The Bixby Letter

[Steve]

Mrs. Bixby had already been receiving a pension after son Charles's death in 1863 at the time of her meeting Schouler in early September 1864. Schouler didn't explain the purpose of Mrs. Bixby meeting with him in his letter to Gov. Andrew and was only brought her up incidentally to compare her case to that of a father who had 5 sons serving in the war and asking the governor if there was anything that could be done to help her. Schouler did help provide her charitable aid for Thanksgiving but that was about 2 months after her meeting. She couldn't apply for a pension for another son and if she wanted charitable aid, why would she go to Adjutant General for that? I would guess the meeting had something to do with either sons Oliver or George who had both on July 30th been killed and taken prisoner (and thought dead), respectively.

Her son Henry had already been exchanged as a prisoner of war but was a patient at the York military hospital in Pennsylvania recovering until October 1864 when he was sent back to his unit who subsequently sent him to the Readville, Mass. military hospital to recover even further before he was discharged in December. Both the Traveller and Transcript articles describe him as a "sixth son", so Mrs. Bixby obviously wasn't keeping it a secret that Henry was alive. Either Schouler misunderstood her or purposely misled the newspaper reporter to prevent embarrassing the President. It's likely that Henry wasn't able to contact his mother until after he was sent to Massachusetts.

George was captured as a prisoner of war on July 30, 1864 just over a month prior to Mrs. Bixby's meeting with Schouler. About a month following her meeting, George arrived at Salisbury Prison on October 9, 1864; being transferred from Richmond. He did not desert to the Confederates but in fact died at Salisbury sometime between October 1864 and early February 1865. A former Salisbury POW at Camp Parole reported that in March 1865. Unfortunately, no specific death date was provided and those types of records from Salisbury didn't survive the war.

So, Mrs. Bixby had good reason to believe four of her sons had been killed when she met with Schouler. However, it seems that she did lie to Schouler about son, Edward, who deserted from his the 1st Mass. Heavy Artillery in May 1862 while the unit was manning Ft. Richardson, one of the protective forts surrounding Washington D.C. (In fact, based on his unit's history, I doubt Edward was ever in a battle during his year in the Army when he deserted.) She claimed that Edward had died of wounds at Folly Island, South Carolina while serving in the 22nd Mass. Infantry.