Merry Christmas

Hey everyone! I hope you have all been having a great holiday season so far! The museum has been buzzing with activity of all sorts lately.  We are still in full holiday mode here and have working hard to talk to people about what Christmas was like during the Civil War as well as doing all of our regular medical education.  Soldiers don’t stop getting Dysentery and surgeons don’t stop doing amputations because it’s Christmas so we’ll keep on educating everyone we see.  We’re also very festive here though and we have decorated our main entrance with garland, wreaths and a Christmas tree.  Our front display was also gone over and I really quite like it! Myself, well I’ve been busy too.  I’ve been working with the staff as usual on projects like the Missing Soldiers Roll, research and prepping for my imminent presentation.  It’s been very enjoyable to me since I really enjoy this time of year.  I was hoping it would be snowing by now but no such luck. 

                Two weeks ago we had our Christmas party and it was great.  Everyone dressed up and we all got to relax and talk with people we don’t get to see very often.  I got to meet a lot of volunteers I have only spoken with on the phone and we all watched the parade that went through downtown from our windows.  It was a great parade to watch because it had music, dancing, costumes galore and lots of involvement from the local children.  I saw more boy and girl scouts that night than I ever have before.  They wore all sorts of cute costumes like presents and Santa suits.  A lot of them were excited to see us in the windows and waved to us and we gladly waved back.  The lights in the trees and the marching bands playing Christmas music all made it a very nice night. 

                This week for my blog though I don’t want to spend time writing about our party or the lights in the trees but rather how  Civil War soldiers celebrated the holiday during the difficult years of the war.  It seems very fitting to write about this Christmas Day recently happened.  The Civil War lasted four long years and so a lot of time soldiers and their families were apart on the holidays.  By 1861 Christmas was already established as an accepted holiday by the majority of Americans.  It had traditions such as the Christmas tree (which had its roots in Germany), eating desserts, foods such as turkey and ham and spending time with loved ones.  Modern Americans would be able to recognize their celebrations of Christ, Santa Claus and joy of the season.  The war put a strain on these traditions so that children missed out on bonding with male relatives, in places such as the South gifts under the tree and in stockings became less opulent and women missed the companionship.  Of course everyone made due though because that’s what was necessary in a time of war.  The letters left behind speak volumes about how the soldiers felt about being away from home during this time and what they did. 

Harper's Weekly

                “With what a different feeling do I pass this Christmas Day from what I have spent similar days in the past! It has been my fortunate luck in the past to enjoy the festivities of this day…amid the endearment of home friends.  I am now deprived of that blessed priviledge,” wrote a young Confederate named William.  It is short but this part of his letter perfectly sums up the idea that they miss the gaiety of the holidays with their families and friends in a carefree and safe environment.  One Union solider, Samuel J. Alexander of the 62nd Pennsylvania wrote a sad missive to his wife.  “One of our mess got a box from home on Christmas Eve containing a large roasted turkey and several other good things.  So we had the pleasure of eating a very good Christmas dinner but I was not as happy as I was when I ate my Christmas dinner one year ago with my dear wife and I hope before another Christmas rolls around that we may be together never more to part.” Good food brightened their day but even Samuel wished he could have been with his wife more than anything.

Harper's Weekly

                Aside from missing their families there were things to occupy the soldiers time in camp. Guard duty and other work had to be done everyday along with other necessities.  However, in light of the Christmas day often officers went easier on the rules or turned the other way so to speak.  “Our commanders were kind enough to dispense with all but necessary duties to-day.” wrote Captain Henry A. Chambers of the 49^th North Carolina.  James Hall of Manigault’s Brigade of Alabamians and South Carolinians wrote of how they entertained themselves.  “We tried to make a Christmas of it here.  We have had foot races, wrestling and base [ball] playing.  All the officers in our brigade…ran a foot race.  and a rare time we had of it.” David Humphrey of the 45^th Ohio wrote a lively account of how they passed the day.  “We had a pretty Merry Christmas today and it made me think of home.  We had a brass band in camp which almost charms one that has not heard any sich musick for 5 or 6 months and we had several darkies with their fiddles.  And the boys danced and played ball and pitche horse shoes etc. etc all day and the sutler gave a treat of a barrel of apples to each Co. in the morning and the officers gave us all the oysters and fresh sausage we could eat for supper…” I am glad to see that they did not spend all their time moping around but were able to celebrate the holiday somewhat.  The soldiers were able to experience some happiness during a time of cruel war. 

Harper's Weekly, soldiers opening a box full of clothing received near the holiday.

                It sounds to me as if they experienced the same wants and needs we have today.  We aren’t so different from people 150 years ago.  Because of the war they couldn’t always be with the people they wished to and so they just marked the day in the best way they could.  Sometimes that meant music, races, less daily work or food better than the average rations.  Reading about battles I sometimes feel a disconnect between myself and the people but reading these accounts made it all sound very human and personal to me.  I could understand the soldiers and their desire to be with loved ones or eat a meal that reminded them of home.  I have felt that way myself when I am away from family and the holidays draw near.  The book I got my information from was one that came highly recommended to me by the staff here at the museum.  Kevin Rawlings wrote We Were Marching on Christmas Day: A History and Chronicle of Christmas during the Civil War (1995) because of his interest in this special topic.  I enjoyed because it in an entire book that focuses on one part of the war and backs up everything with quotes. Historians like me love quotes because it is a great way to prove a point and make a strong case! Anyway, I hope I was able to teach you a little about Christmas for the soldiers and that you enjoyed reading this! I’ll talk to you soon when I’ll have lots more exciting things to share! 

Giving Tours to Doctors

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving and/or relaxing week! I went and visited family up in the northeast.  Lots of fun seeing them, eating good food and playing in snow.  What I want to blog about today is something I don’t think I have covered too much in prior posts and that is giving tours.  I have always wanted to give tours because I love interacting with people so I was thrilled to pass my docent test a few weeks back.  Tours are fun because I like giving information to people, telling stories and learning from them.  They can ask questions that further challenge me to learn things I may not know a lot about yet.  I’ve given a handful of tours in the past few days and they were all fantastic.  On Monday I gave a tour to an orthopedic surgeon who teaches in a school a few hours away.   
 The tour on Monday was fun because he visited because he was considering bringing medical students into the museum.  A lot of our visitors are people that work or did work in the medical field so I was excited.  In every room, he had lots of questions to ask me.  Some I had heard a lot such as “did they really spend so much time in camp?” Yes, yes they did spend an obscene amount of time in camp.  I mean Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was together all four years of the war but they were only in combat about 45 days.  That leaves a LOT of free time.  He of course had more unusual ones relating to bones and surgeries but as a surgeon specializing in it how could he not?

                A number of our galleries have bones in them and I think he really enjoyed those areas the most.  We have a model skeleton foot in our Heroic Medicine room and he pointed out that it is upside down possibly! Uh oh! He is the second orthopedic surgeon to point this out this week though so I think they may be on to something.  Our curator says though that as a teaching tool it was bolted to the wood and was probably done on purpose so students could see the underside of the foot.   Also in the amputation room he enjoyed hearing about how surgeries were performed and why.  Remember, biting the bullet is a myth! They had anesthesia back then and they used it! Bullets are choking hazards! I liked talking about how the soft lead bullets shatter bone though because I feel like he was genuinely interested in understanding how surgeons were not butchers back then.  By explaining how the ammunition deforms and then shatters bone all while dragging dirt, debris and gun powder through the wound , I was able to explain how amputations were done not because of laziness or surgeons wanting to be sawbones but because they were medically necessary to prevent gangrene, sepsis and infection! A shattered bone is almost impossible to fix today and in the 1860s.  Believe me and thousands of doctors, amputations saved lives back then.   

                He also enjoyed looking at the mummified arm because it showed bone within flesh that had suffered a traumatic injury.  He was also able to confirm what the Smithsonian had told us and that is that the arm belonged to a teenager still growing because the growth plates were visible in the x-ray.  Later on I showed him the six bones we have that showed soldiers that stayed in Frederick during the war.  These bones I think are very effective at showing the damage the bullets did because they are completely rent by the ammunition.  Finally, it was all connected back into modern medicine because the foundation for today’s medicine was laid 150 years ago by Dr. Jonathon Letterman and other innovators.  The scalpels, tourniquets, prosthetics and more is all very similar to what was used by the Union and Confederacy. 

                I am always happy to give tours and especially happy to do when I know that someone has enjoyed them so much.  I hope to seethe surgeon and his students back because I feel like there is so much to learn from the past still.  

One of the bone exhibits we have on display.  Artifact on loan from the National Institute of Health and Medicine.