Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1895 — The Day In Richmond. [ARTICLE]

The Day In Richmond.

The following extract from the “Diary of a Refugee,” describing a Christmas in Richmond in 1864, portrays graphically the meager provision for Christmas festivities it was possible to make in the capital of the Confederacy: “Dec. 26, 1864. The sad Christmas has passed away. J. and C. were with us, and very cheerful. We exerted, o.urselves to be so, too. The church services in the morning were sweet and comforting. St. Paul’s was dressed most elaborately and beautifully with evergreens; all looked as usual, but there is much sadness on account of the failure of the .South to keep Sherman back. “When we got home our family circle was small but pleasant. We had aspired to a turkey, but finding the prices range from SSO to SIOO in the'market on Saturday we contented ourselves with roast beef, and the various little dishes which Confederate times made us believe are tolerable substitutes for the viands of better days. “At night I treated our little party to tea and ginger cakes, two very rare indulgences, and but for the sorghum grown in our own fields the cakes would have been an impossible indulgence. Nothing but the fact that Christmas comes but once a year would make such extravagance at all excusable. j*‘Poor fellows, how they enjoy o:ur plain dinners when they come. Two meals a day has become the rule among refugees nnd many citizens from dire necessity. The want of our accustomed tea arid coffee is very much felt by the leaders. The rule with us is only to have tea when sickness makes it necessary. A country lady from one of the few spots ih Virginia where the enemy has never been, ahd where they retain their comforts, asked me gravely why we did not sub? stitute milk soy tea. She could hardly believe me ij-hen I fold her that we had not had milk more than twice in eighteen months, and then it was sent by a country friend. It is now $4 a quart;**