Letter written to a New Jersey merchant and Civil War veteran who was supposedly “an old-time friend” of the Red Cross founder, his name appearing in her “address book”, asking for a donation to her Memorial Fund.

 

Atwater was Barton’s “confidential friend and agent”, whose younger brother, Derence, after spending two years as a Confederate prisoner at Andersonville, had been dishonorably discharged and jailed, allegedly for having “stolen” the Army records from which he compiled his own secret “Death Register” of 13,000 Union prisoners who had died in the appalling prison camp. Once released, shortly after the end of the Civil War, Derence Atwater accompanied Barton to the site of Andersonville, to make a list of thousands of deceased prisoners buried there. Much later, thanks to Barton, Atwater’s conviction was overturned and he was given an honorable discharge. That led to his brother Francis’ friendship with Barton, for whom he acted in many capacities (possibly including helping write her memoirs) before her death at age 90 in 1912, just six months before the date of this letter.