President Abraham Lincoln’s letter to a Boston mother appears in the Boston Evening Transcript.

The letter is addressed to Mrs. Lydia Bixby of 15 Dover Street, whom, according to the War Department, had lost five sons fighting for the Union Army. Lincoln writes, “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.” It is subsequently revealed that Bixby had only four sons in the service. Two of them were killed in battle, but the third was captured and joined the Confederate Army, and the fourth returned home safely. Lincoln’s letter sparks jealousy among Bixby’s neighbors, who subsequently accuse her of being a drunk, a prostitute, and a Confederate spy. She dies in Boston in October 1878, and is buried at Mt. Hope Cemetery.