On 3 October 1863, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving observance for late November. Issued during the Civil War, the text also acknowledged grief and division.
Explore all six stories from 3 October.
A document dated in wartime
On 3 October 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued Presidential Proclamation 106, calling for a national day of thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November. The U.S. National Archives dates the document and connects it to the annual observance that followed. The text was issued while the Civil War was still being fought. Its call to gratitude therefore sat beside references to loss and the need for peace. Treating it only as the origin of a festive meal misses the circumstances in which it appeared.
Not the first Thanksgiving in America
Thanksgiving observances long preceded Lincoln’s proclamation. George Washington had issued a national thanksgiving proclamation in 1789, and communities held varied celebrations at different times. Lincoln’s act was significant because it helped establish a recurring national observance in late November during a period of division. It did not create the first instance of thanksgiving, and it should not be confused with the later congressional legislation that fixed a federal holiday on the fourth Thursday of November.
The appeal within the proclamation
The National Archives notes that Lincoln’s wording referred to the ongoing “civil strife” and asked the country to remember widows, orphans, mourners and sufferers. That appeal complicates a simplified image of the document as an uncomplicated celebration. It called people to consider hardship and national repair alongside material blessings. The first page reproduced here is from the archival proclamation itself, not an imagined scene of Lincoln composing it. The remaining pages and the full text should be read to understand its argument.
Sarah Josepha Hale’s campaign
Editor Sarah Josepha Hale had advocated for a shared national Thanksgiving for years. The Library of Congress preserves her September 1863 letter to Lincoln, and the National Archives places her advocacy in the background of the proclamation. Her campaign shows that presidential documents can be the visible endpoint of longer efforts by people outside the presidency. It would be too simple to describe either Hale’s letter or Lincoln’s signature as the sole cause of a national custom.
Why 3 October matters
The date identifies the formal proclamation, not the November day people were asked to observe. It is a useful reminder that historical anniversaries can mark decisions that shape future calendars. In 1863, the act was also a statement about how a divided country should speak of gratitude and suffering at the same time. For another account of a dated civic turning point whose effects unfolded over years, see our story on the 1965 immigration law.
Sources and method
The National Archives and the surviving proclamation establish the exact date. The article separates Lincoln’s annual observance from earlier Thanksgiving proclamations and later federal holiday legislation.
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