Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office

06/23/2026

in 1864, Major General Benjamin F. Butler placed Clara Barton in charge of nursing and dietary operations at a hospital near Point of Rocks, Virginia. From this post, she cared for soldiers wounded in the ongoing fighting around Petersburg. Reflecting on the day in her diary, Barton wrote:

"Took the Gazelle for Point of Rocks
walked a mile to Genl Butler H Q, need not note the
interview, for I shall never forget it. I am satisfied
with my success with Genl Butler."

06/22/2026

The National Mall we know today looked very different during the Civil War...🐄

Join Park Ranger Caroline Liaupsin on August 8 at 2PM for Muster Grounds and Malarial Breeding Grounds: The National Mall During theCivil War!

For more information: clarabartonmuseum.org/event/muster-grounds-and-malarial-breeding-grounds-the-national-mall-during-the-us-civil-war/

06/21/2026

Happy Father’s Day from all of us at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine!

06/20/2026

Happy Birthday, West Virginia! 🎂

West Virginia became a state on June 20, 1863 - the only state formed by seceding from a Confederate state during the Civil War. To mark the occasion, we're sharing the names of West Virginians who appear in Clara Barton's Rolls of Missing Men.

As we continue to highlight individuals from the Rolls of Missing Men through our Missing Soldier Spotlight series, we'd love to hear from anyone with a connection to these names.

Roll No. 1:
Blessing, Pius
Carroll, Tunis
Campbell, William B.
Carothers, William E.
Hunt, Eugenius W.
Hunt, Philip
Richter, Oscar
Shup, Nicholas L.
Feay, William G.
Loring, John E.
Stephens, Allen
Newman, Samuel G.

Roll No. 2:
Clendenen, Clemens L.
Clendenen, John V.
Martin, Isaac J.
Phillips, Herbert
Skillington, Thomas
Snider, Marcellus N.
Walsh, John

Roll No. 4:
Baker, Wm. H.
Boyce, John
Callahan, George
Clendenen, John V.
Clutter, John L.
Conard, Antony
Cullen, W. F.
Duncan, James
Feay, Wm. G.
Gregg, Samuel C.
Grim, Armstrong
Hess, Jacob W.
Holliday, Jeremiah
Irvin, John
James, Richard
Lough, Wm. Elias
Mallon, Daniel
Martin, Issac J.
McGinnis, Thomas
Nutter, Anthony H.
Phillips, Herbert
Poston, George W.
Robinson, James W.
Sinclair, Sanford P.
Skillington, Thomas
Smith, Jonah
Snider, Marcellus N.
Solomon, John M.
Thorp -
Walsh, John
Wilson, Thomas M.
Woodburn, Nathan
Wyatte, Edmond S.

Roll No. 5:
Fetty, John P.
Fuller, Francis Marion
Hardenbaugh, Evert W.
Pack, Bartley
Shell, John H.

All of the Rolls of Missing Men are searchable online at www.civilwarmed.org/explore/primary-sources/databases/missingrolls/

06/19/2026

06/19/2026

in 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War was over, and that all remaining slaves in Texas were free — an event celebrated to this day as Juneteenth or Emancipation Day.

On this Juneteenth, we commemorate the ending of slavery in the United States and remember the formerly enslaved people who sacrificed, served, and suffered for their freedom.

Photo: Emancipation Day celebration in Richmond, Virginia, in 1905, Courtesy Library of Congress

06/19/2026

On this Juneteenth, we remember the formerly enslaved people who sacrificed, served, and suffered for their freedom.

Their story has been told for generations. Historian Herbert Aptheker noted as far back as 1947 that "the mortality rate amongst the United States Colored Troops in the Civil War was thirty-five percent greater than that among other troops, notwithstanding the fact that the former were not enrolled until some eighteen months after the fighting began."

At the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, we strive to tell the important history of disease and healthcare among the United States Colored Troops, in the contraband camps, and the stories of the free and formerly enslaved Blacks who enlisted in the fight for freedom and to care for those fighting for it by their sides.

Photo credit:
Detail from "Scene showing deserted camp and wounded soldier Zouave," 1865, Mathew Brady, Library of Congress

06/19/2026

Happy Juneteenth! On June 19, 1865, Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger in Galveston, TX shared the following in a general order:

“The people are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property, between former masters and slaves.”

We encourage anyone who will be visiting us this weekend to stop by our neighbors, the National Archives, as General Order 3 will be on display until June 21.

06/16/2026

Join us on Friday, June 26 at 12PM for our next Brown Bag Lunch Speaker Series on S*x Work in Civil War Washington with Katie Kirkpatrick of Off the Mall Tours!

🎟 Reservations are required: clarabartonmuseum.org/event/brown-bag-lunch-speaker-series-sex-work-in-civil-war-washington/

06/16/2026

in 1861 an advocate for the mentally ill and a social reformer from Massachusetts, Dorothea Dix, was appointed as Superintendent of Army Nurses for the Union Army by the Secretary of War, Simon Cameron. This was the first step towards allowing women to serve as military nurses. Prior to the Civil War, all nurses in the army were men. Although she was never trained as a nurse herself, Dix was instrumental in recruiting about 2,000 nurses by the end of the war. Known as “Dragon Dix,” she set strict standards for women who wished to serve as nurses. Women must be of “strong health,” have “neat habits and sobriety,” and must “dress plain, (colors brown, grey, or black,) and while connected with the service without ornaments of any sort.”

Image: Dorothea Lynde Dix (portrait painting in oil on canvas by Samuel Bell Waugh, 1868)