比克斯比夫人的五个儿子在美国的南北战争中作为共和国的士兵战死在疆场。林肯在一份文件中发现了这个事情，感慨不已，当时决定写一封信慰问比克斯比夫人。
这恐怕是世界上最难写的一封信了。林肯的信不长，短短几句却拥有超乎寻常的打动人的力量，成为英语语言的典范。母亲节，致敬英雄母亲。
信件原文如下：
Executive Mansion,
Washington,
Nov.21, 1864
Mrs. Bixby,
Boston, Massachusetts,
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 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. I pray our heavenly father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, 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.
Yours very sincerly and respectfully,
Abraham Lincoln
在以诺曼底登陆为背景的著名影片《拯救大兵瑞恩》的开头，美军总参谋长乔治·马歇尔将军在下达“救回瑞恩”的命令之前，向下属们朗读了林肯写给波士顿一位母亲的著名的《致比克斯比夫人的信》。
