"Confederate Christmas" by Dan Nance
I Hope All of You Have a Merry [confederate] Christmas!
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"In this stunning and well-researched book, Kevin Levin catches the new waves of the study of memory, black soldiers, and the darker underside of the Civil War as well as anyone has... Levin is both superb scholar and public historian, showing us a piece of the real war that does now get into the books, as well as into site interpretation."
David Blight, Author of Race and Reunion
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{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }
Don’t y’all know… Santa comes from the SOUTH Pole and all that NORTH Pole garbage is because of long-legged Yankee lies in our education system. True revisionist history to warm our hearts in the holiday season.
Dec. 24, 1863: Santa Claus surrenders to Nathan Bedford Forrest after a particularly sharp night action in western Tennessee. Tomorrow the men of Forrest’s Escort will feast on reindeer.
We won’t talk about what happened to the rest of the elves, who were attempting to surrender…
Yeah right, elves.
“Swords? Guns? Bugles? I asked you for full rations for my men as well as new horses to replace the ones that we’ve ridden nearly to death. Private Jenkins letter to you explicitly asked for new socks for the whole command. And you bring us guns? Jefferson Davis, take off that beard.”
The secular assault against Christmas and all things Southern continues. So sad.
Say what you like about the historical inaccuracies, but many people will buy this print and put it in their homes.
I don’t doubt it for a second. By the way, what exactly is historically inaccurate?
“… what exactly is historically inaccurate?”
Forrest took no prisoners.
NDF in an immaculate uniform?
Mr. Levin, I understand the joke but here it goes:
One, where are they? I admit to having spent a handful of winters in the South, but that snow-covered landscape looks more like Vermont than Virginia. Maybe parts of northwestern Virginia, East Tennessee or western North Carolina could look like that but seeing uniformed Confederate soldiers there would have been rare.
Second, it uses the modern representation of Santa Claus rather than the one more common to the 1860s.
Third, unless Santa raided a department store in a northern city beforehand, those goods would have been in short supply in the Confederacy. But it is Christmas.
I appreciate the comments, but you are taking this way too seriously. It’s simply a ridiculous print that we are having some fun with today.
My point exactly: neo-Confederates pride themselves on being historically ‘accurate’ yet pay good money for things that clearly break that rule. Caveat emptor, as always.
The only real Christmas gift of the Civil War was the city of Savannah, given by Sherman to President Lincoln in December 1864.
I’ve lived in (northern) Virginia for over 20 years and I have seen snow like that here. However, it doesn’t last very long. A few days of sun and temperatures in the 40s and it’ll be dirty slush and mud…
But at any rate, I’m sure Forrest would appreciate a “white” Christmas…
Is Santa giving the sword to NBF or is NBF conscripting Santa into Confederate service? From what I understand is that there were between 50,000 and 100,000 Santas in Confederate service that nobody likes to talk about because it does not fit the Liberal/communist/marxist view of the war.
Was this picture made as a joke, or is it actually something the artist is selling? Either way, that’s hilarious.
It’s definitely for sale and it beats Thomas Kinkaide hands down. Eat your heart out, Mort Kunstler.
And what did Santa have for the good little Union soldiers?
Atlanta, Nashville, Mobile, Savanna, Petersburg, Richmond….
Nathan Bedford Forrest returning Abel Straight’s sword.
Actually Forrest is surrendering to Santa. You can see Santa has already got the rest of the men’s arms and equipment in his bag.
That’s what I thought too, ho, ho, ho! Actually, it’s Braxton Bragg in disguise and NBF is about to get a BIG Christmas surprise as soon as Bragg disarms him.
LOL, Thats great.
It just hit me that this print is really sick. Am I really to believe that Santa is handing Forrest a sword to be used to kill people. This dude is really disturbed. Oh well, Merry Christmas. LOL
Wait, you’re just now realizing that this print is sick?
I’m curious to know what happened to Santa’s reindeer. Perhaps they were conscripted into Confederate service!
I guess I didn’t really think about it.
NO! They all volunteered, and over 100,000 magic reindeer served in the Confederate Army, but that fact was hidden by Yankee historians! And Jackson had an honor guard of 2 regiments of elves… Alas, because they were all so short (being elves and all) they never show up in photos….
You forget that CS Lewis has Santa doing the same thing in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe – handing out swords and knives to fight the White Witch.
Kevin, maybe its a particularly saber shaped candy cane.
Actually, this is the Last Meeting of Forrest and Santa. Later, Santa was accidentally shot by his own elves as he was returning to the North Pole.
NBF is a misfit toy…
This guy founded the KKK. Shouldn’t Santa be giving him coal?
Don’t you think we all deserve a little present on Christmas?
A bad inaccurate painting for the unwashed masses.
Merry Christmas to all N.C. reenactors & family & friends.