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Since the holidays are upon us, and we are also still in the midst of commemorating the Sesquicentennial of the U.S. Civil War, we thought it might be interesting to explore what the soldiers ate during that war and how they celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday.
George Washington had signed a Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789 recommending November 26th of that year be a “day of public thanksgiving and prayer.” (The Library of Congress has a copy of this proclamation). At the time of the Civil War, some states did celebrate Thanksgiving on a day decided by the governor—usually in October or November after the crops had been harvested and the bounty preserved. From 1837-1877, Sarah Buell Hale, editor of the country’s most popular magazine Godey’s Lady’s Book, promoted Thanksgiving through the pages of her magazine. She printed recipes for creating the perfect dinner of turkey, oysters, potatoes, macaroni, chicken pot pie, cranberries, and pie. She also lobbied every president from Zachary Taylor to Abraham Lincoln to proclaim Thanksgiving as a national holiday. On October 3, 1863, in the midst of the war, President Lincoln issued a Proclamation of Thanksgiving, setting aside the last Thursday in November “as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise.”
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