The Washington Evening Star reported that the holiday was "very generally and very properly observed" in Georgetown. The Baltimore Sun noted that the retail stores on both sides of the Potomac were doing brisk business and that despite the war, "it seems all are bent on the full enjoyment of the holiday season, and there is every indication of a merry Christmas among our citizens and in the camps of the soldiers." The day opened with celebratory gunfire and firecrackers, according to Washington diarist Horatio Nelson Taft. To preserve the public peace, saloons in Washington were closed all evening.
In Union camps and hospitals near Georgetown, soldiers decorated their quarters with evergreens and held religious services. The Catholic Church's Christmas services were well attended. Soldiers were relieved from the monotony of drill on this day and feasted on turkeys, chickens and other meats. Many were able to open packages delivered from home.
Less fortunate that Christmas Day were the workmen employed on converting the Aqueduct Bridge, which connected Georgetown to the Virginia shore, into a military roadway. They were yielded to "military necessity" by working on the holiday to lay the bridge's flooring.
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| A 1861 view of Georgetown taken from the Virginia side of the Potomac.. The Aqueduct Bridge, located just north of today's Key Bridge, was being retrofitted with a plank roadway in December 1861 to facilitate military traffic. Georgetown University is in the background up on the hill. The Union soldiers in the foreground are posing on Mason's Island (now known as Roosevelt Island). (Library of Congress) Sources The Baltimore Sun Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, December 24, 1861 (online at Library of Congress) Washington Evening Star, December 26, 1861. |
