Four diary entries from the Civil War document the evolution of holiday experiences of a soldier from Pennsylvania's Coal Region.
Four Christmases – Holiday excerpts from Henry Keiser’s Civil War diary

Four diary entries from the Civil War document the evolution of holiday experiences of a soldier from Pennsylvania's Coal Region.
Sergeant Henry Keiser had escaped serious injury throughout the Civil War. His luck nearly ran out on October 19, 1864.
In May 1927, Henry Keiser described the Coal Region towns where he grew up as they looked in the 1850s.
As the men of the 96th Pennsylvania gathered for training in Pottsville in September 1861, a hurricane battered their makeshift encampment.
Sergeant Henry Keiser's diary reveals a soldier's perspective of the Civil War's dramatic final moments.
Keiser was fighting a potentially deadly illness and evading capture by advancing Confederate soldiers.
A recently revealed photograph sheds light on the Civil War experience of a Pennsylvania soldier.
In their newly constructed winter quarters in Arlington, Virginia, the 96th Pennsylvania celebrates its first Christmas at war in 1861.
Corporal Henry Keiser recorded the horrific events of May 10, 1864 in his Civil War diary.
Henry Keiser kept a diary through his service in the Civil War. Meet the man behind the diary that has appeared in dozens of books about America's bloodiest conflict.