Clara Barton Writes of Her Brother Captured by Union Forces in North Carolina, Fascinating and Rare!

CLARA BARTON, Autograph Letter Signed, "Clara", 2pp, on one sheet measuring 5" x 8", Akin's Landing, Virginia, October 17, 1864. Includes hand-addressed, stamped envelope measuring 5.5" x 3.125". Expected mailing folds. Lightly toned. In near fine condition. Letters written by Clara Barton during the war are exceptionally scarce and few have been seen before this one. They have sold at auction for over $10,000.

Barton's writes to her nephew, Irving S. Vassall, concerning the receipt of several letters; one in particular from another nephew, Samuel Rich Barton (1839-1908), the son of her oldest sibling Stephen Barton (1806-1865). In 1855, Stephen Barton had purchased a lumber mill in North Carolina and established the town of Bartonville. After secession, he remained in North Carolina to protect his property. Although Confederate authorities ordered him to leave the state and attempted to seize his property, he remained as a nonbelligerent Unionist in a Confederate state. In the summer of 1863, he declined to leave with a Union expedition, and he was at last captured in September 1864 by Union forces and sent to a prison in Norfolk. 

The letter, in full: "My dear Irving / I wish to acknowledge through you for the time being the reception of the letters by Mr. Doe, one from you one from Mr Brown and one from Sam. Tell Sam that I recd the enclosed form of consent and will present it to his father if I see him and it is needless for me to assure any of you that I shall do all in the matter of Stephens well being that lies in my power to do. I can of course presume nothing you all know the style of Genl Butler's dealing with [suspected?] parties and you see who I have to deal with and what lies before me if I accomplish anything. If by all this time of faithful labor among Genl Butler's troops I have gained any prestige, or laid him under any feeling of obligation to me, I may be able to turn it in perhaps for what it is worth, and I may loose all in the attempt, and of course be blamed for my poor luck - ought to have done more. I will do what I can. No time. Have just moved and am fitting a hospital. / Yrs. affectionately, Clara"

Stephen Barton never recovered from the shock of the experiences through which he had gone. He left General Butler's tent a dying man. The following days and nights he was tenderly cared for by his sister, who divided her time between the negro cabin where he lay and the city crowded with its wounded. Barton died in the company of his sister on March 10, 1865. Three weeks later, a company of the 3rd New York Cavalry destroyed Bartonsville, North Carolina, in a futile attempt to signal Union gunboats believed to be downstream. As late as 1900, the Barton family was still pressing its claim for compensation for the destruction of Bartonsville by the Union cavalry.

Clara Barton (1821-1912) was born in Massachusetts and received a good education though she was painfully shy. Her parents persuaded her to become a schoolteacher and she received her teacher's certificate in 1839. After working as a teacher for a dozen years, she attended the Clinton Liberal Institute in New York to continue her education. In 1852, she successfully opened a free school in Bordentown, the first free school in New Jersey. Demoted after the town built a new school building and hired a male principal, Barton quit. In 1855, she moved to Washington, D.C., and began work as a clerk in the Patent Office, the first woman to receive a substantial clerkship and equal pay with a man. After three years, the administration of James Buchanan fired her because of her "Black Republican" political views. After living with friends in Massachusetts for three years, she returned to Washington and took a position as a temporary copyist in the Patent Office. After the Baltimore Riot of April 1861 against Massachusetts troops, Barton nursed forty of the victims back to health and learned valuable lessons about aiding soldiers. She began collecting medical supplies and distributing them to soldiers. In August 1862, she received permission from Quartermaster Daniel Rucker to work on the front lines. Throughout the war, she distributed medicine and food to wounded soldiers in close proximity to the battles of Cedar Mountain, Second Bull Run, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. In 1864, General Benjamin Butler placed her in charge of hospitals at the front of the Army of the James. For her Civil War service, Barton became known as the "Angel of the Battlefield" and the "Florence Nightingale of America." After the war, she ran the Office of Missing Soldiers in Washington, helping to locate the remains of more than 22,000 missing soldiers. She also lectured about her experiences and became associated with the women's suffrage movement and the civil rights movement for African Americans. In 1869, she became acquainted with the Red Cross in Switzerland and aided military hospitals during the Franco-Prussian War. In 1881, she founded the American Red Cross and became its first president. She continued to work in the field in response to natural disasters and wars as late as 1900.

Irving S. Vassall (1840-1865) was born in Massachusetts, the son of Clara Barton's sister Sarah and her husband Vester Vassall. Irving Vassall moved to Washington, D.C. in 1856. Vassall suffered from consumption and was unable to enlist in the Union army. Instead, he served as chief clerk for Colonel Gardiner Tufts, the military agent for the State of Massachusetts and inspector of hospitals and prisons. Vassall died on April 9, 1865, the day General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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