THANKSGIVING GREETINGS

On behalf of the Texas Division Commander and the Division Command Staff, I wish you and your families a very happy Thanksgiving. As we get ready to celebrate this year, I ask you to ponder the following:

Years of elementary school history lessons taught us that Plymouth, Massachusetts, was the site of the first Thanksgiving in 1621 after the Pilgrims survived their first winter in the New World. This celebration was a harvest celebration to give thanks for a bountiful harvest in preparation for their second winter. Those history lessons, which are still taught to our children today, are simply not true.

True historians know that colonists in Jamestown, Virginia, held thanksgiving services as early as 1607, and the first thanksgiving feast and celebration in 1610. One year and 17 days before those Pilgrims ever stepped foot upon New England soil, on December 4, 1619, a group of 38 English settlers led by Captain John Woodlief landed at Berkeley Hundred, along the James River, 24 miles southwest of present day Richmond. This group’s London Company charter specifically required “that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantation in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God”. Although this was more of a prayer service to give thanks for safe passage to Virginia, and not a big feast or celebration, this was the true first Thanksgiving, and it was held in the Virginia Colony, later to become one of the states of the Confederacy. So, the true first Thanksgiving was held in the South.

During the Thanksgiving season, we often hear that the first national Thanksgiving Proclamation was given by President Abraham Lincoln, in Washington, D.C., on October 3, 1863. In his proclamation, Lincoln announced that the nation would celebrate an official Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, November 26, 1863, and further declared that the last Thursday of every November thereafter would be considered an official U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving. What the history books fail to mention is that Lincoln, bowing to political pressure, copied the President of the Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis had actually made the first national Proclamation of Thanksgiving two years earlier in Richmond, Virginia, and it states:

“WHEREAS, it hath pleased Almighty God, the Sovereign Disposer of events, to protect and defend us hitherto in our conflicts with our enemies as to be unto them a shield.

And whereas, with grateful thanks we recognize His hand and acknowledge that not unto us, but unto Him, belongeth the victory, and in humble dependence upon His almighty strength, and trusting in the justness of our purpose, we appeal to Him that He may set at naught the efforts of our enemies, and humble them to confusion and shame.

Now therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States, in view of impending conflict, do hereby set apart Friday, the 15th of November, as a day of national humiliation and prayer, and do hereby invite the reverend clergy and the people of these Confederate States to repair on that day to their homes and usual places of public worship, and to implore blessing of Almighty God upon our people, that he may give us victory over our enemies, preserve our homes and altars from pollution, and secure to us the restoration of peace and prosperity.

Given under hand and seal of the Confederate States at Richmond, this the 31st day of October, year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty one.

By the President, JEFFERSON DAVIS”

President Davis was not calling for a time of feast like the one held in Plymouth, but a time of prayer and thanksgiving like the one held in Virginia in 1619.

Even though the United States started celebrating an annual Thanksgiving every November in 1863, it was many years after the war before people across the South would start celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday. Since it was modeled after the popularized version of the first Thanksgiving, many Southerners considered it a “Yankee” holiday and refused to celebrate it. Thanksgiving became an official national holiday in 1941 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a decree making the fourth Thursday in November every year a national day of Thanksgiving.

Psalm 100 states, “1Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. 2Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. 3Know ye that the Lord He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. 4Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. 5For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations.”

We should be celebrating Thanksgiving not just once a year, BUT EVERY DAY. So, as you gather with your families this Thanksgiving Day, remember to thank God for all of the blessings you have received this year. Remember to thank God for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who shed his blood to deliver us from the bonds of sin. And remember to thank God that you are a descendant of Confederate soldiers – men who left their homes to fight for a just cause, whose bravery and tenacity greatly overshadows that of their Union counterparts, regardless of how the history books read.

For Christ Always,

James Bozeman
Texas Division Chaplain