0267 Dionysius, bishop of Rome/saint, dies
1476 Galeazzo Maria Sforza (Il Sforza del Destino), duke of Milan, murdered
http://www.answers.com/topic/sforza
1530 Zahir al-Din Mohammed Babur Shah, founder Mogols dynasty, dies at 47
1776 Johann Gottlieb Rall, Hessian colonel/mercenary, dies in battle of Trenton
1861 Philip St George Cocke Confederate Brigadier-General, commits suicide at 52
1862 38 Santee Sioux Indians hanged in Mankato (Sioux uprising)
1890 Heinrich Schliemann, German archaeologist (Seven Cities of Troy), dies at 86
1963 "Gorgeous George" Wagner, perfumed and pampered wrestler, dies
1972 Harry Truman, 33rd US Pres (1945-53), dies in KC Mo at 88
1974 Jack Benny, comedian (Jack Benny Show), dies at 80. He was 39 years old.
1977 Howard Hawks director (Red River, The Big Sleep, Corvette K-225, Sergeant York), dies at 81
1985 Diane Fossey, zoologist (Gorillas in the Mist), murdered at 53
1999 Curtis Mayfield, soul singer and songwriter, died at age 57 ("People Get Ready," "Superfly")
2000 Jason Robards (78), stage and film actor ("The Civil War" (voice) ....General Ulysses S. Grant, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, Something Wicked This Way Comes)

Take A Moment To Remember
GWOT Casualties

Iraq
26-Dec-2003 3 | US: 3 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Specialist Michael G. Mihalakis Baghdad Non-hostile - vehicle accident
US Staff Sergeant Michael J. Sutter Ba’qubah (near) - Diyala Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Specialist Charles G. Haight Ad Duluiyah (SW of) - Salah ad Din Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack

Afghanistan
A GOOD DAY

http://icasualties.org/oif/
Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White
//////////
Go here and I'll stop nagging.
http://soldiersangels.org/heroes/index.php

On this day...
0268 St Dionysius ends his reign as Catholic Pope
0795 St Leo III begins his reign as Catholic Pope
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09157b.htm
1198 French bishop Odo van Sully condemns Zottenfeest
1492 1st Spanish settlement in New World founded, by Columbus
1620 Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth MA
1659 Long Parliament reforms in Westminster
1773 Expulsion of tea ships from Philadelphia

1776 George Washington defeats Hessians at Trenton
http://www.doublegv.com/ggv/battles/Trenton.html

1799 George Washington is eulogized by Colonel Henry Lee as "1st in war, 1st in peace & 1st in the hearts of his countrymen"
1805 Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts established, Philadelphia
1825 Erie Canal opens
1848 1st gold seekers arrive in Panamá en route to San Francisco
1848 William & Ellen Craft escape from slavery in Georgia
1854 Wood-pulp paper 1st exhibited, Buffalo
1860 Maiden voyage of 1st steamship owned by 1 man (C Vanderbilt)
1860 Major Robert Anderson, under cover of darkness, concentrated his small force at Fort Sumter
1862 1st US navy hospital ship enters service
1862 38 Santee Sioux Indians hanged in Mankato MN, due to their uprising
1862 (Dec 28th) Battle of Dumfries, VA.
1865 James H Mason (Massachusetts) patents 1st US coffee percolator
1872 4th largest snowfall in NYC history (18")
1877 Socialist Labor Party of North America holds 1st national convention
1878 1st US store to install electric lights, Philadelphia
1902 Most knock downs in a fight, Oscar Nelson (5) & Christy Williams (42)
1916 Joseph Joffre becomes marshal of France
1917 Federal government took over operation of American RR for duration of WWI
1917 1st NHL defensemen to score a goal: Toronto Maple Leaf Harry Cameron
1919 Yankees & Red Sox reach agreement on transfer of Babe Ruth (Curse needs 2004)
1924 Judy Garland, age 2½, billed as Baby Frances, show business debut
1925 1st East-West football game at Ewing Park before 25,000 fans
1925 Turkey adopts Gregorian calendar
1928 Johnny Weissmuller announces his retirement from amateur swimming
1932 Earthquake kills 70,000 in Kansu China
1933 US forswears armed intervention in the Western Hemisphere (except when we want to)
1934 Yomiuri Giants, Japan's 1st professional baseball team forms
1936 Israel Philharmonic Orchestra forms
1941 Winston Churchill becomes 1st British PM to address a joint meeting of Congress, warning that the Axis would "stop at nothing"
1943 British sink German battle cruiser Scharnhorst
1943 Chicago Bears win NFL championship
1943 The 32,000-ton German battleship Scharnhorst sank off Norway following an Allied attack led by the British battleship Duke of York. Only 36 of the 1,900 crew survived. Researchers found the wreck in 2000.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/wwtwo/scharnhorst_01.shtml
1943 Count Claus von Stauffenberg tries in vain to plant bomb in Hitler's headquarters
http://www.moreorless.au.com/heroes/stauffenberg.html
1944 Budapest surrounded by soviet army
1944 Tennessee Williams' play "Glass Menagerie" premieres in Chicago
1946 Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas opens (start of an era)
1947 British transfer Heard & McDonald Islands (Indian Ocean) to Australia
(New home for the UN? Just a thought)
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/hm.html

Background:
These uninhabited, barren, sub-Antarctic islands were transferred from the UK to Australia in 1947. Populated by large numbers of seal and bird species, the islands have been designated a nature preserve.
Geography Heard Island and McDonald Islands
Location:
islands in the Indian Ocean, about two-thirds of the way from Madagascar to Antarctica
Geographic coordinates:
53 06 S, 72 31 E
1947 Heavy snow blankets Northeast, buries NYC under 25.8" of snow in 16 hours; That same day, Los Angeles set a record high of 84º F(More proof of global warming)
1948 Hungarian cardinal Mindszenty arrested
1950 Gillette & Mutual buy All Star & World Series rights ($6 million for 6 years)
1954 "The Shadow" airs for last time on radio
1955 Cleveland Browns beat Los Angeles Rams 38-14 in NFL championship game
1955 RKO is 1st to announce sale of its film library to TV
1963 Beatles release "I Want To Hold Your Hand"/"I Saw Her Standing There"
1964 Moors Murderers claim last victim
1967 The BBC broadcasts "The Magical Mystery Tour"
1967 Dave Brubeck Quartet formally disbands
1968 Bruin Ted Green sets NHL penalty record of 3 minors, 2 majors & 2 game misconducts in a game against the New York Rangers in New York's Madison Square Garden
1968 Arab terrorists in Athens fire on El Al plane, kills 1
1968 Led Zeppelin's concert debut in Boston as opener for Vanilla Fudge
1973 2 Skylab 3 astronauts walk in space for a record 7 hours
1973 Soyuz 13 returns to Earth
1973 "The Exorcist", starring Linda Blair & rated X, premieres
1975 1st supersonic transport service (USSR-Tupolev-144)
1978 India's former PM, Indira Gandhi, released from jail
1982 TIME's Man of the Year is a computer
1986 TV soap "Search for Tomorrow" ends 35 year run
1986 Doug Jarvis, 31, sets NHL record of 916 consecutive games
1987 A bomb explodes at a USO bar in Barcelona, Spain, killing one U.S. sailor and injuring nine others; a little-known group called the Red Army of Catalonian Liberation claimed responsibility
1988 Anti African student rebellion in China People's Republic
1990 Garry Kasparov beats Antatoly Karpov to retain chess championship
1991 Chuck Knolls retires as NFL coach after 23 years
1991 Jack Ruby's gun sells for $220,000 in auction
1991 Militant Sikhs kill 55 & wound 70 in India
1993 Comedian Rodney Dangerfield (72) weds Joan Child (41)
1994 French commando's terminate Air France hijacking in Marseille
1994 President's ½ brother Roger Clinton (37) weds 8-month pregnant Molly Nartin (25)
1996 Child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, age 6, was found slain.
1996 In Burma two bombs exploded in Rangoon during an exhibit of a tooth believed to have belonged to Buddha. The military regime blamed student and ethnic Karen insurgents based in eastern Burma. Five people were killed.
2000 Pres. Clinton signed a ban on cutting shark fins and discarding the fish back to the sea.
(LEGACY ALERT!!! LEGACY ALERT!!! LEGACY ALERT!!!)
2003 A 6.6 earthquake devastated the southeastern Iranian city of Bam, 630 miles southeast of the capital Tehran. It leveled more than half the city's houses and its historic mud-brick fortress. At least 26,000 people were killed and over 10,000 injured.
2004 The world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into villages and seaside resorts across southern and southeast Asia killed. The initial estimated death toll of 9,000 soon rose to more than 225,000 people in 12 countries. The magnitude 9.0 earthquake was the world's fifth-largest since 1900 and the largest since a 9.2 temblor hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964. The epicenter was located 155 miles south-southeast of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province on Sumatra, and six miles under the seabed of the Indian Ocean.
Bangladesh reported 2 killed;
India: at least 9,691 deaths: thousands were missing and possibly dead in India's remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Indonesia: At least 101,318 people were killed on Sumatra island and small islands off its coast.
Kenya reported 1 killed.
Malaysia: At least 68 people, including an unknown number of foreign tourists, were dead.
Myanmar: At least 90 people were killed.
Sri Lanka: At least 30,680 were killed in government and rebel controlled areas.
The Maldives, an archipelago of 1,190 low-lying coral islands and a tiny population of 280,000, at least 82 people were killed and missing. At least 42 islands were flattened in the low-lying atoll nation.
Somalia: At least 298 were killed.
Tanzania: At least 10 killed.
Thailand: The confirmed death toll for Thailand reached 5,322, but many suspected Myanmar migrants were not counted.
Thousands of Europeans died in the Asian tsunami disaster.

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Africa(?), US : Kwanzaa (1966)
China People's Republic : Mao Tse-Tung's Birthday
Czechoslovakia : Day of Rest
West Germany : 2nd Day of Christmas
Canada, United Kingdom (except Scotland), Australia, New Zealand : Boxing Day (Monday-Friday)
Bahamas : "Junkanoo" (carnaval)
Boxing Day
US : Whiner's Day
Read A New Book Month

Religious Observances
Seventh Day of Hanukkah
Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran : Feast of St Stephen, deacon, the 1st martyr
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St Vicenta Maria Lopez y Vicuna, foundress

Religious History
1531 German reformer Martin Luther declared: 'The inner man is a saint; the outer man is a sinner. That is why we confess in the Creed that the church is holy but pray for forgiveness of sins in the Lord's Prayer.'
1620 Plymouth Colony was settled by the "Mayflower" colonists. (In 1691 Plymouth joined other neighboring settlements to form the royal colony of Massachusetts.)
1830 Birth of William Caven, Scottish_born Canadian Presbyterian leader. He taught at Knox College, in Toronto, the last 39 years of his life. Though staunchly conservative, Caven was genuinely interested in social issues and thoroughly committed to missions.
1887 Birth of Charles Brandon Booth, American social reformer and head of the Volunteers of America, 1949_58. Booth was the grandson of Salvation Army founder William Booth.
1970 American missionary and apologist Francis Schaeffer wrote in a letter: 'We can fail after we are truly Christians because becoming a Christian does not rob us of our true humanity.'

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

New Year To Come 1 Second Late
Last Increment Added 7 Years Ago

The year 2006 has been postponed. But not for long.
The U.S. Naval Observatory says a leap second will be inserted in the world's clocks just before midnight Greenwich mean time on New Year's Eve.
That means 7 p.m. Eastern time on Dec. 31 will occur one second later than it would have otherwise.
Leap seconds are occasionally needed because modern atomic clocks are more precise than the rotation of the Earth, which can be inconsistent.

The rotation of the Earth has been slowing down, so leap seconds keep the clocks and the Earth from getting out of synch with one another.
This will be the 23rd leap second that has been inserted since 1972. The last one was inserted seven years ago.

Thought for the day :
If the best man's faults were written on his forehead, he would draw his hat over his eyes."
Thomas Gray