December 24, 1863---Chaplains

DECEMBER 24, 1863:        

On Christmas Eve, 1863, along with a large number of Protestant Chaplains, 40 Roman Catholic Chaplains are ministering to the Christian soldiery of the Union. Jewish Chaplains had already served their flock, on December 6^th, the first day of Chanukah. Although Protestant Clergy had been serving as Army Chaplains as far back as 1775, during the Revolutionary War, and Roman Catholic Clergy had been approved during the Mexican War in 1848, Jewish Chaplaincy was a brand-new matter. A prewar bill specified that only “Clergy of Christian denominations” could be appointed as Chaplains. In July 1861, Clement Vallandigham, the infamous Copperhead, proposed a Bill to permit the appointment of Jewish Chaplains. Although the Bill went down to defeat, while it was pending, several Army units appointed rabbis to their chaplaincies. Finally, in July 1862, Vallandigham’s Bill was signed into law by the President, who had supported the measure from its initial inception. Less than 15 rabbis served the Union as Chaplains in the Civil War.  

  The Confederacy was ahead of the Union in this, as in the institution of paper currency and a central bank. Rabbis, Priests and Ministers served as Chaplains in the Confederate Army from the very outset of the Civil War, although individual States (such as North Carolina) had laws controlling the issue for their State Militias. Even fewer Jewish Chaplains served the South than the North, but the appointment of Chaplains of non-majority faiths was an important indicia of equality under the law (at least for Whites). Muslim Chaplains were approved in 1994, and Buddhist Chaplains in 2009.

December 23, 1863---An informal peace

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.

December 22, 1863---"What a kind and considerate conqueror is Abraham!"

DECEMBER 22, 1863:        

The Confederate Union of Milledgeville, Georgia, prints an editorial mocking Abraham Lincoln’s “Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction.” In response to the limitations of the amnesty offered, the newspaper’s editors say:

What a kind and considerate conqueror is Abraham! The very men who could make a peace are barred the privilege.

So, despite their abrasive tone, there is a longing undertone to their critique, as though they would have preferred a reasonable offer of peace---though what is “reasonable” they do not say. 

December 21, 1863---"God save me from such ignorant trash."

DECEMBER 21, 1863:         

A letter, purportedly written by Union soldier D.G. Griffin, is published in the fire-eating Charleston Mercury, under the title, “One Yankee’s Opinion of Their Friends In East Tennessee.” It reads in part:

Our Union friends have fanaticism and enthusiasm enough, but they are so ignorant and ill-bred as to disgust any gentleman. The women know how to make "corn dodgers" and dirty little Federal flags, "ginger cakes and the like," and to curse and point out their superiors--rebel ladies and rebel gentlemen--and that is about all.

The rebel ladies are intelligent, well bred, and good looking--dignified and bold in their demeanor. But they won't talk to us--consider themselves our superiors, simply from the fact that we are fighting for their inferiors, the Union ladies. They are not to blame. I often blush when I think of the common herd that I am imperiling my life for. God save me from such ignorant trash.

December 20, 1863---"If a Rebel's prayers are of any account . . ."

DECEMBER 20, 1863:       

A Union soldier, George Hovey Cadman, writes home about an incident involving a Rebel widow:

. . . During the day an incident occurred which shows how many things hard to bear occur during war time. The top of the hill where we are building the Fort has been used by the inhabitants as a Grave Yard . . . [our work] necessarily disturbs many of the Graves. [A] widow came to beg us to allow her to have her husband’s body removed . . . for she could not bear the thought of a fight taking place over her husband’s grave . . . The Colonel very kindly detailed four men to take the body up . . . I went with the detail and helped rebury the poor fellow and shall [never] forget the gratitude of the poor woman. She said she did not think the Yankees could be so kind. She took down all the names of the squad who helped her that she might pray for them, and promised me she would pray for me and my wife and children. So if a rebel’s prayers are any account I suppose I shall gain something by it. But best of [all] she got us a good dinner. We had fried sausage, roast & boiled Pork, head cheese, peach pies, and sweet milk, and an invitation to go and see her whenever we could get leave . . . as she is 60 years old you need not get jealous [unless] you like.