Thanksgiving During War

Thanksgiving During War
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

Military dining facilities go all out to give service members a taste of home on Thanksgiving Day. It hasn't always been that way.

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln a Thanksgiving proclamation following the Union victory over the Confederates at Gettysburg, Pa.

The idea of a Thanksgiving meal for Union soldiers didn't happen in 1863. But in 1864, with Union forces occupying trenches around Petersburg, Va., the idea came to many on the homefront to give the "boys in blue" a Thanksgiving feast.

"It wasn't an organized effort," said James H. Blankenship, a historian at the Petersburg National Battlefield. "The units all came from the same geographic location, and the people back home decided to send special foods to the soldiers for Thanksgiving."

The Army did not go out and order special Thanksgiving food, but did allow the localities to ship food using the Army supply lines. Folks back home sent down barrels of turkeys, sauces and fixings. "It was traditional holiday fare," Blankenship said. "If they couldn't get turkeys, they sent ham or beef."

The food came to City Point, Va., on the James River via "ice packets" -- an early example of refrigerated transit. With the food from home and Army rations, which included canned foods and dried vegetables, the soldiers made a good meal during the holiday.

Union soldiers regarded oysters as a delicacy. "There was an oyster house at City Point that many soldiers frequented," Blankenship said. "Oysters were probably a big part of the Thanksgiving feast."

The troops along the Mississippi River also received Thanksgiving food, but other Union soldiers did not fare quite as well. The Union Army of the Cumberland was sparring with the Confederate Army of Tennessee and would do battle with them at the Battle of Franklin, Tenn., on Nov. 30.

The Union Army of the Tennessee was on its march to the sea. Every day was a feast for them as they were stripping the Georgia countryside.

Sailors enforcing the blockade of Southern ports received special foods from home, but it was a hit-or-miss proposition if the food arrived on time.

But whether they feasted or fasted, Union service members could still follow part of Lincoln's proclamation. "I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens," Lincoln wrote.

"And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union."

Full text of President Lincoln's proclamation:

By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

According to an April 1, 1864 letter from John Nicolay, one of President Lincoln's secretaries, this document was written by Secretary of State William Seward, and the original was in his handwriting. On October 3, 1863, fellow Cabinet member Gideon Welles recorded in his diary that he complimented Seward on his work. A year later the manuscript was sold to benefit Union troops.

George Washington, by request of Congress, had issued a similar proclamation in 1789 ("WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houfes of Congress have, by their joint committee, requefted me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to eftablifh a form of government for their safety and happiness:") - but his was a one-time good deal, it was Lincoln's that established the annual tradition.