Voice from the Past: A Pleasant Christmas

Happy Holidays! Today’s Voice from the Past is David Day who wrote the following on December 26, 1861:

Christmas went off very pleasantly and apparently to the satisfaction of all. Drills were suspended and all went in for a good time. The Irishmen had their Christmas box, the Germans their song and lager, while ball playing and other athletic sports used up the day, and music and dancing were the order of the evening. Santa Claus came with a Christmas dinner for a few, but more of us he passed by…

Citation: David L. Day, My Diary of Rambles with the 25th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Milford, MA: King & Billings Printers, 1884), 153.

Source: Harper’s Weekly, January 3, 1863.

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FOOTE: The Gentlemen and the Roughs (2010)

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