He was 19 years old when he went to war. Later in his life, while I was growing up, he was a Sunday School teacher for 12-year-old boys in our church. Dad’s favorite Christmas hymn was, “I Heard the ...

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day' Made immortal by recordings from ... Longfellow, an ardent New England abolitionist and pacifist during the Civil War whose entire family supported the Union ...

as he wrote the words to a poem that has become known as “I heard the bells on Christmas Day.” It was 1863. The Civil War was raging. Longfellow had lost his wife in a fiery accident and his ...