Lincoln’s Bixby Letter, a message of condolence to a mother of five young sons killed in the Civil War, has become an enduring legacy of Home Front Mothers. Mother’s Day, 2019, like so many others, finds sons and daughters in far off lands, in harm’s way, leaving their frantic mothers at hearth side, attempting to conduct business as usual, as if nothing in the world is amiss. Mothers all over this country try to put on a calm countenance on this Sunday and enjoy a remembrance of a time when their children were safe and in her loving care. Mothers are forever terrorized by that knock on the door or the telephone call that foreshadows a horrific notification. A Mother’s Love will never waver or fade and that fact alone is sometimes all that comforts a warrior in, his or her’s, darkest hour. Whether Lincoln’s eloquence or that of another, is irrelevant, the thought and poignance of the message to Mother Bixby will always be special, particularly on Mother’s Day.
“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”
No matter how long ago or how far away, a Mom, will always be your Mother and Lincoln’s Letter to Mother Bixby, will forever be immortalized as an ode to Home Front Mothers.
Bummer
