Holidays have a way of bridging gaps between people. These shared experiences can not only help us form unique bonds with people from different corners of the world, but also create similar shared traditions with people from different eras. A lot has changed about the Christmas holiday in our country, though, as evidenced by what we know about how it was celebrated by families during the Civil War.
While Christmas was certainly observed in the years prior to the war, it was not nearly as celebrated as it is today. In fact, it was not declared a federal holiday until 1870. In Franklin, Tennessee, Christmas during the Civil War era was a time marked by a blend of traditional Southern holiday customs, wartime hardships, and solemn reflection due to the ongoing conflict. Using newspaper clippings and letters written between Franklin families at the time, we can take a glimpse into the past to see how this holiday was celebrated.
The Impact of the Battle of Franklin
Fought on November 30, 1864, The Battle of Franklin riddled the community with tragedy and naturally had a significant impact on morale and the general tone of Christmas that year. Just weeks before the holiday, many of Franklin’s homes and buildings had been converted into makeshift hospitals to care for the many wounded soldiers from the battle that took place on the property of Moscow Carter, a prominent Franklin citizen. Carter was captured by the Federal Army in 1862, but was allowed to return home on parole after some time as a prisoner of war. Churches became places of communal mourning, bringing Williamson County residents together in shared grief and prayer. In a journal entry from Carter, he comments on the catastrophic condition of his property and notes that he spent a good portion of the Christmas season hauling dead horses off his land. Needless to say, the Christmas of 1864 in Williamson County was primarily observed with a somber remembrance of lost loved ones and a war-torn city, if observed at all.
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A Simpler Celebration
As the war ravaged on, families across Tennessee had to make do with fewer resources. Food shortages impacted traditional feasts, limiting what could be prepared for Christmas dinners. While wealthier families might have managed a small ham, many relied on whatever they could gather or preserve, often cooking simpler dishes like cornbread and dried fruit preserves. Sugar and flour were scarce, so holiday baking was limited to basic recipes.
With store-bought decorations nearly impossible to find, families crafted their own Christmas decor using local greenery—pine, holly, ivy—and created simple ornaments from paper and natural materials. Christmas trees were sparse, and when a family did have one they were smaller, with a few handmade decorations or pine cones. Stockings were filled with modest gifts like nuts, small toys carved by hand, or perhaps a precious piece of candy if any could be found.
Christmas in the War Camps
As one might expect, celebrating a holiday while away at war is an immense challenge. For Union and Confederate soldiers alike, Christmas was a reprieve whenever possible. A letter from Moscow Carter to his wife, America Carter, depicts a simple, albeit unorthodox, Christmas celebration observed by the soldiers of Carter’s brigade in 1861.
“An effort was made in comp to celebrate it, not in an appropriate, but after the usual style. The labors of the day were omitted, a reverence seldom shown for Sunday, and many, according to their various tastes, engaged in those pursuits promising the largest amount of pleasure. Some were content to drive away dull care with portions of egg-nog compounded of “Singlins” and sweetened with honey, sugar being an obsolete idea. Others gave dinings extending to their friends the hospitalities of the season, and though the fare was neither so elegant or sumptuous as we have seen, it gave full as much enjoyment…But the great furore of the day was the cock fights. That was a sport in which all could participate, who felt inclined as it was free to as many spectators as could elbow their way into the ring.”
Carter goes on to say that furloughs were not granted to any of the soldiers in his brigade.
After the War
Christmas became a much more celebrated holiday in Williamson County in the years following the war. Families began to hold more festive gatherings on Christmas Eve, with feasts not unlike the ones we see today. Decorations were much more widely used, and the tradition of gift giving became more popular as well. In an 1869 letter from America Carter to her sister, she writes, “We all took Christmas here together. Christmas night we all went to our church where we had a Christmas tree, all the children received many nice presents. The tree was beautiful & was the first I ever saw.”
The City of Franklin began holding community-wide celebrations during this time. A clipping from a newspaper article from 1874 details a gathering on Christmas Eve that year in which the whole city participated, sponsored primarily by four different churches. Three ‘magnificent’ trees were displayed across the city in front of these churches, possibly some of the first, if not the first, Christmas trees displayed publicly in Franklin, Tennessee. The Methodist Church hosted a ‘superb’ dinner for the community. In describing this feast, the author of the article writes, “I tell you truly that I have rarely, if ever, looked upon a more splendidly arranged table… Think of sixty magnificent pyramid cakes, and the round up the proportions and elegance of the banquet by that.”
Though marked by hardship and loss, Christmas in Franklin during the Civil War was a time of community and quiet resilience that later brought people in the town closer than ever before. Through handmade decorations, humble meals, and acts of compassion, the people of Franklin found solace and meaning in the holiday and in community, even amid one of the most challenging times in American history.
If you are interested in learning more about Williamson County’s history and role in the Civil War, be sure to check out the Battle of Franklin Trust and visit one of their locations in Franklin — the Carter House, Carnton, or Rippa Villa.
