A more personal comment about Thanksgiving comes from Abner Small of Gardiner, a soldier in the 16th Maine Volunteers during the Civil War.
He writes, before Thanksgiving, to his friends in Waterville:
"You are cordially invited to take a thanksgiving dinner with the 'subscriber' who would be most happy to help you to some choice bite of horse meat and condiments raised on the sacred soil of old Virginia."
Clearly, home and a more sumptuous Thanksgiving dinner were on Small's mind.
