User:TomStar81/TQ

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,
Abraham Lincoln

- Letter to Mrs. Bixby in Boston