The Brief: New York Theatre Workshops resource for further exploration of the themes, history and questions

raised by our Seasons productions.

by Paula Vogel Directed by Tina Landau

November 15-December 30

Contents
Interview with the Playwright 3 Coming to Terms with History 4 December 24, 1864: A Timeline 6 African Americans of the Civil War 7 Whos Who: Key Historical figures in A Civil War Christmas 13 Secret Service: History of Presidential Security 19 The First Noel: History of Christmas Traditions in America 20 Music of A Civil War Christmas 24 Bibliography 27

NYTWs Education Initiatives provide access to the vision and methods of the artist, and enable audiences of all ages to particpate in a community of dynamic learning where the developmental process, the final production and the surrounding exchange of ideas have a profound impact on all involved. These initiatives strive to bring all members of our artistic family, which includes our audience members, closer to the creative process. As we often collaborate with artists whose work takes risks and challenges theatrical forms, the artistic process at NYTW rarely follows a defined path. Our education initiatives embrace this iconoclastic approach, allowing us to craft each program and partnership with detail and creativity. Director of Education: Bryn Thorsson The Brief writers and researchers: Ann Noling, Sarah Stites, Kellen Law, Jessie Cohen and Sam French NYTWs Education Initiatives are made possible through the generous encouragement of Con Edison, the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation, the Michael Tuch Foundation, the Weissberg Foundation, the Tiger Baron Foundation, Councilmember Vincent J. Gentile, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Join the Conversation! Check out New York Theatre Workshop on Twitter twitter.com/nytw79 Facebook facebook.com/nytw79 YouTube youtube.com/nytheatreworkshop79 Flickr flickr.com/nytw Tell us what you think! If you have comments or suggestions, please e-mail Bryn Thorsson, Director of Education at brynt@nytw.org.

Paula Vogel
Paula Vogel: The Lincolns are our ghosts. We have many, many ghosts from the Civil War, and we have ghosts that we may not even name or know of the men and women who served. There are a lot of ghosts in this play. We have ancestors in the room at Christmas, or at Hanukah when we light those lights. We are thanking the ones that went before us, around our hearth. That, too, is a way that we examine who we are as Americans. Ive always thought that theatre is a form of patriotism for every one of us involved, including the audience. Its a form of patriotism and service to the community to come together, to support the arts and culture, and to make sure that children have access to it so that its something that we enjoy and participate in for a lifespan. This, too, is serving our country. Its a time for us to look at who we are. And in order to look at who we are, we have to recognize who we were. .We tend to tell the story of the Civil War as Grant and Lee and a certain part of Abraham Lincoln, but were not talking about merchants and women who were left behind and kept businesses, households and boarding houses going. We dont think about the role of children in the Civil War. And we have misremembered how active African Americans were in turning the tide of national battle. The monuments, when they were erected, were often torn down. Theres a certain point where we wanted to remember the embrace of Confederate and Union white soldiers without acknowledging African Americans. We forget. We forget things that I knew in childhood, but never looked at. Our forgetting parts of the story is a perpetual disenfranchising of citizens

Interview with the Playwright

A Civil War Christmas was produced at Long Wharf Theatre in 2008 during the last presidential election. Now, in
2012, New York Theatre Workshops production coincides with this years presidential election, and the country faces many of the same questions it did four years ago. In a 2008 interview with Long Wharf s dramaturg April Donahower, Paula Vogel discusses the importance of confronting the legacy of slavery and the Civil War on our national identity. living in our country. We forget as Maryland school children that our State Anthem is actually the anthem of a slave state that talks about Northern scum. There are remnants everywhere of this battle that still havent been resolved. I wanted to know what it was like to be fighting in a war and trying to have a Seder. Or trying to light lights when youre in the field. What was that like? I wanted to find one Native American who was there on this Christmas Eve. So that the children in the family who can trace back that heritage can point and say, OK, we were there. .I think as a country we have to acknowledge what happened in the Civil War and I think we have to acknowledge the role of slavery in the Civil War. Now its 2008. We need to bring it into the open and say it. This is part of our countrys past and history. How can we have a conversation about the country we radically need to shape if we dont have that moment of acknowledgement?
http://www.huntingtontheatre.org/articles/Ancestorsin-the-Room-An-Interview-with-Paula-Vogel/
htCarol Rosegg

Paula Vogel

Coming to Terms with History

their pasts. These reenactments have served both educational and therapeutic purposes for those who participate as spectators and as performers; reenactments serve as a way to share history with future generations, but also as a way to address the human need to recall an individuals own history. Historical or religious pageants are one way in which communities remember and reenact their history. Most of us are familiar with Thanksgiving and Christmas pageants from when we were in school, or from nativity scenes from church. Pageants, no matter what the subject, seek to combine instructive education and art. Pageants represent a type of artistic repetition, where a given subject is dramatized in order to create sympathy and understanding from an audience that is separate from the subject. Pageants celebrate both the sorrows and the joys of any given subject. They are linked historically with theater, as medieval passion plays (one of the earliest forms of pageants) are one of the historical foundations of modern Western theatre.
www.battlecreekvisitors.org

PAGEANTS, REENACTMENTS & THEATRE

The American Civil War is a frequent subject of reenactments and historical pageants. Civil War reenactments began almost immediately after the war ended. Veterans of the war would commemorate anniversaries of important battles and campaigns by wearing their old gear and staging encampments. The first movement of nonVeteran headed reenactments was started in the 1950s, as the last remaining men and women of the Civil War era were dying. These reenactments continued as the centennial of the war approached. After the centennial passed, the reenactments continued, as a large group of men and women across the country found enjoyment in the process of reliving the more romantic elements of the war. Today, reenactments of various sizes happen throughout the country. Reenactors come for many reasons: to perform for a crowd, to educate the public, to see old reenactment friends, to return to a simpler time. They practice drills, relax in the camp, shop at the sutlers market (the making of detailed and accurate Civil War era gear has become an industry in itself), and reenact the battles. This prevalence of Civil War reenactments speaks to the way in which the Civil War continues to capture the national imagination. It suggests that the issues and questions at the root of the Civil War, questions of individual freedom, racial equality, and the role of the national government are still questions we struggle with as a nation today. The fact that Civil War reenactments still resonate with so many Americans is one indication that, to quote Paula Vogel, in many ways we are still fighting the Civil War. In her opening notes for A Civil War Christmas, Paula Vogel encourages using performers that come from the community, including local school children, church choirs, and actual Civil War reenactors. Even when performed with professional actors, the show still maintains the feeling of a communal event. 4

Throughout history, civilizations have reenacted

Reenactors at Cornwells Turkeyville USA

The show involve a critically in

thus makes an effort to community emotionally and its own history through art.

The theatrical style in which A Civil War Christmas is written and staged signals to the audience that it is a story actively being reenacted in front of them. The show is highly performative, meaning throughout the production the audience is constantly reminded that they are watching actors putting on a show. Many elements of the script, as well as the production choices made by the director, actors and designers help emphasize this performativity. The actors operate as an ensemble, meaning each actor plays multiple roles and the audience is able to see them get in to, and out of, character. Many of the actors also at various times play characters that are not their own gender, and actors also portray animals in the show. Raz, for example, is a traditional Breeches role meaning it is a male character played by a female actress, a custom that was very popular at the time of the Civil War. The actors costumes also help to emphasize that this is a play being performed for the audience.
wikipedia.org

The actors are dressed in mostly modern clothes and throughout the show the audience can see the actors put on and take off various costume pieces as they switch roles. Similarly, the set also acts as a reminder to the audience that they are watching a play. Instead of an elaborate, historically accurate set, chairs and basic props are used to evoke various locations and situations, requiring the audience to use their imagination to fill in the rest of the setting. Throughout A Civil War Christmas the audience is therefore continuously reminded that they are watching a performance, or reenactment, of our history. However, because A Civil War Christmas is a piece of theatre and not just a reenactment, it is able to both present and question our history at the same time. By drawing attention to the act of performing a story, A Civil War Christmas encourages the audience to think about how we as a nation remember and perform our history. The show includes many people and events traditionally excluded from Civil War reenactments, for example the many African Americans who fought in the war, or the fact that Maryland My Maryland is in fact a secessionist song. The presence of these often excluded events and people in the show brings to light lesser known pieces of history, and invites the audience to consider why that history is not a greater part of our national awareness. A Civil War Christmas is thus a form of reenactment that satisfies our cultural need to recall the past while also challenging us to examine how that past, and the ways in which we remember and honor it, inform and shape our present.
www.sonofthesouth.net

Mary Anne Keeley in a Breeches Role

Map of the Union and Confederate states from Harpers Weekly dated February 21, 1861

December 24, 1864

battles leading up to that night and what happened in the months following.

A Timeline

A Civil War Christmas takes place on December 24, 1864. This timeline details some major events and 1864 1865
January 31 - Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolishes slavery throughout the United States. February 17 - Columbia, South Carolina, is almost completely destroyed by fire, most likely set by Shermans troops. March 4 - Lincoln is inaugurated as President for a second term. April 3 - Union troops occupy Richmond. April 9 - Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant at Appomattox. April 14 - John Wilkes Booth shoots President Lincoln at Fords Theater; Secretary of State William H. Seward is stabbed and wounded in an assassination attempt inside his Washington home. April 15 - Lincoln dies, and Andrew Johnson is inaugurated as President. April 26 - Joseph E. Johnston surrenders to William T. Sherman in North Carolina; John Wilkes Booth is shot and killes in a barn in Virginia. May 10 - Jefferson Davis is captured and taken prisoner near Irwinville, Georgia. May 26 - Terms of surrender are offered to General E. Kirby Smith. His acceptance on June 2 formally ends Confederate resistance. June 30 - All eight conspirators are convicted for the assassination of President Lincoln; four are sentenced to death. http://www.civilwar.si.edu/timeline.html

March 10 - Newly commissioned to the rank of lieutenant general, Ulysses S. Grant is given official authority to command all of the armies of the United States. June 28 - President Lincoln signs a bill repealing the fugitive slave laws. July 1112 - Confederate forces under Jubal Early probe and fire upon the northern defenses of Washington, D.C., throwing the Capital into a state of high alert. September 2 - After forcing the Confederate army of John Bell Hood out of Atlanta, Georgia, General William T. Sherman captures the city, a major munitions center for the South. October 19 - A Union victory at Cedar Creek ends the Confederate threat in the Shenandoah Valley. November 8 - Lincoln is reelected President, with Andrew Johnson as Vice President. November 16 - Sherman leaves Atlanta and begins his march to the sea, in an attempt to demoralize the South and hasten surrender. December 1516 - General George Henry Thomas wins the Battle of Nashville, decimating John Bell Hoods Confederate Army of Tennessee. December 21 - Savannah falls to Shermans army without resistance. Sherman gives the city to Lincoln as a Christmas present.

December 24 A Civil War Christmas takes place 6

African Americans of the

The Gilder Lerhman Insitute of American History

Civil War

the Civil War, African Americans were caught in the middle of a conflict that in many ways would determine their future in this country but in which they were not acknowledged as key players. The complicated status of their citizenship, combined with the pervasive bigotry of the era, made it difficult for many to contribute in the ways their white contemporaries could. Despite these obstacles, African Americans played a variety of important roles in the War.
Before 1800, free African American men had nominal rights of citizenship. In some places they could vote, serve on juries, and work in skilled trades. But as the need to justify slavery grew stronger, and racism started solidifying, free blacks gradually lost the rights that they did have. Through intimidation, changing laws and mob violence, whites claimed racial supremacy, and increasingly denied blacks their citizenship. And in 1857 the Dred Scott decision formally declared that blacks were not citizens of the United States. (Africans in America Resource Center, PBS.org))

During

Freedom to the Slave Civil War Recruiting Poster 1863 Famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass was very vocal in expressing his thoughts about Lincolns unwillingness to allow African Americans to participate in combat.
Colored men were good enough to fight under WashingtonThey are not good enough to fight under McClellan. They were good enough to fight under Andrew Jackson. They are not good enough to fight under Gen. Halleck. They were good enough to help win American independence, but they are not good enough to help preserve that independence against treason and rebellion. Frederick Douglass

African Americans in the Military

Despite their eagerness to fight, federal law prevented African American men from joining the military for the first two years of the war. Instead, they were employed by the army as support staff to enable more white soldiers to join the fight. President Lincoln was also afraid that allowing African Americans (many of whom were former slaves) to bear arms would drive the border-states to secede from the Union. Many people felt African Americans were inferior and lacked the character, self-restraint, and intellect needed to be effective in combat. They feared that African Americans were too barbaric and would be unable to control themselves in battle. 7

As the war continued, the number of casualties continued to increase. The number of new white recruits dwindled, forcing the issue of African American soldiers to the foreground. On July 17, 1862 Congress approved the Second Confiscation and Militia Act,

which allowed the president to employ as many persons of African descent as he may deem necessary and proper for the suppression of this rebellion. Despite this authorization, it was not until January 1, 1863, when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, that African American men were actually allowed to enlist. African American abolitionists like Frederick Douglass, Henry Highland Garnet and Mary Ann Shadd Cary served as recruiters for the armed forces. In his paper, Men of Color to Arms, Douglass wrote:
By every consideration which binds you to your enslaved fellowcountrymen, and the peace and welfare of your country; by every aspiration which you cherish for the freedom and equality of yourselves and your children; by all the ties of blood and identity which make us one with the brave black men now fighting our battles in Louisiana and in South Carolina, I urge you to fly to arms, and smite with death the power that would bury the government and your liberty in the same hopeless grave.
htGetty Images

http://maap.columbia.edu/image/view/698.html

26th Regiment of Colored Troops that trained on Rikers Island in 1864 complicated logistics; these black regiments also had a more closely supervised enlistment processes and more stringent guidelines for command. In light of these mounting difficulties, on May 22, 1863, the War Department established the Bureau of Colored Troops to oversee African American regiments around the country. The bureau, which was headed by Major Charles W. Foster, handled information requests, enlistment paperwork, appointments to recruit and serve in new units, and orders to organize and equip these units. By the end of the Civil War, there were more than 186,000 African American soldiers in the Union military. Approximately 93,000 of these soldiers were from Confederate States. Their paths toward joining the Union army varied, but many formed groups of freed and runaway slaves and came north together with the intent of fighting for the Union. Of the remaining 93,000 troops, 40,000 were from border states and 53,000 came from the free northern states. Sadly they were often still considered inferior, and kept away from the front lines. In some cases, African American soldiers were held back out of fear for what might happen to them if they were captured by Confederate forces. These soldiers also worked behind the lines as carpenters, chaplains, cooks, guards, laborers, scouts, spies, steamboat pilots, surgeons and teamsters. 8

Frederick Douglass As the number of African American recruits increased, the administrative duties involved became overwhelming. It was not only the massive influx of personnel that increased the paperwork and

African American Women in the Union War Effort

African American women played a variety of roles during the war. In many cases, they joined the war effort along with their family members. Many served as nurses or found domestic work like cooking or doing laundry. In some cases, the Union army paid women, children and elderly or disabled men to work on abandoned plantations growing cotton and food. African American women who remained enslaved often found themselves saddled with more work to do in the absence of their husbands and sons, who were often forced to leave with their white owners. Some African American women were able to support the Union cause by working as spies. Harriet Tubman, who is most famous for leading slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad, also made valuable contributions as a Union spy. She developed an espionage network, led intelligence gathering expeditions and reported the information to the commanding officer of the Second South Carolina Volunteers. In one instance, Tubman used her information to lead a raiding party up the Combahee River in South Carolina where they destroyed Confederate property and freed 750 slaves.
htGetty Images

Freed slave Mary Touvestre also spied on the Unions behalf. She worked for a Confederate engineer who was developing a plan that would turn the U.S.S. Merimac into the first ironclad warship (which would later be named the Virginia). Touvestre stole the plans and escaped to Washington, D.C. where she turned them over to the Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles. Mary Elizabeth Bowser was a member of the Richmond underground spy ring. She worked as a servant in the Confederate White House and relayed conversations she overheard to the Union. Bowser was also believed to have a photographic memory which allowed her to remember any document she saw word for word.

Free African Americans

Free blacks in the Confederacy, while not slaves, were still afforded almost none of the legal rights and benefits that their white contemporaries enjoyed during the Civil War. Oftentimes, the hardships they endured were greater than those of Confederate slaves, whose masters were expected to provide the minimum food, medicine and clothing for their welfare. Free African Americans, however, received almost no support outside their own communities and were especially vulnerable to the devastations of war. Because the Union was generally less affected by the hardships of the Civil War, the free African Americans living in the North fared marginally better than those living in the South. They, too, shared very few of the rights of the Whites they lived beside, but superior economic conditions meant that they were less affected by the famine and poverty that plagued the free black communities of the South. A number of prominent historical free blacks appear in A Civil War Christmas, including Walker Lewis and James Wormley. Walker Lewis was one of the more fortunate free African Americans living in the North. Born into the small black middle class that was emerging in New England around the turn of the 19th century, 9

Harriet Tubman

Walker Lewis signature from his 1851 will

Courtesy of Connell ODonovan 2006

James Wormley was another free African American living in the North at the time of the Civil War.
Born in Washington D.C. on January 16, 1819, James Wormley was the son of free-born citizens Lynch and Mary Wormley. As a young boy, Wormleys first job was working with his familys hackney carriage business. This job would help Wormley gain skills and an appreciation for hard work involved in business ownership which he put to good use in post-Civil War Washington. After owning a successful restaurant, Wormley decided to purchase a hotel in 1871 which he called the Wormley House. Located near the White House, at the southwest corner of 15th and H Streets Northwest, Wormley House soon became popular among the wealthy and politically prominent in the nations capital. Wormleys experience as caterer, club steward and traveler in Europe helped him to perfect his culinary skills while his keen eye for detail ensured that his hotel guests were satisfied during their stay. Wormley also became active in Washington, D.C. community politics. On July 21, 1871, Wormley led a successful campaign to persuade Congress to fund the first public school for the citys African Americans. The school, named after Wormley, was built in Georgetown at 34th and Prospect Streets. Despite Congresss allocation local politics delayed the opening of the school until 1885.

From the Collections of the Historical society of Washington D.C.

Lewis is perhaps most noted for his status as a Mormon Elder (an honor that was later revoked in 1848, when Brigham Young banned African Americans from the Mormon priesthood). He was also a prominent Mason and an active Abolitionist who wrote several tracts demanding the immediate emancipation of all African Americans in the country. Though featured in A Civil War Christmas, Lewis would not have been present in

James Wormley died on October 18, 1884 in Boston after an operation for kidney stones at Massachusetts General Hospital. He did not live long enough to see the opening of the school he helped create.

(BlackPast.org)

James Wormley We see the character of James Wormley in A Civil War Christmas owning and operating the hackney carriage business that would lead to his future entrepreneurial endeavors. A largely forgotten figure in history, there is a James Wormely Recognition Project sponsored by the Agribusiness Council, dedicated to memorializing Wormleys entrepreneurial and humanitarian spirit, decency and commitment to educational values. Some African Americans even found ways to attain their own freedom, either through seeking manumission (the legal act of freeing a slave) from their owner, arranging their purchase by a Quaker or other abolitionist, and, in a few cases, even purchasing their own freedom. There was no legal system in place for this last course of action, but anecdotal evidence exists suggesting that purchasing ones own freedom was rare and extremely expensive. 10

One slave who bought her own freedom was Elizabeth Keckley, Mary Todd Lincolns close personal friend, who plays a role on A Civil War Christmas . Keckley was born a domestic slave in Dinwiddie County, Virginia. She was passed between various households of her owners extended family and at times was brutally beaten and repeatedly sexually assaulted. After years of being moved across the country without regard to her personal relationships, she used her skills as a seamstress to save enough money to purchase her own freedom in 1855, for which she paid $1200an enormous sum at the time. She quickly married, and then quickly divorced, and moved to Washington, D.C.

where her fine tailoring and gregarious personality made her one of the most sought-after seamstresses in the city. Keckley was patronized and then befriended by Mary Todd Lincoln. Keckley became intimately acquainted with the goings-on of the Lincoln household and after Abraham Lincolns assassination, wrote an autobiography that included many details of the Lincolns private lives. Elizabeth claimed that the book was written to help elevate the impoverished Mrs. Lincoln to a more comfortable lifestyle, but the Lincolns were infuriated. After the publication of her book, Mary Todd Lincoln never spoke to Keckley again. Keckley spent the last years of her life in obscurity and died in a home for impoverished African American women and children.

Elizabeth Keckley 11

African American Slaves

African American slaves viewed the war from a number of different perspectives. Some slaves welcomed the opportunity for freedom, and ran away to the North at the first opportunity. Others were mistrustful of the Yankees and couldnt or wouldnt leave their families. Still others remained with their owners, and quietly rooted for the Yankees to win the war. In the 1930s, members of the Federal Writers Project interviewed over 2300 former slaves. These are selections from the transcripts of those interviews. After dat the Yankees come a swoopin down on us. My own pappy took off wid em. He jined a compny what fit [fought] at Vicksburg. I was plenty big nough to fight, but I didn hanker to tote no gun. I stayed on de plantation an put in a crop. It was powful oneasy times after dat. But what I care bout freedom? Folks what was free was in misery firs one way an den de other. Charlie Davenport, enslaved in Mississippi, interviewed in Mississippi, ca. 1937

Us heard talk bout de war, but us didnt pay no tention. Us never dreamed dat freedom would ever come. . . . Yasm, Massa Garlic had two boys in de war. When dey went off de Massa and missus cried, but it made us glad to see dem cry. Dey made us cry so much. Delia Garlic, enslaved in Virginia, interviewed in Alabama, ca. 1937

If de slaves could get as near as East St. Louis and Ohio without getting caught, dey would join de Yankees and help fight for freedom. But the Rebs wouldnt think of giving slaves any guns, as mean as they had been to us. Dey knew too well, we would shoot dem first thing. Louis Thomas, enslaved in Alabama, interviewed in Missouri, ca. 1937

I never done anything fer myself in all my life. I always wurked fer de Rebels. I stuck right to em. Didnt have no sense fer doin dat I guess. . . . I was a great big boy [about 18] when de Yankees come through. . . De Yankees took jes what dey wanted an nothin stopped em, cause de surrender had come. Before de surrender de slave owners begun to scatter de slaves bout from place to place to keep de Yankees from gittin em. If de Yankees took a place de slaves nearby wus moved to a place further off. All I done wus fer de Rebels. I wus wid em an I jes done what I wus tole. I wus afraid of de Yankees cause de Rebels had told us dat de Yankees would kill us. Dey tole us dat de Yankees would bore holes in our shoulders an wurk us to carts. Dey tole us we would be treated a lot worser den dey wus treating us. Well, de Yankees got here but they treated us fine. Andrew Boone, enslaved in North Carolina, interviewed in North Carolina, ca.

To view more excerpts from these interviews, and for more information about the African American slaves experience during the war, please visit: http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/emancipation/text5/ text5read.htm 12

Who's Who: Key Historical Figures in

A Civil War Christmas

A Civil War Christmas features many actual historical figures who walk the stage, in addition to
fictional or composite characters. Here is a list of the biographies of the actual historical figures that appear in A Civil War Christmas as well as a few places and events that are referenced in the play.

The Military
Robert E. Lee (1807-1870) When Abraham Lincoln offered Lee command of the Union army, Lee turned down the prestigious offer; he would not fight against the people of his homeland in Virginia. Instead, he accepted a commission with the Confederate army, serving first as a military advisor to Confederate President Jefferson Davis and then later as the Commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Lee was regarded as a brilliant tactician, but struggled with with strategy on a larger scale, losing both of his major campaigns in Union territory. Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) Born Hiram Ulysses Grant, Grant was socially reticent and academically unremarkable. He flirted often with financial ruin and heavy alcoholism until he was inspired to reinlist in the US army when Confederate troops attacked Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Caroluna. He quickly ascended through the ranks and ended the war as General-in-Chief of the the Union army. Elected president in 1868, Grants presidency was marked by scandal; he accepted extravagant gifts from admirers and was said to keep the company of speculators. After his presidency, he sunk once more into poverty. Ely Parker (1828-1895) Parker was a member of the Seneca Indian tribe, part of the Iroquois Nation. While Parker is best known for his close personal frendship with Ulysses S. Grant and his drafting of the articles of surrender of the Civil War, he was also named Grand Sachem of the Six (Iroquois) Nations, served as the first Native American commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and made and lost a fortune on Wall Street. He was known as a kind, gentle soul and a crusader for integrity in government, but the end of his political career was marred by allegations of corruption. William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) To this day, Sherman is one of the most controversial figures in United States military history. Shermans March to the Sea a campaign in which he marched his 60,000-man army from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia, burning the property of those who resisted and leaving widespread destruction in his wakewas one of the most brutal and successful acts of warfare in the Civil War. During the war, Sherman was portrayed as insane and unstable by the Northern and Southern press alike, although it seems that he never showed any true symptoms of mental illness. Instead, he was inclined toward bold military actions that often countered conventional wisdom. After the war, Sherman retained his military command. He was a frequent and popular lecturer, but he shied away from speaking about his famous march. When asked what he believed it took to lead courageously in battle, he replied, A perfect sensibility of the measure of danger, and a willingness to endure it.
www.americaslibrary.gov pbs.org www.today.colostate.edu www.americaslibrary.gov

13

The Conspirators
John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865) Said to be the handsomest man in America, at the time, John Wilkes Booth was an actor of questionable talent but renowned appearance. Unlike most of his family, Booth was staunchly pro-slavery for most of his life, and he was radicalized as abolitionist violence against slave owners increased during the lead up to the Civil War. Extremely anti-Union and deeply bigoted, Booth participated in a number of unsuccessful plots to kidnap or assassinate Lincoln until he finally succeeded in murdering the President on April 14th, 1865. He broke his leg in the initial moments after the assassination, making escape from the authorities more difficult, but eventually he made it across the Potomac to a farm near Port Royal, VA. There he hid in a barn until he was discovered by federal troops. There are conflicting accounts of his actual capture, but most sources agree that he refused to emerge from the barn even after having been shot; the barn was burned and Booth crawled from the fire with burns covering most of his body. He lived for only a few hours. The Surratt Family resided in a boarding house in the northwest quarter of Washington, D.C., which was owned and run by the matron of the Surratt family, Mary. This boarding house would later become central in John Wilkes Booths plot to assassinate Lincoln, providing both a place to meet with fellow conspirators and a place to store the weaponry that was used to kill the president. Mary was tried and convicted of Lincolns assassination and despite her protestations of innocence, was hanged on July 7th, 1865. Her final words, spoken to a guard, were Please dont let me fall. John Surratt escaped such a fate: upon hearing of Lincolns murder and his mothers arrest, John fled to Canada, where he resided until after Marys execution. After several months of traveling the world, he was extradited to the United States, where he faced a protracted trial that ultimately resulted in a hung jury. While he never admitted to any role in Lincolns assassination, he did confess to participating in a plot to kidnap the president that never came to fruition. Louis J. Weichmann (1842-1891) Weichmann first met John Surratt while attending St. Charles College in Catonsville, MD. After becoming fast friends, they both decided to abandon their mutual ambition of joining the priesthood, and moved together to Washington, D.C. Weichmann secured a place in the boarding house run by Mary Surratt, Johns mother, where he met John Wilkes Booth and other friends of the Surratt family. After Abraham Lincolns assassination, Weichmann testified against John Wilkes Booth and the Surratt family; it is said that he gave his testimony in exchange for immunity, but in his affidavit, he claims to have been ignorant of the assassination plot. Lewis Payne (1844-1865) Lewis Payne, born as Lewis Powell, was a close confidante of John Surratt and John Wilkes Booth. The same night that Booth assassinated President Lincoln, Payne entered the home of Secretary of State William Seward under the guise of delivering medicine. After forcing his way past a domestic servant and Sewards son, Payne stabbed Seward repeatedly in the neck. Fortunately for Seward, he was wearing a padded neck brace and survived the stabbing. Several days later, Payne visited the Surratts house while Mary Surrat was being interrogated by the police; he was arrested, tried and ultimately hanged for his participation in the conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln.
www.findagrave.com chnm.gmu.edu rogerjnorton.com www.surratt.org

14

Lincoln and the Presidential Cabinet

walterstahr.com

Abraham Lincolns Cabinet was made up of Secretary of State William Henry Seward, Secretary of the Treasury William P. Fessenden, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of Navy Gideon Welles, Attorney General James Speed, Secretary of the Interior John Palmer Usher, Postmaster General Montgomery Blair, Secretaries to the President John Milton Hay and John George Nicolay. Lincolns White House was composed primarily of his Republican rivals for the presidential nomination. Relations between the various ministers were often tense and jealous and many of them expressed displeasure at seeing the president engage in any activities of leisure . Ward Hill Lamon (1828-1893) Lamon served as Lincolns personal bodyguard and the head of presidential security for Lincolns entire tenure in the White House. They met as fellow lawyers in Illinois, where they soon became friends and then business partners. Lincoln often turned to Lamon in times of emotional hardship, frequently seeking solace in Lamons singing; he was famously moved to tears at Lamons rendition of Twenty Years Ago on the battlefield at Antietam. After Lincons death, Lamon joined the ranks of Lincolns many biographers, which cost him the friendship of the rest of the Lincoln family. Ward Hill Lamon has been variously characterized as a great soul whose friendship was an asset to any man and one who loved Abraham Lincoln and gave him his loyalty to the fullest. He has been called a man with an opinion on every subject who unfortunately lacked the diplomacy to hide it. He is simultaneously known as one than whom no one was better fitted to delineate Lincolns character and as an obscure man of limited abilities. Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association
history.utah.gov www.findagrave.com

Abraham Lincoln No portrait of the Lincoln White House would be complete without information on Abraham Lincoln himself. We invite you to peruse the following resources that we have found to provide excellent insight into his character, presidency, and life. Information about Lincolns life and times: http://www.biography.com/people/abraham-lincoln-9382540 http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/abrahamlincoln A virtual tour of Fords Theater and Museum: http://www.fordstheatre.org/sites/default/files/virtualTour/index.html

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Here are some other key historical people, places and events mentioned throughout A Civil War Christmas.
Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1882)
Mary Todd was born December 13, 1818 in Lexington, Kentucky. Throughout her childhood and young adulthood, she was popular on the social circuit in Lexington, but was frequently heard to remark that she was dissatisfied with her life as a socialite. Discontent and lonely, she moved to Springfield, IL where she hoped to find a more rewarding lifestyle in the home of her sister. There she met Abraham Lincoln, and at the age of 23, she married him. Soon after, the couple had four sons: Robert, Edward, William Willie Wallace, and Thomas Tad Lincoln. Though her primary focus was her children, as her husband began to rise politically, she began to give more attention and aid to his career. During the war, Mary Todd devoted herself to working as a volunteer nurse at Union Hospitals. She was also involved in the Contraband Relief Association, an organization that raised money for freed slaves. . She was known for her sparkling wit and polished personality, but garnered resentment for her extravagant spending habits and lavish entertaining. the assassination of her husband, and the death of Tad in 1871 exacerbated these symptoms. By 1875, Mary Todd Lincoln was showing far greater signs of paranoia and insanity. There are several records of her attempting suicide, and in a letter to a doctor, she confessed to the belief that an Indian spirit was constantly removing and replacing her scalp. Believing Mary to be a danger to herself, Robert Lincoln had her tried for insanity and committed to the Bellevue Insane Asylum. Though records show that Marys health was improving at the asylum, she petitioned to friend Myra Bradwell about intolerable conditions and an appeal for freedom. Mary Todd was released after four months in the asylum and declared sane on June 19, 1876. For the majority of her remaining years, Mary blamed Robert for her time at the asylum. The two reconciled, however, shortly before her death in 1882 at the age of 64.

Women in the Civil War

Accused of disloyalty by those that shared her southern heritage and suspected of treason by many of her Union compatriots, Mary struggled both socially and emotionally during the war. She suffered violent migraines, severe mood swings, and was at times even known to be physically violent toward Lincoln. As

The Civil War was the first time in American history that women played a significant role in the war machine. Women, both in the North and South, served as nurses, sutlers (merchants), and spies. As spies, the women passed information and medical supplies across borders, frequently hiding contents in the rings of their hoop skirts. While it was illegal for a woman to enlist in the army as a soldier, it is estimated that approximately 400 women served as soldiers disguised as men and boys. One of the most famous women from the Civil War era is Clara Barton, who appears in the play. Clara Barton was an educator, a nurse, and the founder of the American Red Cross and her story is remarkable. She was known to be a reserved child, but found her footing when she became a teacher at the age of fifteen. After several years of teaching and study, she became the superintendent of a small school in Barton, NJ. In a departure from the custom of the time, she convinced the community to make the school free, but after growing the student body from 6 to 600 students, she was displaced as the head of the school because it was deemed inappropriate for a woman, not a man, to be the leader of such a distinguished and successful place of education. She then relocated to Washington, D.C., where she worked for the government in various capacities. Clara was spurred to action when, after the start of the Civil War, many Union troops lost the belongings they brought with them from home during skirmishes that took place on their marches to the main

she grew older, the death of Willie in 1862,

wikipedia.org

Mary Todd Lincoln

16

points of conflict. Clara set about providing supplies to the troops, and from there, her role in the war grew in leaps and bounds. Although never officially affiliated with any government agency, she became the de facto superintendent of nursing during the war and is responsible for saving hundreds, if not thousands of lives.

Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas

Walt Whitman

The poet Walt Whitman was a frequent visitor to army hospitals in Washington D.C during the Civil War. He first arrived in D.C. in December, 1862 to look for his brother who was wounded in the battle of Fredericksburg. After he found his brother, who was not seriously hurt, he continued to visit the hospitals helping to tend to the patients non-medical needs. He wrote a great deal about his experiences in prose, poetry, articles and letters. In A Civil War Christmas the patients remember the gifts Whitman has brought them and the company he offered. Whitman himself appears briefly in the show, reading aloud part of his poem Aboard at a Ships Helm: Aboard at a ships helm A young steersman, steering with care: But O the ship! O ship aboard the ship! O ship of the bodyship of the soulvoyaging, voyaging, voyaging.
Library of Congress

Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas was a free African American woman whose house was seized by the Union army because they wanted the land to build Fort Stevens, one of many new forts built around Washington D.C. during the Civil War. After losing her land, Thomas lived in D.C. where she volunteered for the Union cause and was very involved in civic causes in the city. In A Civil War Christmas Thomas is helping out at the Home for Destitute Women and Children where Hannah and Jessa are brought. Following the war Thomas sued for compensation for her property but reports are conflicted as to whether or not she won her suit. She is remembered now in Washington D.C. as an important local figure in the American Civil War. September 22nd is designated as Lincoln-Thomas Day in Washington D.C, and in 2012 a city street was named for her.

Slave catchers

In A Civil war Christmas, the characters Hannah and Jessa worry about slave catchers on their way North. Slave catchers were a real danger for both escaped slaves and free blacks. As part of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Acts declared that slaves who escaped from Southern slave states could be captured by slave catchers in the North and returned to their former owners in the South. The Act was passed as part of the compromise as an exchange for California being accepted into the Union as a free state. Under the Act, African Americans captured by slave catchers had no way to challenge their capture in the courts, and as a result, many free African Americans were also captured and forced into slavery.

Mosbys Raiders

Walt Whitman 17

Mosbys Raiders appear several times in A Civil War Christmas. They are responsible for securing the coffee offered to General Lee in the opening of the play, Raz joins up with a band of Mosbys Raiders, and Chester tells Bronson that Mosbys Raiders have been stopping his supply wagon and stealing his clothes. Mosbys Raiders were one of the more infamous groups of raiders among the many guerrilla groups that fought for both sides during the Civil War. These groups were only loosely connected to the two armies, and they could therefore engage in tactics that fell outside of traditional warfare. Mosbys Raiders, led by John Singleton Mosby, executed raids on Union supply lines and captured Union soldiers. When they were not engaged in raids or maneuvers, Mosbys men avoided capture or retaliation by dispersing and living as civilians. At the end of the war Mosbys Raiders broke apart permanently.

civilwarinvirginia.wordpress.com

faithful to our God and our cause, would have imagined themselves amongst mortals, enacting this commemoration of the scene that transpired in Egypt.

Battle of Fort Pillow

Bronson tells the new recruit to his unit that the massacre of the African-American soldiers at Fort Pillow is one of the reasons his troop vowed to take no prisoners. According to the History channels website, history.com, The Fort Pillow Massacre in Tennessee on April 12, 1864, in which more than 300 African-American soldiers were killed, was one of the most controversial events of the American Civil War (1861-65). Though most of the Union garrison surrendered, and thus should have been taken as prisoners of war, the soldiers were killed. The Confederate refusal to treat these troops as traditional prisoners of war infuriated the North, and led to the Unions refusal to participate in prisoner exchanges.
hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu

Col. John S. Mosby

Jews in the Civil War

Although there were not as may Jewish-Americans at the time of the Civil War as there are now (much of the Jewish immigration to the United States happened after the war), many Jewish Americans like Moses Levy fought in the war for both the Union and the Confederacy. Many Jewish soldiers fought alongside their neighbors during the war leading to more acceptance for Jews by American Christians. However, there were also instances of increased anti-Semitism during the war, the most famous example of which is General Grants General Orders #11 in which he expelled all Jews from his military zone. Jewish Americans protested this order, and Abraham Lincoln overturned it. Another example of the Jewish fight for equality during the Civil War was their protest of regulations dictating that army chaplains had to be Christian ministers. Like Moses Levy in Civil War Christmas, Jewish soldiers tried to practice their religion as best they could in the midst of battle. J.A. Joel, a Union Soldier wrote in 1861 of a battle camp Passover celebration: There, in the wild woods of West Virginia, away from home and friends, we consecrated and offered up to the ever-loving God of Israel our prayers and sacrifice. I doubt whether the spirits of our forefathers, had they been looking down on us, standing there with our arms by our side ready for an attack,

The Battle of Fort Pillow

Quakers in the Civil War

Quakers believe that Gods spirit, or the divine spark as Chester calls it in A Civil War Christmas, resides in every person. Given this, American Quakers considered slavery a sin and were very active in the abolitionist movement leading up to the Civil War. The Quaker religion also preaches pacifism. As a result most Quakers are conscientious objectors, meaning they do not fight in wars because they are religiously and morally opposed to killing people. During the American Civil War, however, there was a lot of conflict amongst Quakers. Many Quakers, like Chester, wanted to fight with the Union forces because of the patriotic fervor at the time, or out of a desire to fight against slavery.

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Secret Service
in snazzy black suits, with their dark sunglasses and earpieces, whose mission it is to protect the POTUS from any and all harm on a daily basis. But the President was not always so well protected. The Secret Service was not formed until after the Civil War had come to a close in 1865, and it was originally in charge of tracking down counterfeit money and counterfeiters. It would take the assassinations of Presidents James Garfield in 1881 and William McKinley in 1901, as well as a failed attempt on President Harry Trumans life in 1951 for the federal government to formally designate the task of protecting the First Family to the Secret Service. Whereas today, tours of the White House are only available during very limited hours and visitors are subject to heavy security, people used to be able to wander fairly freely in and out of the White House. Well into the 19th century the White House still accepted civilian visitors and people were permitted to gather on the buildings front lawn. Andrew Jackson was even forced to flee his own inaugural reception when the lawn was taken over by a crowd of drunken party-goers! The Civil War marked the first time military personnel were stationed outside the White House,
Library of Congress www.preservationnation.org

A history of presidential security

Weve all seen the pictures of those somber men

President Lincolns Cottage 1863

Secret Service officers at Army of the Potomac headquarters

as there was concern Confederate forces would invade Washington D.C. While the scene in A Civil War Christmas, when President Lincoln sneaks away from his security escort during a Christmas party, may be a great moment of theatrical comedy, it is actually not so far from the truth. Protecting Lincoln was a very difficult job. As a wartime president Lincoln faced more threats to his life than the average president, and the more relaxed presidential security at the time gave potentially dangerous people easier access to the president. Additionally, Lincoln did not like being escorted by guards or army personnel and frequently fought his advisors who tried to get him to take more precautions with his safety. He felt it was both undemocratic and personally irritating to have presidential security. During the war, the Lincoln family often stayed at their summer cottage at the Soldiers Home outside Washington D.C., and Lincoln frequently commuted back and forth from the cottage to the White House for work, riding alone through the city. Lincoln is riding alone to this cottage to retrieve Mrs. Lincolns Christmas present in A Civil War Christmas when Booth and his friends plan to assassinate Lincoln. In fact, it was a similar unsuccessful assassination attempt when Lincoln was traveling alone to the summer cottage late at night that led the president to finally give in and accept a full-time escort in August of 1864. 19

A History of christmas traditions in america

quest for a Christmas tree to the solemn comfort of a Christmas carol, each characters actions are shaped by Christmas in a unique way. However, as much similarity as this Civil War-era Christmas bears to our own, modern-day Christmas as was only at its beginning in 1864.

The First Noel

In A Civil War Christmas, the Christmas tradition is almost a character in its own right. From the fevered
The Beginnings of Our American Christmas
Believe it or not, Christmas was not a recognized holiday in the early days our countrys existence. In seventeenth-century America, colonial culture was in a backlash against the religious persecution that many colonists had endured in Europe throughout the preceding century. They were generally resistant to any traditions that carried connotations of the ritual-bound religion that they had turned away from, especially those traditions that had their roots in Paganism, as Christmas did. Christmas was even outlawed in Boston from 1659 until 1681, and anyone found celebrating or showing the Christmas spirit was fined five shillings!. Christmas fell even further out of fashion after the Revolutionary War, as did many other things that were perceived as culturally British. In fact, Congress did not even recess for the first Christmas after the Revolutionary War in 1789. Christmas celebrations became divorced from their religious significance and Christmas became an occasion for raucous, Carnivale-style parties among the lower classes. Christmas was treated very differently in the North and the South, though neither region regarded it as a significant Christian holiday. In the North, it was considered decadent to celebrate Christmas, and people focused on Thanksgiving instead. But in the South, Christmas was one of the most important events on the social calendar, and an opportunity to gather and celebrate together. Southern states such as Alabama and Louisiana were the first to make Christmas a legal holiday. It wasnt until the early 19th century that Christmas 20

re-emerged as a religious holiday, this time with new connotations of domesticity and generosity. The early 19th century was a period of class conflict and turmoil. During this time, unemployment was high and gang rioting by the disenchanted classes often occurred during the Christmas season. In 1828, the New York city council instituted the citys first police force in response to a Christmas riot. This catalyzed certain members of the upper classes to begin to change the way Christmas was celebrated in America. In 1819, best-selling author Washington Irving wrote The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, gent., a series of stories about the celebration of Christmas in an English manor house. The sketches feature a squire who invited the peasants into his home for the holiday. In contrast to the problems faced in American society, the two groups mingled effortlessly. In Irvings mind, Christmas should be a peaceful, warm-hearted holiday bringing groups together across lines of wealth or social status. Irvings fictitious celebrants enjoyed ancient customs, including the crowning of a Lord of Misrule. Irvings book, however, was not based on any holiday celebration he had attended in fact, many historians say that Irvings account actually invented tradition by implying that it described the true customs of the season.
www.history.com Christmas

By 1864, the winter in which A Civil War Christmas is set, Christmas had largely taken the shape of Christmas as we know it. The Christmas tree

was beginning to come into vogue, the tradition of giving Christmas gifts was going strong, and the Christmas season was considered a time for family. After the turmoil of the Civil War ended, the Christmas spirit spread across the country like wildfire, making its way into newspapers, magazines, childrens books, and homes.

How We Came to Wish a Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you and yours! People are so nice! Like Christmas itself, the phrase Merry Christmas was not in vogue in the early days of the United States. If one were to go out on a limb and extend Christmas pleasantries with another colonist, merry would be out of the question. The word merry can be used in British English as a synonym for tipsy, and historically, the Christmas season was a time of intemperate revelry. Those aspects of the holiday were among the reasons it was banned by 17th and 18th-century Puritans in both England the New England colonies, and they concerned the Victorian temperance movement as well. The success of the campaign for Happy Christmas in England may explain the greater popularity of that phrase in the British Isles to this day.
blog.oxforddictionaries.com, What Makes Christmas Merry? A Brief History of Yuletide Adjectives

A Brief History of Christmas Carols

All is Calm, All is Bright Christmas carols today carry cozy connotations of ancient traditions as old as King Wenceslas, but Christmas caroling as we know it dates back to the 19th Century and not much further. In fact, caroling itself didnt always involve Christmas, and the ancient tradition of traveling from house to house to wish neighbors good cheer didnt always involve singing. Theres a distinction to be made between carols songs stemming from medieval musical traditions and todays Christmas caroling, says Daniel Abraham, musicology expert and choral director at American University in Washington, D.C. The concept of carol in its origins has actually nothing to do with Christmas, Abraham says. Medieval carols were liturgical songs reserved for processionals in the 12th and 13th centuries. And though modern carols sometimes take their form from these original carols starting with a refrain, followed by verses of uniform structure theyre separate entities. In the 19th Century, as Christmas became more commercialized and popular, publishers began churning out anthologies of carols, many which were ancient hymns, also circulating them in broadsheets.Many of our todays most popular carols date to this period. Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern published in London by British lawyer William B. Sandys in 1833, was the first to print God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, The First Noel and Hark! the Herald Angels Sing. Joy to the World first appeared in the Anglican Church hymnal Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1861.
www.Time.com, A Brief History: Christmas Caroling

Instead, Happy Christmas found favor, both here and in England. It was considered a more genteel expression, devoid of the connotations of drunken revelry so often associated with the holiday. But by the time of the Civil War, Merry Christmas was back in rotation, largely thanks to Charles Dickens, who popularized it in his 1843 novel A Christmas Carol. By 1864, it would have found its footing once more, and Mary Todd Lincoln would not have been alone in wishing Merry Christmas to you and yours!

How the Christmas Tree Came to the United States

I have a special treat for them tonighta Christmas Tree! Long before the advent of Christianity, plants and trees that remained green all year had a special meaning for people in the winter. Just as people today decorate their homes during the festive season with pine, spruce, and fir trees, 21

ancient peoples hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows. In many countries it was believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illness. Germany is credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition as we now know it in the 16th century when devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes. Some built Christmas pyramids of wood and decorated them with evergreens and candles if wood was scarce. It is a widely held belief that Martin Luther, the 16th-century Protestant reformer, first added lighted candles to a tree. Walking toward his home one winter evening, composing a sermon, he was awed by the brilliance of stars twinkling amidst evergreens. To recapture the scene for his family, he erected a tree in the main room and wired its branches with lighted candles. Most 19th-century Americans found Christmas trees an oddity. The first record of one being on display was in the 1830s by the German settlers of Pennsylvania, although trees had been a tradition in many German homes much earlier. The Pennsylvania German settlements had community trees as early as 1747. But, as late as the 1840s Christmas trees were seen as pagan symbols and not accepted by most Americans. In 1846, the popular royals, Queen Victoria and her German Prince, Albert, were sketched in the Illustrated London News standing with their children around a Christmas tree. Unlike the previous royal family, Victoria was very popular with her subjects, and what was done at court immediately became fashionablenot only in Britain, but with fashion-conscious East Coast American Society. The Christmas tree had arrived.
History.com, The History of Christmas Trees

absence was politically motivatedeven though Christmas trees had been embraced, their German origins were not yet overlooked. When Wormley refers to the custom as Bavarian, he is giving voice to societys feelings that Christmas trees are a foreign and somewhat exotic item. Bavaria is a region of Germany, and at the time was used as a blanket term for all things German.
http://www.tapestryofgrace.info/2011/12/the-war-on-fir-trees/

Boughs of Holly
Boughs of holly! Deck the halls! Holly and the ivy! Deck the halls! Boughs of holly! The Druids of medieval Europe believed holly to be a sacred plant with profound healing properties. It could protect a home from evil spirits, bring good luck, and even protect from lightning strikes! It was enormously bad luck to cut down a holly tree, since holly served as a symbol of fertility and new life; it stays green and beautiful all throughout the winter months. During the days of early Christianity, Christians would adorn their homes with holly for the festival of Saturnalia, which was celebrated around Christmas time. Over time, that holly developed religious significance as a representation of Jesus Christ, whose blood was red like the 22

Though the tradition of having Christmas trees had been widely accepted by 1864, there is no evidence that the Lincolns actually had a Christmas tree in the White House. In fact, it is believed that there were no White House Christmas trees until President Benjamin Harrison brought one in on Christmas morning of 1889. It may be that this

berries and whose crown of thorns resembled the spiky holly branch with which we deck the halls.

The Legend of Santa Claus

To me he brought a comb./ To me he brought a handkerchief./ Trifles, but much desired. The legend of Santa Claus can be traced back hundreds of years to a monk named St. Nicholas. It is believed that Nicholas was born sometime around 280 A.D. in Patara, near Myra in modern-day Turkey. Much admired for his piety and kindness, St. Nicholas became the subject of many legends. It is said that he gave away all of his inherited wealth and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick.
www.sonofthesouth.net

St. Nicholas made his first inroads into American popular culture towards the end of the 18th century. In December 1773, and again in 1774, a New York newspaper reported that groups of Dutch families had gathered to honor the anniversary of his death. The name Santa Claus evolved from Nicks Dutch nickname, Sinter Klaas, a shortened form of Sint Nikolaas (Dutch for Saint Nicholas). In 1804, John Pintard, a member of the New York Historical Society, distributed woodcuts of St. Nicholas at the societys annual meeting. The background of the engraving contains now-familiar Santa images including stockings filled with toys and fruit hung over a fireplace.
History.com, Santa Claus

In 1863, one of the first depictions of an American Santa Claus appeared on the cover of Harpers Weekly. The artist was Thomas Nast. 23

A Civil War Christmas

Music was an extremely important part of the Civil War for both Union and Confederate soldiers. It had
inspirational purposes, like motivating soldiers before a large battle or building up their confidence during a fight, but it was also used for technical reasons. Drummers and fifers would use music to communicate commands and help keep time while soldiers marched. Musicians were also frequently trained to be able to help the surgeons and medics on the field. Much of the music that appears in A Civil War Christmas was actually played or written during the Civil War or earlier.
This carol began as a poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on December 25, 1864. The music was written by English composer John Baptiste Calkin. Longfellow wrote the text out of the grief he felt after losing his wife to severe burn injuries in 1862 and watching his son join the war against his wishes and suffer the effects of a ricocheting bullet that took out portions of his vertebrae.

the music of

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

Christmas Carols

Silent Night

The lyrics for this popular Christmas carol, which is Stille Nacht in German, were written in 1816 by Joseph Mohr while he was assigned to a church in Mariapfarr, Austria. In 1818, while Mohr was serving as assistant pastor at St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf Austria, he asked his friend Franz Gruber, a musician and school teacher, to write the melody and guitar accompaniment for the piece. The carol was performed for the first time at Midnight Mass. It was later incorporated into the repertoire of two traveling families of folk singers who altered some of the notes and created the melody we sing today. In 1839, the Rainer family performed Stille Nacht for the first time in American at the Alexander Hamilton Monument in New York City.

O Tannenbaum

The composer of this popular German Christmas carol is unknown, although melody is an old folk song. The most popular version was written in 1824 by German organist Ernst Anschutz. Shortly thereafter, the piece was translated into English and became known as O Christmas Tree. The melody would go on to be used in the song Maryland, My Maryland. Rise Up Shepherd And Follow As is the case with many spirituals, the author of this song remains a mystery. Although it is a Christmas carol, it also has other meanings. One writer explains: One of the purposes of our song today, Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow was to remind the slaves to follow the star that would lead them to freedom. Listen to the verbs in the song: Rise up, follow, take heed (or listen), and leave. Its a call to action for the slaves embedded in the biblical story of Christs birth. But the song has several other layers of meaning that helped the slaves celebrate the gift of Jesus Christ For the most part, slaves were not allowed to read, especially not the Bible. Plantation owners feared that if the slaves read about how Christ promised salvation from sin, the slaves would also want salvation from slavery. So, instead of passing on tradition by reading the Bible to each other, the slaves told the stories, much like the Israelites orally passed down stories for centuries and centuries as a way of preserving their religious history. Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow was one of the ways the slaves would pass down the Christmas story. The singer would sing a line of the story, Theres a star in the East on Christmas morn, and the rest would respond, Rise up, shepherd, and follow. Then the next line of the story would be sung, and the crowd would respond. (http://revkory.wordpress.com/2010/12/05/this-weeks-sermon-rise-up-shepherd-and-follow/)

Spirituals

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There Is A Balm In Gilead The exact origins of this well-known spiritual are unknown, but it first appeared in a Methodist hymnal in 1889. In talking about the meaning of There Is a Balm in Gilead, Howard Thurman writes: The peculiar genius of the Negro slave is revealed here in much of its structural splendor. The setting is the Book of Jeremiah. The prophet has come to a Dead Sea place in his life. Not only is he discouraged over the eternal events in the life of Israel, but he is also spiritually depressed and tortured. As a wounded animal he cried out, Is there no balm in Gilead? It is not a question directed to any particular person for an answer. It is not addressed to either God or to Israel, but rather it is a question raised by Jeremiahs entire life. He is searching his own soul. He is stripped to the literal substance of himself, and is turned back on himself for an answer. Jeremiah is saying actually, There must be a balm in Gilead. The relentless winnowing out of his own bitter experience has laid bare his soul to the end, so that he is brought face-to-face with the very ground and core of his faithThe slave caught the mood of this spiritual dilemma, and with it did an amazing thing. He straightened the question mark in Jeremiahs sentence into an exclamation point: There is a balm in Gilead! Here is a note of creative triumph. (Deep River and the Negro Spiritual Speaks of Life and Death) Aint that a Rocking All Night This is a traditional spiritual from St. Helena Island, South Carolina. The isolation of the island inhabitants helped to preserve this plantation era song until it was collected in the 1950s by musicologist Ruth Crawford Seeger. Follow the Drinking Gourd This song is often described as an American folk song that was used by members of the Underground Railroad to secretly communicate directions to runaway slaves. The term drinking gourd refers to the Big Dipper which is a constellation made up of seven stars. The two stars that make up the Big Dippers cup can be used to locate Polaris, which more commonly known as the North Star. It was believed that slaves used the Big Dippers consistent northern location to guide them in their escape. More recent research has called this story into question. A 2007 New York Times article explained: Recent research has revealed that the inspirational ballad Follow the Drinking Gourd perhaps the single best-known artifact of the Underground Railroad was first published in 1928, and that much of the text and music as we know it today was actually composed by Lee Hays of the Weavers in 1947. Nor do its directions conform to any known underground route. For more information about the controversy surrounding the origins of Follow the Drinking Gourd, please visit: www.followthedrinkinggourd.org

All Quiet on the Potomac This poem, written in 1861 by Confederate soldier Lamar Fontaine, is based on an actual incident that took place in the aftermath of the first Battle of Bull Run. According to the story, a Confederate soldier, said to be Lamar Fontaine of the Second Virginia Cavalry, was standing night guard on a lonely outpost with one of his best friends, John Moore. After completing his six-hour assignment, he awakened his sleeping friend to take over. Moore stirred the glowing coals of the fire. The flames which leaped up revealed the position to the enemy pickets stationed on the opposite bank of the Potomac River, and made him a perfect target, framed in the fires light. The bullet of a Union sharpshooter found its mark in Moore. As he determined that his friend had been killed, Fontaines eyes fell upon the headlines of a newspaper lying on the ground: All Quiet Along the Potomac. The next day he wrote the poem (The Story of Our National Ballads)

Confederate Songs

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The Secesh (Shilo) This is sung from the perspective of a young Secesh (a secessionist soldier, or a Confederate) who is going to fight in the Battle of Shiloh, one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. Maryland, My Maryland This nine-stanza poem was written by James Ryder Randall in April 1861. A native of Maryland, Randall was teaching in Louisiana in the early days of the Civil War, and he was outraged at the news of Union troops being marched through Baltimore. The poem articulated Randalls Confederate sympathies. Set to the traditional tune of Lauriger Horatius (O, Tannenbaum), the song achieved wide popularity in Maryland and throughout the South. Maryland, My Maryland was adopted as the State song in 1939. (mdkidspage.org) Yellow Rose of Texas Originally conceived as a folksong in early Colonial Texas history, the first recorded copy of the Yellow Rose of Texas was handwritten on a piece of plain paper circa 1836. Historical records indicate this copy was most probably transcribed either shortly before or just after General Sam Houston lead his brigade of Texas loyalists against the army of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. The folksongs lyrics tell of a black American (presumably a soldier) who left his sweetheart (a yellow rose) and yearns to return to her side. Yellow was a term given to Americans of mixed race in those days - most commonly mulattos. And Rose was a popular feminine nineteenth century name; frequently used in songs and poems as a symbolic glorification of young womanhood. (In Search of the Yellow Rose of Texas) There are other legends and stories surrounding the history of Yellow Rose of Texas. To read the complete article, please visit: http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/adp/archives/yellowrose/yelrose.html

Union Songs
The Liberty Ball This song is widely known as Lincoln and Liberty. At the 1860 Republican convention in Chicago, Abraham Lincoln won his partys nomination for president of the United States. In 19th century America, hardly a presidential candidate won an election without having his name linked to liberty in a song. Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., of New Hampshires famous Hutchinson Family Singers, wrote the lyrics to Lincoln and Liberty and set them to the tune of Rosin the Beau, an Irish melody that is one of the most parodied in folk music. The Hutchinson Family Singers traveled the country singing anti-slavery and pro-Union songs, frequently at Lincolns campaign appearances, and later, in the White House. Lincoln and Liberty became Lincolns official campaign song in 1860 and was published in the book The Hutchinsons Republican Songster, which was used at rallies everywhere. (balladofamerica.com) Marching Through Georgia This song was written by Henry Clay Work to commemorate Gen. William T. Shermans march from Atlanta Georgia to Savannah Georgia in 1864. It became a rallying cry for the North and sold over 500.000 copies in the first twelve years after its publication in 1865. Its been said that, While this song remained quite popular in the North and became a standard at veterans reunions and political rallies, Sherman did not like it and once stated that if I had thought when I made that march that it would have inspired any one to compose the piece, I would have marched around the state. (georgiaencylopedia.org)

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Bibliography
Paula Vogel: Interview with the Playwright
Ancestors in the Room: An Interview with Paula Vogel, Interview with April Donahower , September 2008, Huntington Theatre Company website, http://www.huntingtontheatre.org/articles/Ancestors-in-the-Room-AnInterview-with-Paula-Vogel/

Coming to Terms with History

Bloodless Battles: The Civil War Reenacted by Rory Turner The Pageant in Colleges and Arts Schools by Howard Fremont Stratton Blurb for Wearing the Breeches: Gender on the Antebellum Stage by Elizabeth Reitz Mullenix, Google books, http://books.google.com/books/about/Wearing_the_Breeches.html?id=yWZdk4W798cC

African Americans of the Civil War

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/confederacy-approves-black-soldiers http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/blacks-civil-war/ http://www.stonewallbrigade.com/articles_black_confeds.html http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Free_Blacks_During_the_Civil_War#start_entry http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/wormley-james-1819-1884 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2957.html http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/emancipation/text1/text1read.htm http://www.homeofheroes.com/gravesites/states/pages_af/dorsey_decatur.html http://www.history.army.mil/html/moh/civwaral.html http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/civil_war_series/2/sec11.htm

Whos Who: Key Historical figures in A Civil War Christmas

http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/femvets2.html http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/The-Women-Who-Fought-in-the-Civil-War.html http://www.history.com/topics/women-in-the-civil-war http://americancivilwar.com/women/women.html http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=17 Mary Todd Lincolns lost letters: just found, 25 notes cast new light on the manic-depressed first lady by Jason Emerson Kaikobad, Vera. An acupuncture diagnosis of Mary Todd Lincolns health issues. Medical Acupuncture 23.3 (2011): 159+. Academic OneFile. Web. 23 July 2012. lkwdpl.org: http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/bart-cla.htm ; biography.com: http://www.biography.com/people/clara-barton-9200960 womenshistory.about.com: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/bartonclara/a/clara_barton_3.htm www.firstladies.org: http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=17 www.whitehouse.gov: http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/first-ladies/marylincoln biography.com: http://www.biography.com/people/mary-todd-lincoln-248868 Robert E. Lee CivilWar.org: http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/biographies/robert-e-lee.html History.com: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/robert-e-lee-dies Ulysses S. Grant www.whitehouse.gov: http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/ulyssessgrant biography.com: http://www.biography.com/people/ulysses-s-grant-9318285?page=1

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Ely Parker Historynet.com: http://www.historynet.com/ely-parker-iroquois-chief-and-union-officer.htm pbs.org: http://www.pbs.org/warrior/content/bio/ely.html William Tecumseh Sherman William T. Sherman: A commanding paradox ; Union generals dramatic mixture of virtues, flaws Trammell, Jack. Washington Times [Washington, D.C] 14 Dec 2002: B03. http://www.nndb.com/people/275/000050125/ John Wilkes Booth law2.umkc.edu: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lincolnconspiracy/booth.html biography.com: http://www.biography.com/people/john-wilkes-booth-9219681 spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USACWbooth.htm britannica.com: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/73713/John-Wilkes-Booth notablebiographies.com: http://www.notablebiographies.com/Be-Br/Booth-John-Wilkes.html historynet.com: http://www.historynet.com/john-wilkes-booth rogernorton.com: http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln72.html The Surratt Family www.crimemuseum.org: http://www.crimemuseum.org/Mary_Surratt.html law2.umkc.edu: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lincolnconspiracy/surrattj.html biography.com: http://www.biography.com/people/mary-surratt-9499375 spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USACWsurrattJ.htm civilwarwomenblog.com: http://www.civilwarwomenblog.com/2011/09/anna-surratt.html rogernorton.com: http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln72.html Louis J. Weichmann spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USACWweichman.htm housedivided.dickinson.edu: http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/6824 Lewis Payne chnm.gmu.edu: http://chnm.gmu.edu/lostmuseum/lm/305/ law2.umkc.edu: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lincolnconspiracy/powell.html spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USACWpaine.htm www.surratt.org: http://www.surratt.org/documents/Bplact08.pdf Abraham Lincolns Whitehouse www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org: http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/inside.asp?ID=9&subjectID=2 http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/inside.asp?ID=21&subjectID=2 www.britannica.com: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/341682/Abraham-Lincoln/277402/Cabinet-ofPresident-Abraham-Lincoln millercenter.org: http://millercenter.org/president/lincoln/essays/cabinet/288 johnhaycenter.org: http://www.johnhaycenter.org/index.asp?mod=2 Lincolns friend and close aide ; Ward Hill Lamon made the president laugh, warned of assassination Bridges, Peter. Washington Times [Washington, D.C] 30 Nov 2002: B03. http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/6055 Civil War Guerilla Leaders, History.com, http://www.history.com/topics/civil-war-guerilla-leaders Quote from Fort Pillow Massacre, history.net, http://www.history.com/topics/fort-pillow-massacre People & Events: The Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act, PBS, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2951.html Patriotism and Paradox: Quaker Military Service in the American Civil War by Mark A. Schmidt, edited for the Web by Jim Jones http://courses.wcupa.edu/jones/his480/reports/civilwar.htm What the Civil War meant for American Jews, by Jonathan D. Sarna, March 11, 2011, The Jewish Daily Forward. http://forward.com/articles/135769/what-the-civil-war-meant-for-american-jews/ Quote from Huntington Civil War Christmas article Testimonies of the Faithful, by Noelle Goodman-Morris from the Long Wharf Theatre,

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http://www.huntingtontheatre.org/articles/Testimonies-of-the-Faithful/ The Civil War Classroom materials: Walt Whitman, Patriot Poet by Nancy hall, http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/ classroom/pdf/lesson_whitman.pdf Aboard At A Ships Helm, Poems by Walt Whitman, Poemhunter.com, http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/aboardat-a-ship-s-helm/ People: Elizabeth Proctor Thomas, National Park Service Website, http://www.nps.gov/cultural_landscapes/PeopleThomas.html Bowser to unveil street named after Civil War heroine, Media advisory from Ward 4 councilmember Muriel Bowser, http://dcclims1.dccouncil.us/bowser/downloads/pr/Betty%20Thomas%20Street%20Renaming.pdf

Secret Service: History of Presidential Security

http://www.secretservice.gov/history.shtml http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1860895,00.html http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/kids/inside/html/spring98-2.html http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2010432572_apusthepeopleshousetimeline.html President Lincoln at the Soldiers Home by Zachary Klitzman, September 4, 2012, lincolncottage.org, http://lincolncottage.org/president-lincoln-at-the-soldiers-home/

The First Noel: History of Christmas Traditions in America

http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/traditions/usa.htm http://www.christmasarchives.com/trees.html http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2037505,00.html http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/ch/in_america.htm http://www.co.seneca.ny.us/history/Christmas%20During%20the%20Civil%20War.pdf http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1949049,00.html#ixzz2A2oIWmTS http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2011/12/what-makes-christmas-merry/ http://www.history.com/topics/history-of-christmas-trees http://www.bbc.co.uk/victorianchristmas/history.shtml http://www.whitehousehistory.org/whha_shows/holidays_christmas/index.html http://cartoons.osu.edu/nast/bio.htm http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/trivia/holly.htm

Music of A Civil War Christmas

O Tannenbaum http://folkmusic.about.com/od/folksongs/qt/OChristmasTree.htm Silent Night http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/VOLUME02/Silent_Night_History.shtml I Heard the Bells http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/civil-war/2011/dec/22/civil-war-beauty-tragedy-i-heardbells-christmas-d/ Rise Up Shepherd and Follow http://revkory.wordpress.com/2010/12/05/this-weeks-sermon-rise-up-shepherd-and-follow/ There Is A Balm In Gilead http://www.theafricanamericanlectionary.org/PopupCulturalAid.asp?LRID=4 Aint That A Rocking All Night http://soundcloud.com/wiaiwya/jeff-mellin-aint-that-a-rockin Follow the Drinking Gourd http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/opinion/02bordewich.html?ex=1171170000&en=ea47a898d41bf178&ei=5070&emc=eta1&_r=0 http://www.followthedrinkinggourd.org/Appendices_Misc.htm#About_this_site All Quiet on the Potomac http://www.folkarchive.de/allquiet.html

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The Secesh (Shilo) http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=1800 Maryland, My Maryland http://www.mdkidspage.org/StateSong.htm Yellow Rose of Texas http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/adp/archives/yellowrose/yelrose.html Liberty Ball (Come all you true friends of the Nation) http://www.genealogytoday.com/articles/reader.mv?ID=3949 http://www.balladofamerica.com/music/indexes/songs/lincolnandliberty/index.htm Marching Through Georgia http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-3775

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