Show Notes
Have you ever been sorry you asked something? Don’t be! PLSJ’s Reference Librarian J.L. finds the answers to questions you thought might not even have an answer.
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Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:08 Welcome to PLS Jay's podcast, where the public library of Steubenville and Jefferson county shares with you. Our favorite quirky questions finds out what leaders in our community are reading interviews at local authors and so much more. This podcast is part of the ask us series where the reference librarian shares answers to some of our favorite questions from the past and provides information on topics you've ponder, but didn't know who to ask. Now you do
Speaker 2 00:00:40 Hello. This is your reference librarian JLS. I'm here with another episode of I'm sorry. I asked in this episode, we're going to be sorry that we asked about the connection between the civil war. Mary had a little lamb and Thanksgiving. So the civil war, we can't mention that collection without highlighting something that isn't new in our library. And that is our civil war collection in our Chapar branch. In the reference department, we have an extensive collection of books on the civil war. These were started by donations from the estates of patrons, but have been supplemented with new books that we've acquired and other donations. They follow a variety of topics from the Confederate Navy to biographies of generals, to accounts of some of the major battles and a lot of other topics, but they all circulate, even though they're housed in the reference department. So if you're interested in the civil war and want something to read, come check out our chapeau branch and check out our civil war collection know among the books in our civil war collections about called hard tack and coffee about camp, life in camp, life in the civil war as for soldiers, oh, there've been a lot of accounts from soldiers and we do indeed have several of them in our collection.
Speaker 2 00:02:21 But one thing that people wonder about is what the soldiers ate. Well, the very mention of heart attack and coffee, it gives you idea of two of the staples for the soldiers were indeed issued coffee. And they were indeed issued. Hardtack hard to hack is a simple flour and water biscuit, which well, the texture you can figure out from the name and was generally, it was better than nothing. Um, soldiers found. They often had to soak it in something like their coffee or water or break it up to make it palatable, which led to another issue is because this stuff was stored and then transported. And before it was issued to the troops and often in warehouses, that may not have been exactly sealed. When you broken up into your coffee, you would often have to skim off the weevils so that it had taken up residence inside the biscuit.
Speaker 2 00:03:26 Nobody ever said that it was easy. Also you had various salt meats, pork among those in camp. If it could get to you, they would often issue the soldiers, fresh meat. If they were lucky, usually in lower quantities than the salt meat, um, dried vegetables, peas were foremost among these. And often there would be a subtler who was a merchant in camp who was authorized to sell to the soldiers and soldiers figured out ways to use all these things together, sometimes pulling their rations together to make it a little more palatable. You know, if you could get your hands on some salt or pepper from the settler, you could make the meal a lot more palatable. One meal that the soldiers did get that was a little bit better. Came on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was for some familiar because it wasn't a federal holiday at the beginning of the war.
Speaker 2 00:04:35 But a lot of states among the Massachusets had been celebrating regular days of Thanksgiving sometimes on a year to year basis where the governor would declare this day is it will be a day of Thanksgiving. And of course, Massachusetts continued to do so because of the Plymouth colony being there. But it wasn't a federal holiday. Like we're familiar. That that was until a woman named Sarah Jo, his safer Hale known as a mother of Thanksgiving, got herself involved. Sarah Josefa Hale lived from 1788 to 1879. And she was a writer. The thing most people today are familiar that she wrote was a nursery rhyme. Mary had a little lamb. Another thing that she wrote were letters. Sarah decided that a day of Thanksgiving should be a federal holiday. And so she wrote to all of the governors of all the states and of course, to the president of the United States.
Speaker 2 00:05:40 Well, eventually one of those letters did get to the president of the United States, a man named Abraham Lincoln. Some say it was in the wake of the battle of Gettysburg, which was a union victory, or maybe Lincoln just decided that the needed something. And so on October 3rd in 1863 Lincoln declared that the last Thursday in November would be a federally mandated day of Thanksgiving. So the soldiers, at least on the union side, of course were given a little bit of extra rations. And we're able to celebrate this new federal holiday, which of course spread to the Confederate states. After the war though, obviously some of the Confederate states, most notably, Texas were reluctant to celebrate what they considered a Yankee holiday, but eventually people got together in this country and decided that, Hey, it's a holiday and there's food. So why not? Now when it comes to the food, that's a little bit different too, because we're not sure exactly what was eaten at that first Thanksgiving in the Plymouth colony, but it probably wasn't Turkey.
Speaker 2 00:07:00 It was probably venison, possibly doc or other things, but there could have been Turkey, Turkey didn't get associated with Thanksgiving until in 1841. A man named Alexander Young wrote a book called Chronicles of the Pilgrim forefathers. And he was, Hey, that first speculated that Turkey could have been on the menu. And that's when Turkey began to be associated with Thanksgiving. So when you sit down and enjoy your Thanksgiving dinner, if you decide that maybe you don't want Turkey and maybe a bike, some venison or doc or whatever, I don't think Sarah, just see if a Hale Abraham Lincoln or Alexandria bind in the leaks. And I hope you're not sorry.
Speaker 1 00:07:53 Have a question. You want the answer to visit the library's website@steubenvillelibrarydotorgoremailthereferencedepartmentatshopperbridgeatseolibraries.org. That's S C H I a PPA, B R a N C [email protected].
