Bixby letter facts for kids
The Bixby letter is a short, comforting message. It was sent by President Abraham Lincoln in November 1864. The letter went to Lydia Parker Bixby, a widow living in Boston, Massachusetts. People believed she had lost five sons fighting for the Union Army during the American Civil War.
This letter is often seen as one of Lincoln's best writings. It is often shared in memorials and books, just like his famous Gettysburg Address. However, there have been questions about Mrs. Bixby herself. People wondered if all her sons actually died. There are also debates about who truly wrote the letter.
Contents
What the Letter Said
President Lincoln's letter was delivered to Lydia Bixby on November 25, 1864. It was quickly printed in Boston newspapers that same afternoon. This is what the letter said:
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 words 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.Mrs. Bixby.
The Story Behind the Letter
Lydia Parker married Cromwell Bixby in 1826. They had at least six sons and three daughters. Before the Civil War, Mrs. Bixby and her family moved to Boston.
How the Letter Came to Be
In September 1864, Massachusetts Adjutant General William Schouler wrote to the governor. He mentioned how Mrs. Bixby had visited his office. She claimed that five of her sons had died fighting for the Union.
The governor then asked the U.S. War Department to have President Lincoln send Mrs. Bixby a letter. Schouler sent a report to the War Department with the names of her sons. This report reached President Lincoln in late October.
On November 21, newspapers mentioned a widow who had lost five sons. Schouler gave Mrs. Bixby some donations. The President's letter arrived at Schouler's office on November 25.
The Bixby Sons: What Really Happened?
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It turns out that not all of Lydia Bixby's sons died in the war. At least two of them survived. Here is what military records show about her sons:
- Private Arthur Edward Bixby (known as "Edward") – He joined the 1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. He left his post in May 1862. His mother tried to get him discharged, saying he joined underage. He returned to Boston after the war.
- Sergeant Charles N. Bixby – He served in the 20th Massachusetts Infantry. He was killed in action near Fredericksburg in May 1863.
- Corporal Henry Cromwell Bixby – He served in two different regiments. He was captured at Gettysburg and later released. He died in 1871 from an illness he got during the war.
- Private Oliver Cromwell Bixby, Jr. – He served in the 58th Massachusetts Infantry. He was wounded and then killed in action near Petersburg, Virginia in July 1864.
- Private George Way Bixby – He joined the 56th Massachusetts Infantry. He was captured at Petersburg in July 1864. His military records are unclear about what happened next. Some say he died in prison, others say he joined the Confederate Army.
Schouler's report to the War Department had some incorrect information. For example, it wrongly said Edward had died. Mrs. Bixby might have hidden the truth about Edward leaving his post. This could have been due to embarrassment or to keep getting financial help.
Questions About Mrs. Bixby
Lydia Bixby died in 1878. After her death, some people questioned her character and loyalty.
One Boston socialite, Sarah Cabot Wheelwright, said she had helped Mrs. Bixby during the war. But she later heard rumors that Mrs. Bixby was "untrustworthy."
In the 1920s, a Lincoln expert interviewed older residents from Mrs. Bixby's hometown. They remembered her sons as being "tough."
In 1925, one of Mrs. Bixby's granddaughters, Elizabeth Towers, told a newspaper that her grandmother "had great sympathy for the South." She also said Mrs. Bixby was "highly indignant" about the letter. This was because it wrongly stated five of her sons had died.
Copies of the Letter
The Original Letter
No one knows what happened to the original letter Lincoln sent to Mrs. Bixby. Her grandson, William A. Bixby, said in 1925 that he didn't know its fate. His sister, Elizabeth, thought Mrs. Bixby might have torn it up. This would be because it had wrong information. Another grandson, Arthur March Bixby, said his father told him she angrily destroyed it.
For a while, some people thought the original letter was displayed at Brasenose College, Oxford in England. But a Lincoln expert checked this in 1925 and found it was not true.
Fake Copies of the Letter
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Many supposed "original" Bixby letters have appeared over the years. Most of these are copies of a fake version made in 1891 by Michael F. Tobin. He sold these copies as souvenirs.
A museum in New York City even displayed one of Tobin's copies. They claimed it was "the original Bixby letter."
A handwriting expert, Charles Hamilton, looked at Tobin's copy. He said it was copied from a poorly made fake. He noted that the handwriting looked "halting and awkward."
Tobin's copy also has several mistakes when compared to the real letter printed in newspapers. For example, it misspells "assuage" and leaves out some words.
Who Wrote It?
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Experts have debated whether Lincoln wrote the Bixby letter himself. Some think his assistant private secretary, John Hay, might have written it. November 1864 was a very busy time for Lincoln. He might have asked Hay to write it.
Some people recalled Hay saying he wrote it. But his own children didn't remember him ever mentioning it. In 1904, Hay said the letter was "genuine," but he might have meant only its words, not that he wrote it.
Historian Michael Burlingame believes Hay wrote the letter. He points out that Hay's personal scrapbooks contain two newspaper clippings of the letter. These scrapbooks mostly held Hay's own writings. However, they also contained things written by Lincoln, like the Gettysburg Address.
Other experts, like Edward Steers, Jr., believe Lincoln wrote it. They say the letter's style is similar to Lincoln's other famous writings.
Some scholars compare words and phrases used in the letter to writings by both Lincoln and Hay. For example, the word "beguile" appears often in Hay's writings but not in Lincoln's. However, the phrase "I cannot refrain from" was used by Lincoln in another letter.
In 1988, a professor studied the letter's style. She concluded it was more like Lincoln's writing. But a 2018 computer analysis suggested Hay was the author. The mystery continues!
The Letter's Importance
A famous line from the letter is "the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom." This quote is carved into the base of a statue at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.
The Bixby letter is often mentioned when people talk about families losing several children in war. Examples include the Sullivan brothers and the Niland brothers. The letter also relates to the Sole Survivor Policy of the U.S. military. This policy tries to protect the last surviving child in a family if others have died in combat.
In the 1998 movie Saving Private Ryan, a general reads the Bixby letter. He then orders his soldiers to find and send home Private James Francis Ryan, whose brothers had died in battle.
On September 11, 2011, former U.S. President George W. Bush read the Bixby letter. He read it during a ceremony at the World Trade Center site. This was on the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
