Jan 29, 1863
Camp near Fredericksburg
…We have had a big snow. It commenced snowing yesterday morning and continued until this morning covering the ground from one to three feet deep. Where it has not drifted it is three feet deep. There is a big snowballing going on now between our Regt. and the 12th. and 4th. Ga., they are both against ours. It is a pretty sight to see six or seven hundred men throwing snowballs. It is very good sport for me to look at them but I don’t see much fun attached to handling the cold snow.
Note: The previous letter is from Lieutenant Thomas M. Hightower, Company D, 21st Georgia Volunteer Infantry, to a friend: (I just put my name at the end so my post would not be anonymous)
The CSS Shenandoah struggling through a typhoon in the middle of the Indian Ocean, Christmas, 1864. “I must confess I thought things were getting rather bilious,” concluded a midshipman. His hammock almost hit the overhead beams as water cascaded around the hatch cover setting everything adrift—chairs, books, tables, sofas, sextants, “swimming about in the most admirable confusion.” The “most miserable festival I ever celebrated,” recalled another officer. Nevertheless, wrote the ship’s surgeon, “I never saw such good humour manifest. No cursing, all laughing and joking about our misfortunes….” He hoped friends and relations at home were as happy as they albeit a bit more comfortable. (“A Distant Confederate Christmas.” Posted December 23, 2014.)
What’s your favorite historical account/story from a winter encampment?
Snowball fights!
Jan 29, 1863
Camp near Fredericksburg
…We have had a big snow. It commenced snowing yesterday morning and continued until this morning covering the ground from one to three feet deep. Where it has not drifted it is three feet deep. There is a big snowballing going on now between our Regt. and the 12th. and 4th. Ga., they are both against ours. It is a pretty sight to see six or seven hundred men throwing snowballs. It is very good sport for me to look at them but I don’t see much fun attached to handling the cold snow.
– Michael Aubrecht
Note: The previous letter is from Lieutenant Thomas M. Hightower, Company D, 21st Georgia Volunteer Infantry, to a friend: (I just put my name at the end so my post would not be anonymous)
The CSS Shenandoah struggling through a typhoon in the middle of the Indian Ocean, Christmas, 1864. “I must confess I thought things were getting rather bilious,” concluded a midshipman. His hammock almost hit the overhead beams as water cascaded around the hatch cover setting everything adrift—chairs, books, tables, sofas, sextants, “swimming about in the most admirable confusion.” The “most miserable festival I ever celebrated,” recalled another officer. Nevertheless, wrote the ship’s surgeon, “I never saw such good humour manifest. No cursing, all laughing and joking about our misfortunes….” He hoped friends and relations at home were as happy as they albeit a bit more comfortable. (“A Distant Confederate Christmas.” Posted December 23, 2014.)