My wife just returned from a month long trip to Pennsylvania to visit her family (with the kids.....and during this time, I still didn't go fishing
). While there, she visited her 96 year old grandma. Grandma thought they may never get another chance to visit again, so she gave my wife some family heirlooms. One of the most fascinating was a post card album she had kept since she was a little girl. Some of the cards dated back to the late 1800's and there was one in particular that caught my attention. It was a card mailed to her grandmother's aunt with a $.01 stamp. It read as follows....Executive Mansion, Nov. 21, 1864
To Mrs. Bixley, Boston, Mass
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 for 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 secure. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and last, and the solem pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
Yours very sincerely and respectfully, A. Lincoln
