Dorence Atwater papers

Dorence Atwater, the son of Henry and Catherine Fenn Atwater, was born in Plymouth, Conn., February 3, 1845. Although under age, in 1862 he successfully enlisted in the first squadron of Connecticut Cavalry (Harris Light Cavalry) which was attached to the 2nd New York Cavalry. He was captured by the Confederates near Hagerstown, Maryland, in July 1863 and was moved among several prisons before his final incarceration at Andersonville Prison in Georgia. After a stay in the hospital, he was selected to maintain the death register for Union soldiers. As a precaution, he made a copy for himself, which he carried in his bag when he was released on February 1, 1865, for exchange one month later.

The War Department learned of this unauthorized copy of the death register and demanded it be turned over to the government. Atwater frequently requested a copy for himself but was repeatedly denied. With the aid of Clara Barton, he procured permission to erect wooden markers for the dead at Andersonville, and while he had the death register in his possession, he took it home with him. Atwater was convicted in a court martial and sentenced to hard labor, from which he was eventually pardoned. In 1868 he was named consul to the Seychelles Island and later to Tahiti where he married Princess Moetia Simon in 1875. Atwater died November 26, 1910, in San Francisco and was buried two years later in Tahiti.