DORENCE ATWATER
For the record of your dead you are indebted to the forethought, courage and perseverance of Dorence Atwater, a young man not twenty-one years of age.—(Signed) Clara Barton, in an official report to the people of the United States of America, in 1865.
This memorial will stand as a silent reminder of the untiring and loyal devotion of one whose memory will live while time endures.—Ida S. McBride, Chairman Memorial Committee.
DEDICATION OF MEMORIAL TO CLARA BARTON AT ANDERSONVILLE, GEORGIA, MAY 31, 1915
Erected by the Woman’s Relief Corps Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic.
Left to right: Mrs. Emma E. Grinnell, P. Dept., Pres. Wisc. W. R. C.; William Grinnell, P. Dept., Com. G. A. R., Wisc; Mrs. Ida S. McBride, P. Natl. Pres. W. R. C.; Miss Agnes Hitt, P. Natl. Pres., W. R. C.; Hon. Washington Gardner, P. Com.-in-Chief, G. A. R.; Mrs. Mary A. North, P. Natl. Jun. Vice-Pres., W. R. C.
The path of this work was opened for her through records kept by Dorence Atwater, a Connecticut boy-prisoner at Andersonville, who had been detailed to keep a record for the prison officials of the dead, and their burial. He kept a secret duplicate record, with location of graves. He saw a notice asking for information signed “Clara Barton,” when he at once wrote to her. Together they went to Andersonville and with his aid she succeeded with the identification of 19,920 graves and placing headstones above them, while 400 of these were marked “unknown.”
Manchester (N. H.) Mirror.
Yes, give me the land with a grave in each spot,
And the names in the graves that shall not be forgot;
Yes, give me the land of the wreck and the tomb—
There’s grandeur in graves, there’s glory in gloom;