Just came across this today:
http://time.com/4855857/abraham-lincoln-john-hay-bixby-letter/
"In November of 1864, a woman named Lydia Bixby received a letter from President Abraham Lincoln. He had been told that she had lost five sons to the then-ongoing Civil War. A Massachusetts state official had, learning of her plight, passed along her story. His request eventually made it to the White House.
Though Bixby's original copy of the letter was quickly destroyed or lost, the state official had also shared the text with the Boston Evening Telegraph, which published it.
"I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement," the letter noted, "and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom."
The brief, but eloquent missive struck a chord for many in the war-torn nation, and it has since become famous as one of the best letters written in the history of the English language.
But it's also one of the most "controversial" documents in Lincoln's large body of writings. Though the letter has other complications to its history — such as, for example, the fact that it wasn't true that Bixby had lost five sons, and despite her Boston address, her family said she was a Confederate sympathizer — the main point of contention has been whether or not Lincoln actually wrote it. Many historians have wondered whether perhaps it was written instead by his secretary, John Hay."
http://time.com/4855857/abraham-lincoln-john-hay-bixby-letter/
"In November of 1864, a woman named Lydia Bixby received a letter from President Abraham Lincoln. He had been told that she had lost five sons to the then-ongoing Civil War. A Massachusetts state official had, learning of her plight, passed along her story. His request eventually made it to the White House.
Though Bixby's original copy of the letter was quickly destroyed or lost, the state official had also shared the text with the Boston Evening Telegraph, which published it.
"I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement," the letter noted, "and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom."
The brief, but eloquent missive struck a chord for many in the war-torn nation, and it has since become famous as one of the best letters written in the history of the English language.
But it's also one of the most "controversial" documents in Lincoln's large body of writings. Though the letter has other complications to its history — such as, for example, the fact that it wasn't true that Bixby had lost five sons, and despite her Boston address, her family said she was a Confederate sympathizer — the main point of contention has been whether or not Lincoln actually wrote it. Many historians have wondered whether perhaps it was written instead by his secretary, John Hay."