Christmas Eve

Civil War Harper's Weekly, January 3, 1863

This WEB site features an online archive of original Civil War Harper's Weekly newspapers. We have put this collection on the internet to help facilitate your study and research on the Civil War. The collection contains many unique illustrations and reports.

(Scroll Down to See Entire Page, or Newspaper Thumbnails below will take you to the page of interest)

Civil War Christmas

Lincoln Cabinet Shake Up

General Burnside's Fredericksburg Report

Battle of Fredericksburg Description

Fitz-John Porter Court Martial

Admiral Semmes

Fredericksburg Cartoon

The Attack of Fredericksburg

Fighting in the Street's of Fredericksburg

Court Martial

Christmas Eve

You are viewing one of Thomas Nast's Most Poignant Civil War Illustrations.  The illustration is Captioned, "Christmas Eve, 1862."  The illustration shows a Civil War soldier on picket duty on a cold lonely night.  The snow is falling around the lonely union soldier, as he looks longingly at photographs of his family.  At this same time, the illustration shows his wife, praying for his safety, and his safe return home.  Their children lay asleep in the bed as the wife prays.  If you look carefully in the upper left of the illustration, you will see one of the very early Thomas Nast images of Santa.  Santa can be seen approaching the chimney, and his reindeer are parked on the roof.