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. ] [Illustration: 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; For out of the gloom future brightness is born, And after the night looms the sunrise of morn; And the graves of the dead, with the grass overgrown, May yet form the footstool of liberty’s throne; And earth’s single wreck in the war path of night Shall yet be a rock in the temple of right. FATHER RYAN. OF GRAVES, OF WORMS, OF EPITAPHS After the Civil War Clara Barton engaged in a sad mission. Of the Federal soldiers, there were 80,000 missing. Letters from the sorrowing were coming to the President and the Secretary of War, for information. To obtain the names of the missing, how died, where buried, and other information about loved ones, was a tremendous undertaking,—it was Clara Barton’s mission. Many of her personal friends said it was impossible, but President Lincoln gave her encouragement. She also received her Commission from the President, who had published the following: TO THE FRIENDS OF THE MISSING PRISONERS: