I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

Near Christmas, 1861, as the Civil War raged through its first year, author Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was napping in his study in Cambridge, MA. His wife Fannie was playing with the second of their three young daughters, Edith, when she decided to snip a lock of curly hair from one daughter and preserve it in wax.

Somehow, in melting the wax with a candle, Fannie's dress caught on fire. She immediately dropped the child and ran into the study. Henry tried to extinguish the flames with a small rug, then used his own body to smother the fire. He succeeded only in prolonging her life a short while – time spent in agony. Henry, recovering from his own burns to the face, arms, and hands, had to miss her funeral. The burns scarred his face so badly, he had to grow a beard to cover the disfigurement, and because shaving became painful.

Henry sank into what some would, in his day, call “melancholy” – today we might call “depression.” Christmas of 1861, he wrote in his diary, “How inexpressibly sad are all holidays. I can make no record of these days. Better leave them wrapped in silence. Perhaps someday God will give me peace.” The diary entry of Christmas, 1862 reads, “’A merry Christmas’ say the children, but that is no more for me.”

In March of 1863, his oldest son Charles, age 18, left home against his fathers’ wishes to join the Union Army. He joined the First Massachusetts Calvary, Company ‘G’, as an artilleryman. He quickly won the respect of his superiors and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant.

Charles participated in the Battle of Chancellorsville (May), and was too ill to participate in Gettysburg (July), having Typhoid Fever. He rejoined his unit on August 15, 1863.

On November 27th, 1863, Charles was severely wounded during the Battle of New Hope Church, in Orange County, VA, during the Mine Run Campaign. He was shot through the left shoulder, with the bullet exiting under his right shoulder blade, hitting his spine along the way. Doctors gave him a bleak prognosis.

Henry and his other son, Ernest, came to Washington, DC, to retrieve Charles and bring him home to Massachusetts. Charles stubbornly refused to die and, by Christmas, things were looking better for Charles. He eventually recovered and lived a long, full life.

Christmas Day, 1863, Henry heard the bells of the churches and heard carolers singing “Peace on Earth.” The fog of melancholy began to lift from him, and he penned the words to a poem he called “Christmas Bells.” There are a couple of verses in here directly related to the Civil War which round out what he was trying to communicate to his readers.
 

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
and wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men


http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/Fellowship/Edit_I.Heard.the.Bells.html

http://civilwartalk.com/threads/the-true-story-of-pain-and-hope-behind-i-heard-the-bells-on-christmas-day.129288/