Whistling Through the Graveyard
Chapter 5 - Marimon Davis, Gone But Not Forgotten
Chapter 6 - A Letter to Mrs. Zabriskie
Abraham Lincoln's letter to Mrs. Bixby from the American Civil War is a wonderful letter that has found its way into popular culture, being quoted even in relatively recent works such as the movie Saving Private Ryan from 1998.
Although there is a bit of controversy about the letter, centering on three main points, the sentiments expressed in it appear to be genuine and heartfelt, as befitting something from the hand of "Honest Abe" Lincoln.
After the fact, it is known that at least two of Mrs. Bixby's five sons who served actually did survive the war (it appears that she had six sons in all, as well as three daughters). It is believed that she tore up the letter after receiving it; one theory is that she had sympathies for the southern cause. It is also possible she was just not too happy with Lincoln as most of her sons were off to war, even if at least two of the five did end up surviving the war after all.
There is speculation that Lincoln's secretary John Hay may have actually written the letter, rather than Lincoln. It's not known that Hay ever claimed to have written the letter, and there is no particular circumstantial evidence that points to him rather than Lincoln as the author. It's really immaterial as to which of them wrote the letter. It's kind of funny in this day and age with so many speechwriters and ghostwriters and co-writers and "as told to" credits that this is even an issue to anyone.
Here is the text of the letter:
"Executive Mansion,
Washington, Nov. 21, 1864."
"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 that 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 sincerely and respectfully,
A. Lincoln."
"Mrs. Bixby."
From World War II there are many similar situations to what was believed to have happened to the Bixby family. All five of the Sullivan brothers who were serving on board the U.S.S. Juneau died after she was sunk during the Battle of Guadalcanal. The deaths of the Borgstrom and Niland brothers have also been documented.
As part of my ongoing research into people who have been buried or inurned at Forest Lawn Glendale, I have taken a particular interest in people whose burial records indicated military ranks or possible military ranks (the term "captain" has been the most ambiguous one I have run across, since I found in particular some civilian airplane pilots who held that title, and it can also refer to a police or fire captain rather than a military rank).
Captain Dorrance Cooper Zabriskie, USAAF, was killed in Lee County, Florida, when his P-40N Warhawk fighter plane crashed southeast of Punta Gorda Army Airfield on 31 March 1944. He belonged to the Third Air Force, 59th Fighter Group, 490th Fighter Squadron. The 59th was a training group which was disbanded on 1 May 1944, although it was later reactivated and in 2018 it is the 59th Medical Wing of the USAF.
D.C.'s body (I don't remember where I saw D.C. as his nickname but it makes sense, I am sure he would not have gone by his actual first name, Dorrance; who in god's name would?) was cremated and returned to California (I am not sure in which order, but given that he died in an aircraft crash his body may have been cremated in Florida) and his remains inurned with his father David, who had died in 1931.
This must have been a hard blow for D.C.'s mother Katica and his sisters Roberta and Katica, but worse was to come. D.C.'s older brother David Jr. was a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy. He took over command of the Gato class submarine USS Herring for her seventh voyage in 1944 and captained her for that patrol and the following one.
Leaving Midway Island on 21 May 1944, the Herring headed for the Kurile islands, which at that time were under Japanese control. Cross referencing the Japanese loss records with the heading of the Herring, in a three day period (30 May to 1 June 1944) she sank four Japanese vessels; three cargo ships and the destroyer escort Ishigaki which had sunk the submarine USS S-44 in 1943.
The Herring's luck ran out that same day, the 1st of June. After sinking two cargo vessels in the harbor of the Japanese island of Matsuwa (now part of Russia and called Matua) she was shelled by shore batteries on the island which scored two direct hits on the submarine. She went down with all hands. The Wikipedia article on the Herring mentions that in 2016 she was located by a joint expedition of the Russian Geographical Society and the Russian Defense Ministry, at a depth of 104 meters (341 feet), but the website On Eternal Patrol reports that the Russian finding was not the Herring. The article from On Eternal Patrol doesn't speculate why the Russians thought they found it and didn't, perhaps it was a case of mistaken maritime identity.
When the Navy lost touch with the Herring she was listed as reported lost on 13 July 1944, over a month after her actual sinking. The Navy did not publicly announce the Herring had been lost until 23 October 1944, at which time it stated that next of kin of the crew had been notified.
I'm guessing David's mother Katica would have suspected, if not known before that, that her son and his crew were missing. The U.S. Navy did not find out what actually happened to the Herring until after the Japanese surrender in September 1945, following which access to Japanese records solved the mystery.
The Herring is believed to be the only US submarine sunk by a shore battery during World War II. She is also the only US naval vessel to be named the Herring.
If they ever make a movie about the Herring, David Zabriskie could be played by Leo DiCaprio, at least as far as physical resemblance goes.
There are three memorials to the Herring, one in Seal Beach, California, one in San Diego, California, and another one in Mobile, Alabama. David's name appears on all three of those memorials and also in the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial in Hawaii (I assume the rest of the crew is listed in Honolulu as well but haven't verified that).
D.C. and David's mother Katica died in 1963 and was inurned with her mother, husband, and her son D.C. in the Great Mausoleum of Forest Lawn Glendale, Gardenia Terrace, Columbarium of Security, Lot 0, Space 16972. Their marker is a plain one with no first names, only the surname Zabriskie. I hope Katica's mother Kittie didn't get bent out of shape over that, but there's probably nothing she could do about it since she died in 1912.
Roberta Zabriskie (married name Minna) died in 1987 and it looks as if she is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in San Diego, if Find A Grave is to be believed. Katica Zabriskie Ketchum (daughter and sister, not her mother) died in 1999 in Reno, Nevada, but I don't know where she is buried.
By an odd coincidence (not by my design, and I just noticed it when I created a record for him on Family Search), today is August 30, making it David Jr's 106th birthday. David married Audrey Pritchett Vohden in 1938 in Los Angeles. They had a daughter Katica who died at age 3 in Brooklyn, New York in 1943. Audrey died in 1990 in San Francisco, California. I don't know if she and David had any other children.
Mrs. Zabriskie, I'm not Abraham Lincoln, nor even John Hay. But the memory of your sons and the lives they gave for their country has not been forgotten. Whatever consolation that might have been 74 years ago or would be today, is all that I can offer you.
Sources:
Captain D. C. Zabriskie on Find A Grave
Katica Dorrance Zabriskie on Family Search Dot Org
Lieutenant Commander David Zabriskie Jr on Find A Grave
U.S.S. Herring on Wikipedia
U.S.S. Herring on "On Eternal Patrol" dot com
U.S.S. Herring Memorial San Diego on Waymarking.com
The Bixby Letter on Wikipedia
Chapter 7
Chapter 7 - The Ubiquitous Miss Brown (and family)
(Chapter 7 was originally going to be an article on Ned Doheny and Hugh Plunkett but I haven't gotten to it -- if I live long enough I will write that article and put it in the series somewhere)
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