Thanksgiving at Camp and in Prison

Thursday, November 21, 1861

At Camp Benton, the regiment celebrated the Thanksgiving feast with a dinner of roast turkey and plum pudding. The officers shared bottles of whiskey with the enlisted men.

Meanwhile, at Ligon Factory, Adjutant Charles Peirson shared a meal with other Massachusetts officers. A dinner was sent to the Henrico County Jail for the seven officers held as hostages. ¹

References:
¹Robert Garth Scott, editor, Fallen Leaves: The Civil War Letters of Major Henry Livermore Abbott (Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 1991), 79; Charles Lawrence Peirson, "Memorandum of the Battle of Leesburg," Association of Officers of the Twentieth Massachusetts Regiment, Reports, Letters and Papers Appertaining to Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, vol. 1, p. 120, Twentieth Massachusetts Special Collection, Boston Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts.