Stories of the suffering, and attempts to celebrate Christmas among soldiers at the front during war, including the 1914 “Christmas truce,” remind us of the blessings of Christmas even in the worst of times. But one Christmas stands out for sheer desperation.
In August of 1918, as the armies of Europe neared exhaustion, American troops of the 28th “Keystone” division were thrown into a nearly forgotten battle that fully represented the horrors of the War to End All Wars.
Of the vaunted ironclad warships of the US Civil War perhaps the mightiest and most terrifying was the confederate ram Tennessee. On August 5, 1864, she would be put to the test in the largest naval engagement of the war, an engagement that defined the divided loyalties of the War of the Rebellion.