On Saturday, December 11th, several Civil War re-enactors set up an encampment on the grounds of Hearthside.

 

In general, winter time was a time of military inaction during the Civil War, as the armies of both sides would hunker down in the camp to wait out the winter.

 

Santa Claus was there, wearing a blue suit with stars and stripes on it. 

Santa Claus, as depicted by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly 1863, was quite patriotic, wearing a blue suit with stars and stripes on it. The Harper's Weekly cover with the illustration of Santa Claus visiting the soldiers in a Union camp was designed with the hope that it might raise Union morale and had been ordered by President Lincoln.

 

Nast went on to draw many more Santa Claus illustrations, which became the image of Santa we enjoy today.