Dear Mrs. Bixby

[2ndovc]

On this day in 1864, President Lincoln wrote this letter to Mrs. Bixby regarding her loss of five sons in battle.

"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 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,

A. Lincoln"


Most of you know this letter was quoted in "Saving Private Ryan". Both sides of my family lost a number of fathers, sons and brothers to the conflict.
I always found it quite touching.

The link to the Fox article;
https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/day-h ... -mrs-bixby

jb

[Walt]

Grief, loss, pride....

Thank you for the story. God bless you and your family. Thanks to those who gave everything.

[jeepnik]

And then there were the Sullivans. Proving that learning and change come very slowly sometimes.

[Ray Newman]

For those Not-In-The-Know about the five Sullivan brothers in WW II: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sullivan_brothers

Then there are the Four Chaplains: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Chaplains

[Ysabel Kid]

I had ancestors fighting on both sides as well, including the case of brother versus brother (and father).

[CowboyTutt]

There is a similar story of sacrifice and martyrdom not well known even within the Christian Bible because it is "dual canonical" or "apocryphal" but it is the worst story of martyrdom I have yet come across.

The Seven Holy Maccabee Martyrs

https://lychnos.org/the-seven-holy-macc ... 0Antiochus.

A mother should not have to give up all her sons for the war of governments. Perhaps for Christ, but not for governments IMHO.

-T-