...Nothing in the voluminous Wilson "The letter to Mrs. Lydia Bixby, November 21, 1864, is as follows: 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...

...expressed that feeling in a beautiful letter to Mrs. Lydia Bixby, a Boston widow who, he was told, was "the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle." "I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement," he wrote her, "and leave...

...with bitterest agony, because it takes them unawares. The older have learned to ever expect it. ... I have been shown in the files of the War Department...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...

...bountiful. "EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 21, 1864. Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Massachusetts. DEAR MADAM: I have been shown in the files of the War Department...feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine 'Reminiscences, 428. Compare Lincoln's statement to Brooks: " ' I do generally remember a good story...

...classic in the language. The letter reads as follows: 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...

...her sons dying in their youthful prime that the nation might live. To such a mother Lincoln wrote, "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...

...late November he wrote the famous "Bixby letter," often quoted as one of his most sensitive missives. "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...

...two minutes of silence, just as they did in 1918. NT DAY Executive Mansion, November 21, 1864 Dear Madam: I have been shown in the files of the War Department...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...

...Executive Mansion, Washington, November 21, 1864. MRS. BIXBY, Boston, Massachusetts: DEAR MADAM: 1 have been shown in the files of the War Department...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...

...terminology, Lincoln is employing synecdoche when, in a letter of condolence to Mrs. Bixby he writes: 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...