Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1912-12-20
CHRISTMAS STORIES
OF THE CIVIL WAR
Bye. B. LEWIS-M. QUAD)

Of y. q. lcWIS-(M. uUAU.)
mas-of the song and the band-of-
Of"
And he would think no more. As /
rose up to walk on a man screamed out
and fell dead d yard away. He had
been struck by a stray bullet. Also
the shadow waited for him.
And vet 1t was good to be alive and
be a soldier that Christmas day. Those
who fell later died the better for it.
WHEN SANTA CLAUS WORE THE
BLUE.
Along the front of the right flank
Of h grand army. ON the upper Po-
tomac. in the winte of 1862. was
from five to 10 miles of neutral ter
ritory. This was occupied here and
them poor. The men had gone to war
early In h spring, leaving the wom-
en- and children to plant the crops. In
the early fall the section was foraged
over. and when winter came it was a
dark outlook for h people.
From scouting the highways. and
from standing picket near farm houses,
we got to enc that hunger prevailed.
Little had been raised. and a big share
of that little had been foraged. There
wasn't IL soldier at the front but what
was willing to divide his rations with
the noncombatan*s, but in almost ev-
cry instance he was repulsed. The
situation. To any and all arguments
advanced the invariable answer was:
If you-all hadn't come down yere
there would have been no war"
II you were standing picket near a
house. the woman might pass and re-
0oon n ~-~ .-~ -~ =
look at you. The children would peep
from the corner of the house. but run
away If you smiled at them. Leave
hard tack, pork and sugar at the kitchen
door and 1T would not be taken in.
There were no bitter words. but we
were made to feel responsible for all
the suffering that was being endured.
The dogs might eat what we tossed
them, but even they would not make
friends.
1t was one day when a picket saw
little children digging under the snow
for faggots for the fire and knew that
the mother was too i'll to be out, that
six blue coats temporarily off duty put
in three hours work with axe and left
a big woodpile behind them at the door.
Two days later the nodded at
the mel on post, but did not speak.
Thankful she must have been, and yet
she could not forget that if we were not
tlAcIS lIuoDidtlO ana plenty WOulu Oe
hers. What followed came from this
wood cutting bee.
There were 20 married men in the
army for each single one. They had
left wives and children behind them.
AS Christmas drew lear 1T called up a
sentiment h a even war could not hold
down. There would be Christmas at
home-hundreds of Christmas boxes
would come down to be shared with
comrades. What of the hungry. des-
pairing. but grimly accomplishing
women and children of the neutral ter
ritory? Perhaps n man asked that
neutrality-suspicious. a dozen. No mat
ter. A dozen-a score-a h~undred-5Oo
men, some of them officers, determined
on a certain thing. And it received the
official sanction of a b%rigadier.
The roads had been secuted so often
that every house was known. We
kne the number of We knew
food. Through the quartermaster. the
sutler. he contractor, II through
messengers sent to Washington, we got
Il heap OF Santa Clause stuff together.
Every man who v ant every man
who handled the goods. thought of
those at home and was eNcitedly glad.
All the rallcor of war was chased out
of his heart. He smiled and rubbed
his hands and said it was good to do
such things.
On the morning before Christmas the
wagons We're loaded and sent UP and
down the roads of the neutral territory.
We did not knock at the doors and tell
what We had and ask If it would be
accepted. We feared to do that. 1t
would seem like buying forgiveness.
We carried barrels and boxes and stout
packages from the wagons to the kitch-
en- dcors and left them there. smiling
at the face Of any child we saw with
his moss, ny.aySol. nooinSt Tho -n,,o "a
a window. And in those barrels and
boxes were potatoes. onions. flour,
coffee. tea, sugar and meat. And in
o boxes were caps, hoods, stock
ings and shoes. And in those. stout
packages there was calico and other
les AND thread.
Not an old nan-not a ~nother-not
a child came to the door. Some of the
donors were for u time disappointed.
the wagons went out full and returned
empty, and hundreds of. men slept the
better that night for what had been
done. The next day a patrol went owe
the ground to see and report and to
talk with the pickets. We were watt
ing to hear what would be said.
Every single barrel. box and pack
age taken In" reported the lieutenant,
"and we heard the mouth organs and
tin trumpets playing in almost every
house. Sure. they had Santa Claus
last night.
And as u supplementary report a
burly sergeant. who had frowncd on the
whole thing from the start. said:
Say. fellows. I took you for a lot of
chumps, but from this time on any
galoot who says we came down here to
make war on women and kids has got
to lick me OF leave the army"
Did 1t change the attitude of the
women children towards u.s. Not
outwardly. II you-all hadn't come
down we're there would have been NO
war;