As we turn our thoughts to the valiant warriors who earned the gift of our freedoms, no one expresses our gratitude like a lawyer from long ago, Abraham Lincoln. The Massachusetts governor called upon President Lincoln to console a grieving Boston widow, Lydia Bixby, who officials thought lost all of her five sons in the Civil War. While it turns out three sons survived, Lincoln eternally honors the people and families who gave all for us, in just a few words:
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
From all of us at Holland & Usry to everyone who's ever served in our Armed Forces, we thank you.
