The Controversial Abraham Lincoln Letter That Appears In War Epic Saving Private Ryan

Per History, it was the president-to-be's election victory that sparked the formation of the Confederate States of America. A total of 11 Southern states seceded, and what followed was a terrible, protracted and costly conflict indeed. The National Park Service reports that the Confederate Army had an enlistment strength of up to 1,227,890 soldiers (estimated, as records have been lost), and the Union Army's was 2,672,341. The carnage was terrible: The outlet reports that the battle of Antietam saw 22,726 casualties, though it lasted only a single day.

According to History, 620,000 soldiers were killed. It was a paradigm-shifting, tragic, monumental conflict, one that tore families apart and left millions bereft. It was a time for a charismatic leader such as Abraham Lincoln to seek to unite, not divide; to assure his people that he was there with them, and to offer solace. It is said that he personally wrote to a woman who had lost several close family members in the conflict, but as significant as the letter has become, it seems there's doubt that he himself wrote it at all.

As the New England Historical Society reports, the so-called Bixby Letter was written to one Lydia Bixby late in 1864. Bixby lived in Boston and had, the letter claimed, lost far too much during the conflict. "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," the letter begins, offering the most eloquent of condolences.