December 20, 2024 • 17 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, The History Guy remembers the forgotten stories from U.S. military history. You won't want to miss this one!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the Star, where the American
people of the Star, and where your stories are welcome.
Send them to our American Stories dot com. There's some
of our favorites. Our next story comes to us from
a man who's simply known as the History Guy. His
videos are watched by hundreds of thousands of people of
(00:33):
all ages on YouTube. The History Guy's also heard right
here at our American Stories. Here's the History Guy remembering
the forgotten stories from US military history.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Christmas is traditionally a family holiday in the United States,
but he wasn't always the case. In fact, in early
US history, Christmas was often rejected as being too British, or,
if it was celebrated, was more of a rowdy celebration
than a family celebration. Many historians credit the change in
American Christmas traditions to five installments of The Sketch Book
(01:05):
of Jeffrey Cran by author Washington Irving that were published
in January of eighteen twenty. The sketchbook followed the fictional
Jeffrey Cran as he celebrated Christmas traditions in an English
manor House, and those traditions were actually not based on
any real celebration. They were largely fabricated by Washington Irving,
but they conjured up that idea of a holiday sped
(01:26):
with family, with goodwill towards all that became the American
Christmas tradition. And as we celebrate those traditions, we should
be mindful of those who, for whatever reason, are unable
to be near their family during the holiday season, especially
those who's service keeps him far from hearth and home.
(01:47):
Christmas seventeen seventy six five was busy for George Washington
and the Continental Army. At four pmong Christmas Day, the
Army turned out for their evening parade. They were issued
ammunition untild that they were departing on a secret mission.
At six pm, they started crossing the Delaware River, a
feat that the man in charge of the crossing, Chief
of Artillery, Henry Knox, described as having occurred with almost
(02:08):
infinite difficulty, due largely to the presence of large chunks
of ice floating in the water. Nonetheless owing largely to
the expertise of the men of the fourteenth Continental Regiment
known as the Marblehead Regiment, since it was composed of
mostly seafaring men of the area around Marblehead, Massachusetts. The
army managed to cross without the loss of a single man.
The following day, in a short, sharp action, Washington and
(02:31):
some twenty four hundred troops managed to largely surprise and
entrap fifteen hundred Hessian troops under the command of Colonel
Johann Rahl in the town of Trenton, New Jersey. Twenty
two Hessians were killed, including Colonel Rawl, and nearly a
thousand captured, along with significant amount of food and ammunition.
The victory, although small in the scope of the war,
came at a critical moment for Washington in the army,
(02:52):
perhaps literally rescuing the American Revolution from collapse. While has
been commonly said that the German troops were drunk from
a Christmas celebration, contempt reports to deny that legend. You
can't help but feel for these Hessian trips, captured and
nearly freezing to death on the trip back across the
river so far from their homes. The day after Christmas.
The Continental Army faced the same challenges as any army
(03:14):
away from home, far from family, and one illustration of
that was a little remembered event that occurred at Fort
Taekwonderoga in New York on Christmas Day seventeen seventy six.
Fort Ticonderoga, at the south end of New York's Late Champlain,
had originally been built by the French in seventeen fifty
seven and fifty eight During the Seven Years War. It
(03:34):
was captured by the British in the seventeen to fifty
nine Battle of Taikonderoga, in which the fortifications were largely destroyed,
and then occupied by the British with a small force
which used the fort as to supply and communication point
between Canada and New York. By seventeen seventy six, the
fort had fallen into disrepair and was defended by a
token force of just fifty men. Just a month after
(03:54):
the first shots of the American Revolution at the Battles
of Lexington and Concord, colonial militia under Ethan Out and
Benedict Arnold surprised the tiny garrison of the fort, capturing it.
Although it was only a small action, it was significant
in that it disrupted communication between British and the colonies
in British Canada and resulted in the capture of a
significant amount of artillery, which the American rebels had great need.
(04:16):
Using Fort Ticonderoga as the jumping off point. The Americans
had attempted to invade Quebec in seventeen seventy six, an
invasion that ended in failure, but the fighting season had
ended before the British could attempt assault on the fort.
Christmas seventeen seventy six had American troops stationed at the
fort and around Lake Champlain, preparing for the anticipated invasion
of the area by the British in seventeen seventy seven.
(04:39):
Regiments from around the colonies were stationed in the area.
The colonies were a diverse laws and there were quite
a lot of cultural differences and animosities in this case
between New Englanders and troops from the South. Discipline can
be a challenge for any army, especially in remote outposts,
and perhaps more so in the Continental Army, which suffered
from divided commands. Late on Christmas Day seventeen seventy six,
(05:00):
in a fight not with the British but between Americans,
a regiment from Pennsylvania attacked a regiment from Massachusetts, dragging
their officers from their tents, assaulting them and robbing them.
Details are sketchy, as the events of the disturbance were,
if not covered up, at least kept quiet. The fight
may have been the result of secular tensions, class tensions,
and the enemies of troop morale everywhere, boredom and too
(05:22):
much drink. While no one appears to have been killed
in the fracas, there were injuries and at least a
few musket shots fired. A court martial failed to find convictions,
and the event was swept under the rug, with the
official log at Tykonderruga that day left completely blank. Historians
have only recently been able to piece together the event
from period letters and records from the court martial. It
(05:43):
is easy to see why the army was not keen
to publicize the event, as such interesting fighting could have
ended the revolution before it started.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
And you've been listening to the history guy telling the
stories of American soldiers at war or overseas, and time
that many of us are home around a Christmas tree,
around a fireplace, celebrating the holiday season, celebrating sacred time
like Christmas time, and my goodness, what Americans were doing,
(06:13):
at least American soldiers were doing around Christmas time is
as far from hearth and home as you can get.
Washington had retreated and escaped from New York, and he
needed a victory.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
And he and his men, well, they.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Found themselves in Trenton, having crossed the Delaware. And folks
crossing the Delaware in winter going into New Jersey try
it sometime the river was filled with ice. This was
not a good time. What a big victory for America.
It changed, the tide of the war changed, morale changed,
recruiting changed everything.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
More.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Stories about US military history, particularly around the holiday season
around Christmas time, continue here with the History Guy on
our American Stories.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Here are to our American Stories.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
We bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith,
and love. Stories from a great and beautiful country that
need to be told. But we can't do it without you.
Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not
free to make. If you love our stories in America
like we do, please go to our American Stories dot
com and click the donate button. Give a little, give
(07:53):
a lot, help us keep the great American stories coming.
That's our American Stories dot Com. And we continue with
our American Stories and with the History Guy remembering forgotten
(08:14):
stories from US military history as they relate to the holidays.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
If the Christmas of seventeen seventy six had brought Washington
victory at Trenton, Christmas seventeen seventy seven was perhaps the
low point for Washington and his army in their winter
quarters at Valley Forge in Pennsylvania. While the Americans had
won a great victory over General John Burgoyne in the
Sarataga Campaign, to the north, the British had captured the
then American capital of Philadelphia, and Washington had been unable
(08:40):
to recapture it. When his army went into winter camp,
they were facing a critical shortage of supplies. The legend
is that the winner of seventeen seventy seven was exceptionally harsh,
but that was not actually the case. The deprivations faced
by the twelve thousand men of the Continental Army in
seventeen seventy seven were caused by neglect, as local counties
failed to provide for their own militias and the Continental
Congress seemed unwilling or unable to provide for adequate supply.
(09:04):
Many soldiers were without shoes. The Marquis de Lafayette described
them the unfortunate soldiers were in want of everything they
had neither coats, hats, shirts, nor shoes. Their feet and
legs froze till they become almost black, and it was
often necessary to amputate them. Washington had hoped for a
brilliant winter action to rescue morale and support, as he
had done at Trenton in seventeen seventy five, but was
(09:26):
told by his officers that his army was frankly unfit
for attack. He considered threatening resignation in order to force
Congress to act, even as other officers conspired against his
leadership within the Continental Congress. A blizzard hit on December
twenty third and continued through Christmas. Was a dismal holiday.
Trips were fed a spartan meal of burnt mutton and
watered grog. That night, a soldier from Connecticut's seventh Regiment,
(09:50):
a free black man whose name was only recorded as Jathrow,
was found frozen to death in his tent. It was
the first recorded death on the rolls at Valley Forge.
Some saw the time as an existential crisis for the
army and the revolution, which seemed to be on the
verge of collapse. Washould reportedly asked a young lieutenant that
Christmas day. Have you not suffered enough? The officer responded,
(10:14):
having come this far, we can let go the rest
of the distance with you to lead us. We can't
lose outside his commandant. That night, Washton made a bleak
holiday speech, May God relieve your sufferings if the Congress
will not, and a good Christmas to you. But it
was that winter and the coming spring when the Continental
(10:35):
Army was reorganized and seemed to coalesce in the face
of adversity. From the bleak Christmas came what many see
as the turning point in the conflict. By the time
that America was again fighting the British in the War
of eighteen twelve, Christmas had largely fallen out of vogue
in America, but the practice was viewed with this Dane
as being both too British and too Catholic. On Christmas
(10:56):
Day eighteen o six, a riot had occurred in New
York City between Nativists and Irish immigrants over the celebration
of Christmas, one of many such disturbances in New York
City of the era. British troops in North America noted
with surprise the indifference to the holiday among Americans and
French Canadians, but there was a great Christmas celebration that
occurred as part of that war.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
It was on.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Christmas Eve eighteen fourteen that negotiators and the neutral city
of Ghent in the United Netherlands concluded their negotiations and
signed and affixed their seals to the treaty ending the war.
The treaty essentially returned to the status quo before the war,
demonstrating perhaps the futility of the entire conflict. But the
defeat of Napoleon in eighteen fourteen had ended the issues
of restricting trade with France and the need for the
(11:39):
British Navy to press sailors, which had been the sticking
points of the war. Both sides simply wanted peace. That
agreement came too late to inform either army before the
January eighth Battle of New Orleans, and was not official
until ratified by Congress the following February. But when the
British and American representatives set down to a Christmas dinner
of beef and plum pudding and ranked ti hosts to
(12:00):
the health of King George and President Madison, they had
a legitimate cause for celebration, as the treaty initiated what
has become more than two centuries of peaceful relations between
the United States and Britain. But American Christmas traditions were
still developing, and that was well illustrated, and they nearly
forgotten eighteen twenty six eggnog riot. In eighteen twenty six,
(12:27):
in order to help quell would have become an unruly reputation,
US Military Academy Superintendent Colonel Silvanis Theayer had prohibited the purchase, storage,
or consumption of alcohol on campus, meaning that cadets could
not enjoy what had previously been the Academy's holiday tradition,
drinking highly spiked eggnog at Christmas. In violation of this rule,
cadets stuck in two gallons of whiskey and a gallon
(12:48):
of rom for a clandestine party to be held in
the North Barracks. Drunken cadets then got out of control
of doing property damage and harassing and assaulting Captain Ethan
Allen Hancock, a faculty member who tried to restore order.
In the end, nearly a third of the cadets at
the Academy were involved. Twenty cadets were court martialed and
eleven were expelled. Among those implicated but not charged was
(13:09):
Cadet Jefferson Davis, who had later become President of the
Confederacy during the US Civil War. Reportedly, he was saved because,
being among the first to get drunk, he had passed
out before most of the rioting began. Had he been expelled,
preventing his military career upon which his future was derived,
history may have been different. Christmas was at dismal affair
(13:34):
for American troops in the art In Forest in nineteen
forty four. Germany had mounted a significant counterattack on an
area that Allied planners had thought too inhospitable to vehicles
to be a point of attack. The area was lightly
defended by mostly either inexperienced troops or those that were
being given arrest. The front was thrown into chaos when
some two hundred thousand Germans with a thousand tanks started
(13:54):
one of the last major German offensives of the Second
World War, launching on December sixteenth. The apex of the
battle was the siege of the important town of Bastone, Belgium,
which held crossroads critical to the German line of attack.
A mixed four, centered around the US hundred and first
Airborne Division, was encircled and spent Christmas in the midst
of one of the fiercest battles of the Western Front.
(14:15):
While church services were held in the town, Christmas was
a makeshift affair. One soldier, so disabled by bronchitis, ployers
and pneumonia, had to littlely crawl into town as his
unit could not spare men to carry him. He said
that the closest he came to Christmas dinner was seeing
the turkey leg the doctor was eating as he examined him.
Other troops had called being offered hospitality by Belgian civilians,
(14:37):
but one story of that Christmas sticks out, as related
by Fritz Vincoln, who was twelve years old to the
Christmas of nineteen forty four. He and his family lived
on the German Belgium border, and his father had sent
he and his mother to a small hunting cabin in
the ard In forest, thinking he would keep them safe.
His father had been called into the Civil Defense Corps,
but he had hoped to come to the cabin to
celebrate Christmas. When Fritz heard ano at the door on
(15:00):
Christmas Eve, he hoped it was his father, but instead
it was three American soldiers, one of whom was wounded.
They did not speak German, but one of them spoke
some French, and they were able to communicate enough with
Fritz's mother, Elizabeth to say that they had lost their unit,
had been wandering the force for days, and were out
of food. Knowing that helping the enemy could be punishable
by death, she let them inside. She had a chicken
(15:23):
and some potatoes with which to make Christmas dinner. Shortly thereafter,
there was another knock on the door. When Elizabeth answered,
she found four German soldiers. Knowing the volatility of the situation,
she told them they could come in only if they
accepted her other guests. They were apprehensive when they saw
the Americans, but she told them this is a holy
night and there will be no shooting here. The soldiers
(15:46):
all gave up their weapons, and that Christmas, Fritz, Elizabeth,
and seven soldiers ate a meal of chicken, soup and potatoes,
and slept in the small cabin. One of the Germans
spoke English and had been a medical student. He gave
the wounded Americans first aid, and in the morning gave
the Americans directions back to their lines. It was a
brief moment of peace in the midst of war. Fritz
(16:08):
eventually immigrated to the United States, and in nineteen ninety
five his story was featured on the television program Unsolved Mysteries,
and astoundingly, that episode led him to Ralph Blank, one
of the soldiers who had spent that Christmas with him.
The two were reunited in nineteen ninety six over a
bowl of chicken soup where they could reminisce about that
(16:29):
extraordinary night. Ralph passed away in nineteen ninety nine and
Fritz died in two thousand and one. From everyone here
at The History Guy, we wish all of our viewers,
and especially those whose service keeps him away from home
on this holiday, a very merry Christmas.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
And a special thanks to Greg Hangler for his work
on the piece and his special thanks also to the
History Guy for all he does with us. And if
you're interested in seeing what he does viewing it, my goodness,
go to the YouTube channel.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
The History Guy.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
History deserves to be remembered an excellent place to spend
time with you and your family. And by the way,
some of these stories, they're just hard to listen to.
That Valley Forge story, everybody thinking it was such a
terrific winter, and of course it's no duckwalk winter at
Valley Forge.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
But it was total negligence.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
The Congress just wasn't appropriating funds for our soldiers. And
yet our soldiers while they marched on and lived through
it and won epic victories after. And my goodness, the
story of Art the Arden Forest and what happened in
bus Stone and watch Band of Brothers, and you can,
well you can relive it for yourself.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
What a Christmas it was for the one hundred and first.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
The story of our soldiers abroad and at war, and
some fairly amusing ones about our soldiers here, and of
course that's the Eggnog Riot of eighteen twenty six.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Here on our American story
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the Star, where the American
people of the Star, and where your stories are welcome.
Send them to our American Stories dot com. There's some
of our favorites. Our next story comes to us from
a man who's simply known as the History Guy. His
videos are watched by hundreds of thousands of people of
(00:33):
all ages on YouTube. The History Guy's also heard right
here at our American Stories. Here's the History Guy remembering
the forgotten stories from US military history.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Christmas is traditionally a family holiday in the United States,
but he wasn't always the case. In fact, in early
US history, Christmas was often rejected as being too British, or,
if it was celebrated, was more of a rowdy celebration
than a family celebration. Many historians credit the change in
American Christmas traditions to five installments of The Sketch Book
(01:05):
of Jeffrey Cran by author Washington Irving that were published
in January of eighteen twenty. The sketchbook followed the fictional
Jeffrey Cran as he celebrated Christmas traditions in an English
manor House, and those traditions were actually not based on
any real celebration. They were largely fabricated by Washington Irving,
but they conjured up that idea of a holiday sped
(01:26):
with family, with goodwill towards all that became the American
Christmas tradition. And as we celebrate those traditions, we should
be mindful of those who, for whatever reason, are unable
to be near their family during the holiday season, especially
those who's service keeps him far from hearth and home.
(01:47):
Christmas seventeen seventy six five was busy for George Washington
and the Continental Army. At four pmong Christmas Day, the
Army turned out for their evening parade. They were issued
ammunition untild that they were departing on a secret mission.
At six pm, they started crossing the Delaware River, a
feat that the man in charge of the crossing, Chief
of Artillery, Henry Knox, described as having occurred with almost
(02:08):
infinite difficulty, due largely to the presence of large chunks
of ice floating in the water. Nonetheless owing largely to
the expertise of the men of the fourteenth Continental Regiment
known as the Marblehead Regiment, since it was composed of
mostly seafaring men of the area around Marblehead, Massachusetts. The
army managed to cross without the loss of a single man.
The following day, in a short, sharp action, Washington and
(02:31):
some twenty four hundred troops managed to largely surprise and
entrap fifteen hundred Hessian troops under the command of Colonel
Johann Rahl in the town of Trenton, New Jersey. Twenty
two Hessians were killed, including Colonel Rawl, and nearly a
thousand captured, along with significant amount of food and ammunition.
The victory, although small in the scope of the war,
came at a critical moment for Washington in the army,
(02:52):
perhaps literally rescuing the American Revolution from collapse. While has
been commonly said that the German troops were drunk from
a Christmas celebration, contempt reports to deny that legend. You
can't help but feel for these Hessian trips, captured and
nearly freezing to death on the trip back across the
river so far from their homes. The day after Christmas.
The Continental Army faced the same challenges as any army
(03:14):
away from home, far from family, and one illustration of
that was a little remembered event that occurred at Fort
Taekwonderoga in New York on Christmas Day seventeen seventy six.
Fort Ticonderoga, at the south end of New York's Late Champlain,
had originally been built by the French in seventeen fifty
seven and fifty eight During the Seven Years War. It
(03:34):
was captured by the British in the seventeen to fifty
nine Battle of Taikonderoga, in which the fortifications were largely destroyed,
and then occupied by the British with a small force
which used the fort as to supply and communication point
between Canada and New York. By seventeen seventy six, the
fort had fallen into disrepair and was defended by a
token force of just fifty men. Just a month after
(03:54):
the first shots of the American Revolution at the Battles
of Lexington and Concord, colonial militia under Ethan Out and
Benedict Arnold surprised the tiny garrison of the fort, capturing it.
Although it was only a small action, it was significant
in that it disrupted communication between British and the colonies
in British Canada and resulted in the capture of a
significant amount of artillery, which the American rebels had great need.
(04:16):
Using Fort Ticonderoga as the jumping off point. The Americans
had attempted to invade Quebec in seventeen seventy six, an
invasion that ended in failure, but the fighting season had
ended before the British could attempt assault on the fort.
Christmas seventeen seventy six had American troops stationed at the
fort and around Lake Champlain, preparing for the anticipated invasion
of the area by the British in seventeen seventy seven.
(04:39):
Regiments from around the colonies were stationed in the area.
The colonies were a diverse laws and there were quite
a lot of cultural differences and animosities in this case
between New Englanders and troops from the South. Discipline can
be a challenge for any army, especially in remote outposts,
and perhaps more so in the Continental Army, which suffered
from divided commands. Late on Christmas Day seventeen seventy six,
(05:00):
in a fight not with the British but between Americans,
a regiment from Pennsylvania attacked a regiment from Massachusetts, dragging
their officers from their tents, assaulting them and robbing them.
Details are sketchy, as the events of the disturbance were,
if not covered up, at least kept quiet. The fight
may have been the result of secular tensions, class tensions,
and the enemies of troop morale everywhere, boredom and too
(05:22):
much drink. While no one appears to have been killed
in the fracas, there were injuries and at least a
few musket shots fired. A court martial failed to find convictions,
and the event was swept under the rug, with the
official log at Tykonderruga that day left completely blank. Historians
have only recently been able to piece together the event
from period letters and records from the court martial. It
(05:43):
is easy to see why the army was not keen
to publicize the event, as such interesting fighting could have
ended the revolution before it started.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
And you've been listening to the history guy telling the
stories of American soldiers at war or overseas, and time
that many of us are home around a Christmas tree,
around a fireplace, celebrating the holiday season, celebrating sacred time
like Christmas time, and my goodness, what Americans were doing,
(06:13):
at least American soldiers were doing around Christmas time is
as far from hearth and home as you can get.
Washington had retreated and escaped from New York, and he
needed a victory.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
And he and his men, well, they.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Found themselves in Trenton, having crossed the Delaware. And folks
crossing the Delaware in winter going into New Jersey try
it sometime the river was filled with ice. This was
not a good time. What a big victory for America.
It changed, the tide of the war changed, morale changed,
recruiting changed everything.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
More.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Stories about US military history, particularly around the holiday season
around Christmas time, continue here with the History Guy on
our American Stories.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Here are to our American Stories.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
We bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith,
and love. Stories from a great and beautiful country that
need to be told. But we can't do it without you.
Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not
free to make. If you love our stories in America
like we do, please go to our American Stories dot
com and click the donate button. Give a little, give
(07:53):
a lot, help us keep the great American stories coming.
That's our American Stories dot Com. And we continue with
our American Stories and with the History Guy remembering forgotten
(08:14):
stories from US military history as they relate to the holidays.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
If the Christmas of seventeen seventy six had brought Washington
victory at Trenton, Christmas seventeen seventy seven was perhaps the
low point for Washington and his army in their winter
quarters at Valley Forge in Pennsylvania. While the Americans had
won a great victory over General John Burgoyne in the
Sarataga Campaign, to the north, the British had captured the
then American capital of Philadelphia, and Washington had been unable
(08:40):
to recapture it. When his army went into winter camp,
they were facing a critical shortage of supplies. The legend
is that the winner of seventeen seventy seven was exceptionally harsh,
but that was not actually the case. The deprivations faced
by the twelve thousand men of the Continental Army in
seventeen seventy seven were caused by neglect, as local counties
failed to provide for their own militias and the Continental
Congress seemed unwilling or unable to provide for adequate supply.
(09:04):
Many soldiers were without shoes. The Marquis de Lafayette described
them the unfortunate soldiers were in want of everything they
had neither coats, hats, shirts, nor shoes. Their feet and
legs froze till they become almost black, and it was
often necessary to amputate them. Washington had hoped for a
brilliant winter action to rescue morale and support, as he
had done at Trenton in seventeen seventy five, but was
(09:26):
told by his officers that his army was frankly unfit
for attack. He considered threatening resignation in order to force
Congress to act, even as other officers conspired against his
leadership within the Continental Congress. A blizzard hit on December
twenty third and continued through Christmas. Was a dismal holiday.
Trips were fed a spartan meal of burnt mutton and
watered grog. That night, a soldier from Connecticut's seventh Regiment,
(09:50):
a free black man whose name was only recorded as Jathrow,
was found frozen to death in his tent. It was
the first recorded death on the rolls at Valley Forge.
Some saw the time as an existential crisis for the
army and the revolution, which seemed to be on the
verge of collapse. Washould reportedly asked a young lieutenant that
Christmas day. Have you not suffered enough? The officer responded,
(10:14):
having come this far, we can let go the rest
of the distance with you to lead us. We can't
lose outside his commandant. That night, Washton made a bleak
holiday speech, May God relieve your sufferings if the Congress
will not, and a good Christmas to you. But it
was that winter and the coming spring when the Continental
(10:35):
Army was reorganized and seemed to coalesce in the face
of adversity. From the bleak Christmas came what many see
as the turning point in the conflict. By the time
that America was again fighting the British in the War
of eighteen twelve, Christmas had largely fallen out of vogue
in America, but the practice was viewed with this Dane
as being both too British and too Catholic. On Christmas
(10:56):
Day eighteen o six, a riot had occurred in New
York City between Nativists and Irish immigrants over the celebration
of Christmas, one of many such disturbances in New York
City of the era. British troops in North America noted
with surprise the indifference to the holiday among Americans and
French Canadians, but there was a great Christmas celebration that
occurred as part of that war.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
It was on.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Christmas Eve eighteen fourteen that negotiators and the neutral city
of Ghent in the United Netherlands concluded their negotiations and
signed and affixed their seals to the treaty ending the war.
The treaty essentially returned to the status quo before the war,
demonstrating perhaps the futility of the entire conflict. But the
defeat of Napoleon in eighteen fourteen had ended the issues
of restricting trade with France and the need for the
(11:39):
British Navy to press sailors, which had been the sticking
points of the war. Both sides simply wanted peace. That
agreement came too late to inform either army before the
January eighth Battle of New Orleans, and was not official
until ratified by Congress the following February. But when the
British and American representatives set down to a Christmas dinner
of beef and plum pudding and ranked ti hosts to
(12:00):
the health of King George and President Madison, they had
a legitimate cause for celebration, as the treaty initiated what
has become more than two centuries of peaceful relations between
the United States and Britain. But American Christmas traditions were
still developing, and that was well illustrated, and they nearly
forgotten eighteen twenty six eggnog riot. In eighteen twenty six,
(12:27):
in order to help quell would have become an unruly reputation,
US Military Academy Superintendent Colonel Silvanis Theayer had prohibited the purchase, storage,
or consumption of alcohol on campus, meaning that cadets could
not enjoy what had previously been the Academy's holiday tradition,
drinking highly spiked eggnog at Christmas. In violation of this rule,
cadets stuck in two gallons of whiskey and a gallon
(12:48):
of rom for a clandestine party to be held in
the North Barracks. Drunken cadets then got out of control
of doing property damage and harassing and assaulting Captain Ethan
Allen Hancock, a faculty member who tried to restore order.
In the end, nearly a third of the cadets at
the Academy were involved. Twenty cadets were court martialed and
eleven were expelled. Among those implicated but not charged was
(13:09):
Cadet Jefferson Davis, who had later become President of the
Confederacy during the US Civil War. Reportedly, he was saved because,
being among the first to get drunk, he had passed
out before most of the rioting began. Had he been expelled,
preventing his military career upon which his future was derived,
history may have been different. Christmas was at dismal affair
(13:34):
for American troops in the art In Forest in nineteen
forty four. Germany had mounted a significant counterattack on an
area that Allied planners had thought too inhospitable to vehicles
to be a point of attack. The area was lightly
defended by mostly either inexperienced troops or those that were
being given arrest. The front was thrown into chaos when
some two hundred thousand Germans with a thousand tanks started
(13:54):
one of the last major German offensives of the Second
World War, launching on December sixteenth. The apex of the
battle was the siege of the important town of Bastone, Belgium,
which held crossroads critical to the German line of attack.
A mixed four, centered around the US hundred and first
Airborne Division, was encircled and spent Christmas in the midst
of one of the fiercest battles of the Western Front.
(14:15):
While church services were held in the town, Christmas was
a makeshift affair. One soldier, so disabled by bronchitis, ployers
and pneumonia, had to littlely crawl into town as his
unit could not spare men to carry him. He said
that the closest he came to Christmas dinner was seeing
the turkey leg the doctor was eating as he examined him.
Other troops had called being offered hospitality by Belgian civilians,
(14:37):
but one story of that Christmas sticks out, as related
by Fritz Vincoln, who was twelve years old to the
Christmas of nineteen forty four. He and his family lived
on the German Belgium border, and his father had sent
he and his mother to a small hunting cabin in
the ard In forest, thinking he would keep them safe.
His father had been called into the Civil Defense Corps,
but he had hoped to come to the cabin to
celebrate Christmas. When Fritz heard ano at the door on
(15:00):
Christmas Eve, he hoped it was his father, but instead
it was three American soldiers, one of whom was wounded.
They did not speak German, but one of them spoke
some French, and they were able to communicate enough with
Fritz's mother, Elizabeth to say that they had lost their unit,
had been wandering the force for days, and were out
of food. Knowing that helping the enemy could be punishable
by death, she let them inside. She had a chicken
(15:23):
and some potatoes with which to make Christmas dinner. Shortly thereafter,
there was another knock on the door. When Elizabeth answered,
she found four German soldiers. Knowing the volatility of the situation,
she told them they could come in only if they
accepted her other guests. They were apprehensive when they saw
the Americans, but she told them this is a holy
night and there will be no shooting here. The soldiers
(15:46):
all gave up their weapons, and that Christmas, Fritz, Elizabeth,
and seven soldiers ate a meal of chicken, soup and potatoes,
and slept in the small cabin. One of the Germans
spoke English and had been a medical student. He gave
the wounded Americans first aid, and in the morning gave
the Americans directions back to their lines. It was a
brief moment of peace in the midst of war. Fritz
(16:08):
eventually immigrated to the United States, and in nineteen ninety
five his story was featured on the television program Unsolved Mysteries,
and astoundingly, that episode led him to Ralph Blank, one
of the soldiers who had spent that Christmas with him.
The two were reunited in nineteen ninety six over a
bowl of chicken soup where they could reminisce about that
(16:29):
extraordinary night. Ralph passed away in nineteen ninety nine and
Fritz died in two thousand and one. From everyone here
at The History Guy, we wish all of our viewers,
and especially those whose service keeps him away from home
on this holiday, a very merry Christmas.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
And a special thanks to Greg Hangler for his work
on the piece and his special thanks also to the
History Guy for all he does with us. And if
you're interested in seeing what he does viewing it, my goodness,
go to the YouTube channel.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
The History Guy.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
History deserves to be remembered an excellent place to spend
time with you and your family. And by the way,
some of these stories, they're just hard to listen to.
That Valley Forge story, everybody thinking it was such a
terrific winter, and of course it's no duckwalk winter at
Valley Forge.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
But it was total negligence.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
The Congress just wasn't appropriating funds for our soldiers. And
yet our soldiers while they marched on and lived through
it and won epic victories after. And my goodness, the
story of Art the Arden Forest and what happened in
bus Stone and watch Band of Brothers, and you can,
well you can relive it for yourself.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
What a Christmas it was for the one hundred and first.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
The story of our soldiers abroad and at war, and
some fairly amusing ones about our soldiers here, and of
course that's the Eggnog Riot of eighteen twenty six.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Here on our American story
Host
Lee Habeeb
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