On Memorial Day, a letter to a mother

Mrs. Lydia Bixby, as it turned out, disliked Abraham Lincoln and may have been a Confederate sympathizer. And "only" two of her sons died fighting for the Union; one was honorably discharged, one deserted, and one either deserted or died a prisoner of war.

No matter.

At the beginning of the film Saving Private Ryan, a general reads the letter President Lincoln sent to her under the mistaken impression that she had lost all five of her sons. It's not merely a letter to one woman, and it's not merely her personal loss it addresses. It speaks from the heart of a nation to all the mothers who throughout our history have lost sons (and daughters) in the fight to keep us free, from the Revolution through Afganistan. It speaks to the sacrifice of all of those we honor on this Memorial Day and those who loved them.

Executive Mansion,
Washington, Nov. 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 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