I am happy to begin another book with the account of Grant’s victory over Bragg at Chattanooga, and the release of Tennessee….Phil [her brother] is at Knoxville with the Ninth Army Corps. He gives a sad picture of his accommodations (five in a tent), and when he is thus uncomfortable, what must be the condition of the private soldiers? . . . The news came on Thanksgiving Day. It is quite remarkable how often good news has arrived on festival days.
Maria Lydig Daly
November 24, 1863
Entry from Diary of a Union Lady, republished in New York Diaries: 1609 to 2009. p. 381.