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Abraham Lincoln Writes to Mrs. Bixby, Mother who lost five sons, 1908 vintage postcard photo

Abraham Lincoln Writes to Mrs. Bixby, Mother who lost five sons, 1908 vintage postcard photo

A vintage postcard view commemorating a letter Abraham Lincoln wrote to a Mrs. Bixby of Boston, Massachusetts who was believed to have lost her five sons in battle during the Civil War. The text of letter Lincoln wrote is as follows:

Executive Mansion,
Washington, Nov. 21, 1864.

To Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Mass.
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 letter is believed by some scholars to be an excellent example of Lincoln's writing and comparable to that of the Gettysburg Address. It was later learned that the information given to Lincoln was incorrect as two of Mrs. Bixby's sons did survive the war.

This postcard view is dated 1908 and was published in celebration of the upcoming 100th Anniversary of Lincoln's birth celebrated in 1909.

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