Peace on earth, good-will to men

The year was 1863. The American Civil War had been going for two years and would last two more before its end.

The man was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Two years earlier he had lost his wife of 18 years in a tragic fire, leaving him a widower with six children. His eldest son had left home to join the army and recently returned after being shot and narrowly escaping paralysis. The country is torn by war. Things did not look promising for Longfellow or his country.

On Christmas day he penned the poem ‘I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day’ which would later be the text for a carol of the same name....