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Close Quarters Foundation

Where It Started

The Bixby Letter

Abraham Lincoln to Mrs. Lydia Bixby · November 21, 1864

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

Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Mass.

Why It Matters To Us

A President in the middle of a war stopped to write to a grieving mother. He wrote to make sure she knew her sacrifice was seen, and that the nation owed her its thanks. That letter is where the Close Quarters Foundation began.

Gold Star families have laid the costliest sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. Our job is to make sure they are never left to carry it alone, and to bring them, and the veterans and service members who stand with them, back to the same table.

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