December 19, 2025 • 17 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Christmas has a way of slipping into the cracks of history, even in years when war tried to swallow the season whole. The History Guy pulls together the overlooked moments when Christmas and military history collided in unexpected ways.
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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? Were 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 for 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
Takonderoga in New York on Christmas Day seventeen seventy six.
Fort Taekonderoga, 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 Allen 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 tykonder Ruga 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.
(05:42):
It 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 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, at
(06:13):
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. And he and his men, well, they found
themselves in Trenton, having crossed the Delaware. And folks crossing
the Delaware in winter going into New Jersey try it sometime.
(06:36):
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.
More 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 (07:08):
Stop stop, stop stop stop.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Lee h Habib here and I'm inviting you to help
our American Stories celebrate this country's two hundred and fiftieth
birthday coming soon. If you want to help inspire countless
others to love America like we do, and want to
help us bring the inspiring and important stories told here
about a good and beautiful country, please consider making a
tax deductible donation to our American Stories. Go to our
(07:51):
American Stories dot com and click the donate button. Any
amount helps. Go to Ouramerican Stories dot com and give,
and we continue with our American stories and with the
(08:12):
History Guy remembering forgotten stories from US military history as
they relate to the holidays.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
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 then
American capital of Philadelphia, and Washington had been unable to
(08:40):
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 told
(09:27):
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. Tips were fed
a spartan meal of burnt mutton and watered grog. That night,
(09:48):
a soldier from Connecticut's seventh Regiment, a freed black man
whose name was only recorded as Jethrow, 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. Was
should reportedly asked a young lieutenant that Christmas day, have
(10:10):
you not suffered enough? The officer responded, 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, Washington 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
(10:34):
the coming spring when the Continental 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 Day eighteen o six,
(10:57):
a riot had occurred in New York City between natives
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. It was on Christmas Eve eighteen fourteen that
(11:19):
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 British Navy to
(11:40):
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
sat down to a Christmas dinner of beef and plum
pudding and drank toast to the health of King George
(12:01):
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
(12:22):
riot in eighteen twenty six, in order to help quell
would have become an unruly reputation. US Military Academy Superintendent
Colonel Sylvania's 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
(12:42):
spiked eggnog at Christmas. In violation of this rule, cadets
stuck in two gallons of whiskey and a gallon of
rom for a clandestine party to be held in the
North Barracks. Drunken cadets then got out of control, 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.
(13:04):
Twenty cadets were court martialed and eleven were expelled. Among
those implicated but not charged was 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
(13:27):
have been different. Christmas was at dismal affair 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.
(13:49):
The front was thrown into chaos when some two hundred
thousand Germans with a thousand tanks started 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 Airborn Division
(14:10):
was encircled and spent Christmas in the midst of one
of the fiercest battles of the Western Front. While church
services were held in the town, Christmas was a makeshift affair.
One soldier, so disabled by bronchitis, plurisy 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
(14:30):
the doctor was eating as he examined him. Other troops
were called being offered hospitality by Belgian civilians, but one
story of that Christmas sticks out, as related by Fritz Vincoln,
who was twelve years old 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
(14:51):
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
another at the door on 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
(15:13):
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 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
(15:35):
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 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
(15:57):
English and had been a medical student. He gave the
wounded America and 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
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
(16:20):
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
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
(16:42):
on this holiday, a very merry.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Christmas and a special thanks to Greg Hangler for his
work on the piece, and a 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 the History Guy.
History deserves to be remembered an excellent place to spend
time with you and your family. And by the way,
(17:05):
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, but it was total negligence. The Congress just
wasn't appropriating funds for our soldiers. And yet our soldiers
while they marched on and lived through it and won
(17:26):
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. What a Christmas it was for
the one hundred and first 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
(17:50):
of eighteen twenty six. Here on our American story
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the Star? Were 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 for 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
Takonderoga in New York on Christmas Day seventeen seventy six.
Fort Taekonderoga, 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 Allen 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 tykonder Ruga 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.
(05:42):
It 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 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, at
(06:13):
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. And he and his men, well, they found
themselves in Trenton, having crossed the Delaware. And folks crossing
the Delaware in winter going into New Jersey try it sometime.
(06:36):
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.
More 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 (07:08):
Stop stop, stop stop stop.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Lee h Habib here and I'm inviting you to help
our American Stories celebrate this country's two hundred and fiftieth
birthday coming soon. If you want to help inspire countless
others to love America like we do, and want to
help us bring the inspiring and important stories told here
about a good and beautiful country, please consider making a
tax deductible donation to our American Stories. Go to our
(07:51):
American Stories dot com and click the donate button. Any
amount helps. Go to Ouramerican Stories dot com and give,
and we continue with our American stories and with the
(08:12):
History Guy remembering forgotten stories from US military history as
they relate to the holidays.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
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 then
American capital of Philadelphia, and Washington had been unable to
(08:40):
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 told
(09:27):
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. Tips were fed
a spartan meal of burnt mutton and watered grog. That night,
(09:48):
a soldier from Connecticut's seventh Regiment, a freed black man
whose name was only recorded as Jethrow, 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. Was
should reportedly asked a young lieutenant that Christmas day, have
(10:10):
you not suffered enough? The officer responded, 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, Washington 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
(10:34):
the coming spring when the Continental 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 Day eighteen o six,
(10:57):
a riot had occurred in New York City between natives
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. It was on Christmas Eve eighteen fourteen that
(11:19):
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 British Navy to
(11:40):
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
sat down to a Christmas dinner of beef and plum
pudding and drank toast to the health of King George
(12:01):
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
(12:22):
riot in eighteen twenty six, in order to help quell
would have become an unruly reputation. US Military Academy Superintendent
Colonel Sylvania's 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
(12:42):
spiked eggnog at Christmas. In violation of this rule, cadets
stuck in two gallons of whiskey and a gallon of
rom for a clandestine party to be held in the
North Barracks. Drunken cadets then got out of control, 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.
(13:04):
Twenty cadets were court martialed and eleven were expelled. Among
those implicated but not charged was 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
(13:27):
have been different. Christmas was at dismal affair 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.
(13:49):
The front was thrown into chaos when some two hundred
thousand Germans with a thousand tanks started 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 Airborn Division
(14:10):
was encircled and spent Christmas in the midst of one
of the fiercest battles of the Western Front. While church
services were held in the town, Christmas was a makeshift affair.
One soldier, so disabled by bronchitis, plurisy 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
(14:30):
the doctor was eating as he examined him. Other troops
were called being offered hospitality by Belgian civilians, but one
story of that Christmas sticks out, as related by Fritz Vincoln,
who was twelve years old 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
(14:51):
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
another at the door on 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
(15:13):
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 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
(15:35):
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 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
(15:57):
English and had been a medical student. He gave the
wounded America and 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
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
(16:20):
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
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
(16:42):
on this holiday, a very merry.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Christmas and a special thanks to Greg Hangler for his
work on the piece, and a 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 the History Guy.
History deserves to be remembered an excellent place to spend
time with you and your family. And by the way,
(17:05):
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, but it was total negligence. The Congress just
wasn't appropriating funds for our soldiers. And yet our soldiers
while they marched on and lived through it and won
(17:26):
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. What a Christmas it was for
the one hundred and first 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
(17:50):
of eighteen twenty six. Here on our American story
Host
Lee Habeeb
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