Christmas in the American Civil War the Union blockade, and one little girl, Sallie Brock Putnam, plotted the course Santa Claus would have to take to avoid it. Sometimes fathers on both sides were allowed furlough, and children were said to react to their fathers as if seeing "near strangers". Excuses for a lack of Santa included Yankees having shot him. Thomas Nast, who used his editorial cartoons to issue Union propaganda, made several illustrations reflecting the war. The one for Christmas Eve 1862, which ran in the January 1863 issue of Harper's Weekly shows a wife on one side praying though a window in one
Clay Bennett (cartoonist) National Journalism Award, the National Cartoonist Society Award for Editorial Cartoons, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the John Fischetti Award, the National Headliner Award, the Thomas Nast Award from the Overseas Press Club, the Berryman Award from the National Press Foundation, and the Ranan Lurie/United Nations Political Cartoon Award. On May 26, 2018, he was awarded the 2017 Divisional Award for Editorial Cartoons by the National Cartoonists Society. A past president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, Bennett lives in Chattanooga with his wife, artist Cindy Procious. His work is syndicated internationally by The Washington Post Writers Group.