DECEMBER 23, 1863:
After a
wet Autumn came a cold and snowy Winter. All over the heart of the North
American continent, from the St. Lawrence to the Rio Grande, the Blue and the
Gray have hunkered down against the windstorms and blizzards that rage across
America at war with itself in this season. With Christmas only two days away,
the pickets and foragers of both sides are firing into the air when they are
firing at all. Most are shouting Christmas greetings across the lines. And
although Confederate President Jefferson Davis is trying to motivate his new
Commander of the Army of Tennessee, General Joseph Johnston, to engage the
enemy, Johnston is still housecleaning the disorderly mess that Braxton Bragg
left behind him. In sum, although there was no formal Christmas cease-fire
declared, an informal peace is the gift Billy Yank and Johnny Reb give to each
other this year.
