Another Civil War soldier, John Dillingham of Freeport, in an 1862 letter to his mother, described his Thanksgiving dinner, which sounded no more appealing to him than Small's did.
Dillingham wrote:
"I forgot to tell you what we had for thanksgivin dinner first we had hard bread and water then come the desert you had ought to have seen that desert shall I tell you what it was? well I will it was hard bread we had something else about three o clock but we stole it that was hard bread to."
Other meals probably were similar, but the fact that Dillingham mentions Thanksgiving and his lack of interesting food suggests the importance he placed in the holiday.
