- Executive Mansion,
- Washington, Nov. 21, 1864.
- Dear Madam,
- I have been shown in the files of the War
Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that
you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the
field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of
mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so
overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the
consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they
died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the
anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory
of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to
have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
- Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,
- A. Lincoln
The background of
the Bixby letter.
