The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1906-04-06
CHRISTMAS: COMFORTER: i:
How It Brought Soldier Of the Blue
s and q Soldier Of the Gray ,
l. Into Sympathy.

ooW II Drought SOLDIER OF the Due
!. : and a Soldier Of the Gray =
Z. Into Sympathy.
christmas in the early days." said
Addison Ballard, was not like the
: Christmas of this day. l was raised in
Warren county, O., and in neighbor-
hood of well-to-do people, and here is
what I received from my parents as a
Christmas gift: One big red apple, a
little sack of choice hickory nuts, one
pair of knit mittens and a homemade
knit comforter to wear round the neck.
I'm addition myself and brothers were
given Jointly one cents worth Of powder,
which was inserted in a corncob and
exploded, or in hole bored in q log.
In the latter case other boys joined with
their allowance of powder to have q
greater explosion. For candy we had
maple sugar and for special treat the
young people of the neighborhood
climbed the hills near our house to hear
the 81 boom Of cannon fired inSCincinnati
rs miles aWay. y sss NJ ss Il rs.
=. i was that sort of q Buckeye boy my
sell, said the sergeant; "but of later
GATE. wore q red or red and white
comforter as late as the year before the
war; and my Christmas \ gift from
home in 1862 was a pair of closely
knit red and black mittens. We were
tnen In camp at Nashville and the
.m1ttens were great comfort, but
We're regarded as standing joke by
the boys. We were rather cozily QUAR-.
tered and we began to prepare for
Christmas a week in advance.
"Some of the boys went ten and
fourteen miles east and south from
camp looking for geese or turkeys,
chickens or rabbits. Those who went
outside our lines came back excited
and anxious. They found everywhere
indications of general advance on
Christmas day, and they didn't like
it. On December "a ! we knew that
we would spend Christmas in camp,
but that we would advance in battle
order on the morning of December 26.
Knowing this and knowing that three
days rations were to be cooked and
carried in haversacks the boys were
not as merry on Christmas day, 1852,
as they had expected to be-; 81 \.
Tho whole army moved toward
Murfreesboro on the morning of the
26th," and as we passed waiting regi.
ments I saw several pairs of mittens
not unlike my, own, and I knew that
the good mothers at home had thought
OF our cold hands. One man saw
wearing a. red comforter such as, had
worn as q boy, and wondered If he
came from the old home, neighbor.
hood. Five days after that as our
brigade emerged from the cedars at
:Stone River, pursued by the confed.
crates, I saw in the confederate line
two men wearing red comforters.
"One of these wore the comforter
around his neck, with ends crossed on
his breast and carried down to His;
belt. The other wore the comforter:
around his neck with ends flying. ..iI
wondered II these were; like my NIT
tens, Christmas gifts" from old-fash.
Toned homes. I knew, later. because the
confederate of the red comforter fell,
not five steps from where went down,
with two wounds. It was very cold
that night, and the wounded in blue
and gray began to creep towards the
little depression in which I was lying
and Struggled close to keep from freez-
ing.
"Some one took my mittens out of
my pocket and put them on my al
most helpless hands, and some one
else able to use his hands lifted my
head to his lap as he sat on the
ground, and felt the ends of knit
comforter brush across my face. 1t
was fresh and new, and he said it
was Christmas gift and he had worn
it in battle because his mother had
sent it. That led the freezing men,
huddled together like shivering hogs,
to talk Of Christmas and their people
at home, and I found that my man
of the red comforter was of the same
stock as myself, his family settling
in Tennessee, mine in Ohio.
'He had pair of mittens like my
own, and the customs of the two
homes were not unlike. We did not
freeze that night, and were carried off
the field next day.. but in such con-
dition that I never knew how we
were removed nor what became of the
men who came to me that night.
Some of them did not recover, I was
tolu in the hospital, but I was in
formed that not one of the dead wore
red comforter. All this came back
to me yesterday when l came across
white army hospital blanket with
my initials worked in red in one cor
ner. It was my blanket, and I re-
membered mat as the letters went
into shape ~ years ago a tear fell
from my mothers eyes for every
stitch taken. lived, however, to car
ry that blanket through the war;
Chicago Inter Ocean.