Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum

By the time of the Civil War, Valentine’s Day was already a well-established holiday. Couples would exchange tokens of affection, including homemade gifts. Merchants capitalized on the separation of loved ones, marketing ready-made cards (some with funny messages, others with sentimental ones) and care packages that could be mailed to sweethearts far […]

“G. Bubenzer” was added to Clara Barton’s “Roll of Missing Men” with only #6647 and “Hospital Steward” in his listing. It may seem odd that a hospital worker would go missing. It’s often the combat soldiers and field staff that disappear – or the wounded left unaccounted for during muster. Was it […]

In 1866, New Jersey became the last Northern state to officially abolish slavery. Decades of a “modified” institution allowed for a slow gradual emancipation process and a transitional status from enslaved to “apprenticed for life.” This delay did not inhibit enslaved and free populations from enlisting in the Union Army.[1] Private Joseph […]

On December 18, 1865, following the ratification of the 13th Amendment, President Andrew Johnson addressed the United States Senate. He declared: I have the honor to state that the rebellion waged by a portion of the people against the properly constituted authority of the Government of the United States has been suppressed; […]