Letter to Mrs. Bixby
by Abraham Lincoln
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 words of mine
which should attempt to beguile you from the
grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot
refrain from tendering to 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.
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