The Bixby Letter

[My Name Is Kate]

Mrs. Bixby reminds me a little of Sitting Bull (but he wouldn't like that comparison, I'm sure).

https://images.search.yahoo.com/images/v...mp=yhs-001

[HerbS]

She reminds me of a beast! It is no wonder that her son's left home and went off to war.

[Don1946]

Here is the link to the letter in the Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, 8:116-117, with an explanatory footnote that answers most of these questions.
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/linc...ydia+bixby

"Boston Transcript, November 25, 1864. The purported facsimiles of this letter have long been adjudged to be forgeries, but there is no reason to question the authenticity of the text of the letter which appeared in the Transcript and other contemporary sources. Controversy over the claim that John Hay composed this letter has somewhat abated, with the claim remaining unproved. Lincoln was in error as to Mrs. Bixby's five sons because her case had been inaccurately presented to him by the Adjutant General's Office. Later investigations have revealed that only two sons were killed: Sergeant Charles N. Bixby, Twentieth Massachusetts Infantry, killed May 3, 1863, and Private Oliver C. Bixby, Fifty-eighth Massachusetts Infantry, killed July 30, 1864. Private George W. (A.?) Way (Bixby), Fifty-sixth Massachusetts Infantry, who had enlisted under an assumed name, was captured July 30, 1864. Imprisoned first at Richmond and later at Salisbury, North Carolina, George Way was reported (1) to have deserted to the enemy and (2) to have died in prison at Salisbury. Neither of these reports has been established beyond doubt. Corporal Henry C. Bixby, Thirty-second Massachusetts Infantry, was honorably discharged at Boston on December 17, 1864. Private Edward (Arthur Edward) Bixby, First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, deserted May 28 or 29, 1862. The most complete single source of information among the several books and pamphlets, as well as the numerous articles on the subject, is F. Lauriston Bullard, Abraham Lincoln and the Widow Bixby (1946)."

Mrs. Bixby appears to have had a hard life and she gets my sympathy.

[RJNorton]

The most complete single source of information among the several books and pamphlets, as well as the numerous articles on the subject, is F. Lauriston Bullard, Abraham Lincoln and the Widow Bixby (1946)."

Don, I have this book, and the author includes numerous arguments that Lincoln was the letter's author. My guess is that the debate on this will go on and on.

[Rsmyth]

Don wrote "Mrs. Bixby appears to have had a hard life and she gets my sympathy."

I agree.

[HerbS]

What about-Saving Private Ryan?It least that letter can be proved!How about the letters in history that went unanswered.

[Steve]

Last week I had an email discussion with Roger about the photograph of Lydia Bixby he posted on this thread. Here's an update with some new information he found.

Roger couldn't quite remember how he got the photo, so he looked into its origin for me. He found a webpage that included the photo among several others from a photo album, but the image turned out to be a different woman with the same name:

http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~...hotos.html

The woman who received the letter was Lydia Parker Bixby of Massachusetts. The woman in the photograph is Lydia Clark Bixby of New York state.

I found the Find A Grave page for Lydia Clark Bixby:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi...d=90331874

[RJNorton]

Many thanks for the clarification, Steve! I have deleted the photo, and as of now, the photo of the real Mrs. Bixby remains in the same drawer as the photos of John F. Parker, John Lloyd, and Peanut John Burroughs.

[Steve]

I thought I'd add something that as far as I can tell, isn't available online. It's a photo of the March 28, 1865 letter from Lt. Col. Gardiner Tufts to the Massachusetts Surgeon General concerning the death of son George Way Bixby of B co. 56th Massachusetts Infantry at Salisbury Prison. The original was photographed from Tufts' letterbook at the Mass. State Archives in Boston. If you can't make out what it says, there's a transcription of the main body of the letter here in F. Lauriston Bullard's book Abraham Lincoln and the Widow Bixby on Internet Archive:

https://archive.org/stream/abrahamlincol...0/mode/2up

One thing needs to be clarified about Bullard's description, the "visitor" mentioned in Tuft's letter is his subordinate who went to Camp Parole in Annapolis to ask paroled/exchanged Union soldiers about the fates of Massachusetts soldiers who were POWs. It looks like some of the details were distorted by the time Tuft's people took down the information - Mrs. Bixby lived at 15 Dover Street Place (present day Fay Street), not no. 115. Lt. J.B. Davis is Lt. John J. Davis of B co. 56th Mass. who was discharged a few months before George was captured. I have no idea who 1SG Jacobs is supposed to be, there's nobody in George's company with that name.