President Lincoln supposedly sent his sincerest condolences to a grieving mother in the historic Bixby Letter on this day in history, Nov. 21, 1864.
In the fall of 1864, Gov. John A. Andrew of Massachusetts sent a request to then-President Lincoln asking him to send his regards to Mrs. Lydia Bixby.
Bixby of Boston was believed to have lost her five sons during the Civil War, according to Abraham Lincoln Online.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY, NOVEMBER 20, 1925, ROBERT F. KENNEDY IS BORN IN MASSACHUSETTS
Lincoln accepted the request.
As the story goes, he penned a letter to the grieving mother.
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.
