‘Sing aloud unto God our Strength.’”
The proclamation proposes to “give thanks for the privilege of living unselfishly, and dying nobly in a great and righteous cause.”
These state proclamations came, heartening and sustaining a people sorely in need.
E’s Journal.
November 28, Thanksgiving.
We have kept the day with J. in camp. He commissioned us to ask Mrs. Franklin to meet the General, unbeknown to him. So we sent the carriage for her by half-past eight, and started a little after nine, hoping to reach camp in time for service with the regiment. The roads were very bad, however, and we were too late. We stopped at the Brigade Hospital on the way, to leave oysters, jelly, oranges, etc., keeping some for the regimental “sick in quarters.” Our camp looked very neat and comfortable, tents all raised three or four feet on logs and clay, and nearly every one with a fire-place or stove. J. had arranged everything nicely for us, and his little fire and General Slocum’s were running races. General Franklin soon arrived, and we all sat round the firesides till dinner time. The dining-room was the Sibley tent, charmingly ornamented with evergreens, and the dinner was a great victory in its way; for out of the little tent-kitchen appeared successively, oyster soup, roast turkey, cranberry sauce, canvas-back ducks, vegetables, and a genuine and delicious plum pudding that would do justice to any New England housekeeper. Cake, pies and ice cream were also among the good things. The whole day was delightful, ending with a visit to General Franklin’s camp and the return to town with outriders.
