December 25, 1864. Sadai jumped out of bed very early this morning to feel in her stocking. She could not believe but that there would be something in it. Finding nothing, she crept back into bed, pulled the cover over her face, and I soon heard her sobbing. The little negroes all came in: “Christmas [...]

December 25th. Christmas at Halltown. We hope this will be our last Christmas in the service, and that the war will soon be over. We write many letters and receive a large mail every day, coming from Harper’s Ferry. All our shacks have small stoves, so that we use much of our time cutting wood. [...]

25th. Sunday. A rather unpleasant day. Spent Christmas quietly. Ate dinner with Capt. Chester. Oysters. Wrote home.

Sunday, 25th.—Shoal Creek is about two hundred yards wide, two feet deep, and runs very swiftly. Brigade ordered to wade through. As it is extremely cold, and am sick, I did not care for such a Christmas trick. Going up to the ford, after many times asking, one little fellow, who was hauling decking plank, [...]

CAMP THREE MILES NORTH OF PETERSBURG, Christmas Day, Dec. 25, ’64. My Dear Mother: I intended to have written the day after getting here, but it rained all day and the coldest kind of a rain too. The next day we received orders to move. We had almost completed our winter quarters and the boys [...]

Dec 25th 1864 We get Shermans official Dispatch this morning. He has taken Savannah without a fight. The Rebel Army escaped. Large Stores of all kinds, near 200 Cannon and 25000 Bales of Cotton fell into our hands. Charleston and Willmington must follow soon, and then I think that Sherman will have to come and [...]

Sunday, 25th–This is a cloudy, cool day and a lonesome Christmas. We are on one-third rations now and poor prospects of getting more soon. We still have plenty of rice, although in the hull, so we can get along. Large foraging parties were sent up the Savannah river to obtain rice straw for our beds [...]