When President Abraham Lincoln first proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday, little did he know he was spelling the beginning of the end to the prominence of the original patriotic celebration held during the last week of November: Evacuation Day.

In November 1863, Lincoln issued an order thanking God for harvest blessings, and by the 1940s, Congress had declared the 11th month of the calendar year’s fourth Thursday to be Thanksgiving Day.

That commemoration, though, combined with the gradual move toward détente with what is now the U.S.’ strongest ally – Great Britain – displaced the day Americans celebrated the last of the Redcoats fleeing their land.

Following the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia in 1776, New York City, just 99 miles to the northeast, remained a British stronghold until the end of the Revolutionary War.

Captured Continentals were held aboard prison ships in New York Harbor and British political activity in the West was anchored in the Big Apple, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

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However, that all came crashing down on the crown after the Treaty of Paris was signed, and new “Americans” eagerly saw the British out of their hard-won home on Nov. 25, 1783.

In their haste to flee the U.S., the British took time to grease flagpoles that still flew the Union Jack. One prominent post was at Bennett Park – on present-day West 183 Street near the northern tip of Manhattan.

Undeterred, Sgt. John van Arsdale, a Revolution veteran, cobbled together cleats that allowed him to climb the slick pole and tear down the then-enemy flag. Van Arsdale replaced it with the Stars and Stripes – and without today’s skyscrapers in the way, the change of colors at the island’s highest point could be seen farther downtown.

In the harbor, a final blast from a British warship aimed for Staten Island, but missed a crowd that had assembled to watch the 6,000-man military begin its journey back across the Atlantic to King George III.

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John Van Arsdale replaces the Union Jack with the American flag as the British evacuate New York on Nov. 25, 1783. (Getty)

Later that day, future President George Washington and New York Gov. George Clinton – who had negotiated “evacuation” with England’s Canadian Gov. Sir Guy Carleton – led a military march down Broadway through throngs of revelers to what would today be the Wall Street financial district at the other end of Manhattan.

Clinton hosted Washington for dinner and a “Farewell Toast” at nearby Fraunces’ Tavern, which houses a museum dedicated to the original U.S. holiday. Samuel Fraunces, who owned the watering hole, provided food and reportedly intelligence to the Continental Army.

Washington convened at Fraunces’ just over a week later to announce his leave from the Army, surrounded by Clinton and other top Revolutionary figures like German-born Gen. Friedrich von Steuben – whom New York’s Oktoberfest-styled parade officially honors.

“With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy, as your former ones have been glorious and honorable,” Washington said.

Before Lincoln – and later Congress – normalized Thanksgiving as the mass family affair it has become, Evacuation Day was more prominent than both its successor and Independence Day, according to several sources, including Untapped New York.

Nov. 25 was a school holiday in the 19th century and people re-created van Arsdale’s climb up the Bennett Park flagpole. Formal dinners were held at the Plaza Hotel and other upscale institutions for many years, according to the outlet.

An official parade reminiscent of today’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade was held every year in New York until the 1910s.

Fraunces’ Tavern, at Pearl and Broad Streets in New York City. (Getty)

As diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom warmed heading into the 20th century and the U.S. alliance with London during the World Wars proved crucial, celebrating Evacuation Day became less and less prominent.

Into the 2010s, however, commemorative flag-raisings have been sporadically held at Bowling Green, the southern endpoint of Broadway. On the original Evacuation Day, Washington’s dinner at Fraunces Tavern was preceded by the new U.S. Army marching down the iconic avenue to formally take back New York.

Thirteen toasts – marking the number of United States – were raised at Fraunces, each one spelling out the new government’s hope for the new nation or giving thanks to those who helped it come to be. 

An aide to Washington wrote them down for posterity, and the Sons of the American Revolution recite them at an annual dinner, according to the tavern’s museum site.

“To the United States of America,” the first toast went. The second honored King Louis XVI, whose French Army was crucial in America’s victory.

“To the vindicators of the rights of mankind in every quarter of the globe,” read another. “May a close union of the states guard the temple they have erected to liberty.”

The 13th offered a warning to any other country that might ever seek to invade the new U.S.:

“May the remembrance of this day be a lesson to princes.”

A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that Texas has the right to build a razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration into the Lone Star State. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced the ruling on X, saying President Biden was “wrong to cut our razor wire.” 

“We continue adding more razor wire border barrier,” the Republican leader wrote. 

Wednesday’s 2-1 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals clears the way for Texas to pursue a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of trespassing without having to remove the fencing.

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It also reversed a federal judge’s November 2023 refusal to grant a preliminary injunction to Texas as the state resisted federal efforts to remove fencing along the Rio Grande in the vicinity of Eagle Pass, Texas.

Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan, a Trump appointee during the president-elect’s first term, wrote for Wednesday’s majority that Texas was trying only to safeguard its own property, not “regulate” U.S. Border Patrol, and was likely to succeed in its trespass claims.

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Duncan said the federal government waived its sovereign immunity and rejected its concerns that a ruling by Texas would impede the enforcement of immigration law and undermine the government’s relationship with Mexico.

A Venezuelan immigrant asks Texas National Guard troops to let his family pass through razor wire after they crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, Sept. 27, 2023. (John Moore/Getty Images)

He said the public interest “supports clear protections for property rights from government intrusion and control” and ensuring that federal immigration law enforcement does not “unnecessarily intrude into the rights of countless property owners.”

Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton called the ruling a “huge win for Texas.” 

“The Biden Administration has been enjoined from damaging, destroying, or otherwise interfering with Texas’s border fencing,” Paxton wrote in a post on X. “We sued immediately when the federal government was observed destroying fences to let illegal aliens enter, and we’ve fought every step of the way for Texas sovereignty and security.”

Migrants attempt to cross the southern border in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, in February. (David Peinado/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The White House has been locked in legal battles with Texas and other states that have tried to deter illegal immigration. 

In May, the full 5th Circuit heard arguments in a separate case between Texas and the White House over whether the state can keep a 1,000-foot floating barrier on the Rio Grande.

The appeals court is also reviewing a judge’s order blocking a Texas law that would allow state officials to arrest, prosecute and order the removal of people in the country illegally.

U.S. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) secured a temporary restraining order Tuesday against a former boyfriend, saying in dozens of pages of court filings that he had bombarded her, as well as her family and colleagues, with hundreds of messages that she described as “persistent abuse and harassment.”

Porter, 50, alleged in a filing with Orange County Superior Court that her ex-boyfriend Julian Willis, 55, was contacting her and her family with such frequency that she had a “significant fear” for her “personal safety and emotional well-being.”

Judge Stephen T. Hicklin signed a restraining order Tuesday barring Willis from communicating with Porter and her children until a mid-December court hearing. He also barred Willis from communicating about Porter with her current and former colleagues.

In the court filing, Porter said that Willis had been hospitalized twice since late 2022 on involuntary psychiatric holds and had a history of abusing prescription painkillers and other drugs.

She said in a statement to The Times that Willis’ mental health and struggles with addiction seemed to have gotten worse since she asked him in August to move out of her Irvine home. She said she sought the court order after his threats to her family and colleagues “escalated in both their frequency and intensity.”

“I sincerely hope he gets the help he needs,” Porter said.

Willis declined to comment. He will have an opportunity to file a legal response to the temporary restraining order and challenge Porter’s allegations.

Porter is leaving the House of Representatives in January after losing in California’s U.S. Senate primary in March. She has been discussed as a front-runner in the 2026 governor’s race in California after Gov. Gavin Newsom is termed out, but has not said whether she will launch a campaign.

The 53-page court filing, first reported by Politico, included 22 pages of emails, text messages and other communications among Porter, family members and colleagues who had received messages from Willis, as well as messages that Willis sent to Porter’s attorney and to her political mentor Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

The filing also included messages between herself and Willis’ siblings as they discussed trying to help him during his psychiatric holds and while he was staying in a sober-living facility.

Porter said that since she ordered Willis to move out, he had sent her more than 1,000 text messages and emails, including texting her 82 times in one 24-hour period in September, and 55 times on Nov. 12 before she blocked his number.

Porter said in the filing that her ex-boyfriend had “already contacted at least three reporters to disseminate false and damaging information” about her and her children, which she said “poses a serious risk to [her] career and personal reputation.”

The filing includes an email that Porter said Willis sent to her attorney late Monday, in which Willis said he had visited Porter’s son at college in Iowa and told him that he would “bring the hammer down on Katie and smash her and her life into a million pieces.”

Another screenshot shows Willis telling Porter’s attorney that he would file a complaint about Porter, who has children ages 12 and 16, with child protective services.

One of Porter’s congressional staff members received a text message from Willis saying he would “punish the f—” out of him if he did not agree to “cooperate” with a New York Times reporter and Willis’ attorneys, according to a screenshot included in the court document.

Willis previously made the news in 2021, when he was arrested after a fight that broke out at a Porter town hall at a park in Irvine.

Times staff writer Christopher Goffard contributed to this report.