The meal was followed by songs (including “Auld Lang Syne”), speeches, toasts to President Lincoln and the troops, games, and a dance. After we had all eaten a little too much, people usualy do on Thanksgiving days and we who had lived so long on hard tack did our best we had a fine sing. In his letters home in November of that year, written from New Bern, N.C., he described his first Thanksgiving as a soldier, the elaborate preparations, the decorations, and especially the food:įirst we had oysters then turkey and chicken pie then plum pudding then apple raisin & coffee with plenty of good soft bread & butter. had been just 20 years old when he enlisted in August 1862. Many of the men were very young and away from home for the first time. The life of a Civil War soldier was difficult even at the best of times, but holidays were particularly poignant.
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