Mar 26, 2009 - Sale 2174

Sale 2174 - Lot 90

Price Realized: $ 1,800
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
A MASSIVE EFFORT TO TRACE THE FATES OF MISSING CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS (CIVIL WAR.) Barton, Clara. Roll of Missing Men.--No. 1. Broadside, 24 x 38 inches; splitting at folds (3 vertical, 3 horizontal) mended on verso with moderate loss of text; minor chipping and tears at margins, minor foxing and discoloration. All but four names are completely legible. Washington, 1 June 1865
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Additional Details

Civil War nurse Clara Barton, after fielding numerous requests to help find missing loved ones, began spending time among returning prisoners in an attempt to gather information. On 11 March 1865, she was appointed by President Lincoln as a volunteer "General Correspondent for Friends of Paroled Prisoners." As part of this work, she issued broadside lists of soldiers whose fates were unknown.
This first broadside begins with the text of an open letter from Barton: "To Returned Soldiers and Others. Soldiers and brothers: Please examine this roll; and if you know what became of any man here named, or have facts of interest to surviving friends, please communicate the same to me by letter ... an effort will be made to ascertain the fate of all missing men of the United States Army during the war." This is followed by eleven columns of soldiers'' names, each identified by rank and regiment and arranged by state. More than 1,500 names are listed; inquiries apparently continued to flow into Barton''s office as the roll was being prepared for the press. Barton later published four supplemental versions of this list through 1867, adding new names and striking others as their fates were determined. The bulk of these soldiers were eventually discovered to have died as prisoners of war.
Our searches turn up a complete set at the American Antiquarian Society, with their copy of this first roll listed as "mutilated"; and other copies at the Delaware and Maryland state archives. A Roll #5 appeared at auction in 1957. No other copies have been traced. Sabin 3829.