Civil War Christmases

Midway through the American Civil War, the Christmas of 1863 was observed in Gettysburg with anxiety and trepidation. The town was not fully recovered from the battle. The last of the wounded had been shipped from the general hospital just a few weeks earlier. Operations to remove the dead from the fields around Gettysburg and into the National Cemetery were in full swing. And with the end of the war nowhere in sight, many families had loved ones still serving in the ranks of the Union Army.

Join Historian Timothy H. Smith as he discusses Christmas during the American Civil War and Gettysburg’s first post-battle Christmas.