"The great 19th century political cartoonist Thomas Nast is widely credited with having created the look of Santa Claus as we know him today. Inspired by Clement Moore's description of the "jolly old elf" in his 1823 poem A Visit from St. Nicholas, aka The Night Before Christmas, Nast first depicted Santa in the January 3, 1863, issue of Harper's Weekly. On the cover was a scene captioned "Santa Claus in Camp" in which Saint Nick brings toys and good cheer to Union soldiers. It seems that Santa, much like Nast himself who was a staunch Republican and abolitionist, had picked a side in the Civil War, and he wasn't at all subtle about it.
Santa's blue (of course) coat has white stars on it and his pants have red and white stripes, similar to garb donned by other patriotic icons drawn by Nast like Columbia and Uncle Sam. He has delivered parcels to the soldiers. One finds a sock inside, doubtless a welcome gift in the bleak midwinter after the devastating loss at Fredericksburg which saw more than 12,000 of his comrades killed, wounded or taken captive. A drummer boy in the foreground stares with wide-eyed surprise at the jack-in-the-box that leapt out of his present.
But it's the toy Santa is holding that is most remarkable. Here's Harper's explanation of it:
Santa Claus is entertaining the soldiers by showing them Jeff Davis' future. He is tying a cord pretty tightly round his neck, and Jeff seems to be kicking very much at such a fate.
Inside the same issue was a more sentimental approach to enlisting Santa in the Union cause. Nast's two-page cartoon entitled "Christmas Eve" frames two Christmas scenes: a mother looking out the window praying while her two children sleep, and a lonely soldier by a campfire, presumably her husband, looking at a picture of his wife and children. Below them are vignettes of war and fresh graves. Above them Santa Claus brings consolation in the form of presents to the family home and to the front…"
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adds artillery to his soft-plastic Union forces.
