Richard's Comments On Dec 5 blog about Christmas During Civil War

Thanks Richard, for your comments on Christmas during the War, (blog of Dec 5th), and how the soldiers must have felt. I am sure as you suggest that they mus have wondered if they would ever spend another Christmas at home with their loved ones, especially as the war dragged on year after bloody year.

Here is a brief review of what was going on in December 1864 according to General John Napier and Cameron Freeman Napier: John Bell Hood's Army of Tennessee had just been shattered at the Battle of Franklin on November 30th and at Nashville on Dec 15-16th - 12,000 casualties in two weeks. One Tennessee veteran said "Ain't we in a helluva fix, a one-eyed President, a one-legged general and a one-horse Confederacy".

Sherman had marched to the sea and wired President Lincoln he was giving him Savannah as a Christmas gift.  Just miles from Richmond the Petersburg Campaign continued after the Battle of the Crater June 23-24, 1864.  Montgomery had been threatened by Rousseau's Raiders which had wrecked the railroad in Columbus, so trenches 4 ft deep and 6 ft wide were dug around the city.

But typically Montgomery, there was a benefit at Ladies Hospital, the day after Christmas and there was a production of Richelieu, at the Montgomery Theatre, the last wartime production. As General Napier said, "The Confederacy was dying".