This is the true story of pain and hope behind the Christmas carol, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” It was March, 1863, in Cambridge, MA., when unbeknownst to his family, 18-year old Charles Appleton Longfellow, oldest of six children born to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Fannie Appleton, walked out of his house on Brattle Street to join President Lincoln’s Union Army to fight in the Civil War. Less than two years earlier, Charles’ mother died tragically when her dress caught fire. Her husband, Henry, tried desperately to extinguish the flames, but to no avail. She died the following Read More