The Bixby Letter — Abraham Lincoln's Famous Letter of Condolence to a Grieving Mother of Five Lost Sons

Memorial Day.

I can't think of a better time of year to post this. History accounts for every soul taken in time of war — those who fought, lived and died gallantly defending our country's freedoms and civil liberties. For every soldier lost, an infinite number of grieving hearts have followed. With every conflict we fight, bereavement overwhelms allegiance. In war, technologies advance, few lessons are learned, and our inabilities to accept this acumen remain weary. No president in American history understood this more than Abraham Lincoln. And it wasn't a grand speech to honor the lost that depicted a nation's grief. Nor was it a futile and desperate call for armistice. It was a single letter written by Lincoln — or possibly Lincoln's Secretary, John Milton Hay — to Lydia Bixby, a grieving Massachusetts mother of five sons lost during the Civil War in November 1864, that epitomizes not only our compassion and ultimate thanks to our heroes, but the despair that accompanies the fallen.

Enjoy the weekend, but remember the true meaning of Memorial Day — let Lincoln's letter below remind us all.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Executive Mansion, Washington, D.C. November 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 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.

Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,

Abraham Lincoln