page_title: Dorence Atwater
section_title: U.S. Consul to Tahiti
hierarchical_section_title: Dorence Atwater / U.S. Consul to Tahiti
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Mme. Moetia Salmon, niece de la Reine Pomaré IV, soeur de la Mme. Brander. 1869/70. Paul-Émile Miot. English: Princess Moetia Salmon, niece of Queen Pomare lV, and sister of Mrs. Titaua Brander. 1869/70. Paul-Émile Miot
context_page_description: Dorence Atwater was a Union Army soldier and later a businessman and diplomat who served as the United States Consul to Tahiti.
  In July 1863, during the American Civil War, Atwater was captured by the Confederate Army and found himself among the first batch of prisoners at the notorious Andersonville prisoner-of-war camp. He is notable for having created the Andersonville Death Register while imprisoned there, which recorded the identities of his fellow prisoners. He made a secret copy of his list of the dead and missing which later allowed him, in cooperation with Clara Barton, to mark the graves of otherwise unknown soldiers.
  Atwater was released from prison by President Andrew Johnson and sent to the Seychelles as a 23-year-old United States Consul. He was a proficient businessman who worked with lepers and other charities and was beloved by the Tahitian people, who called him "Tupuuataroa".
context_section_description: After three years, Atwater was sent to be Consul to Tahiti. There he fell in love with Princess Moetia Salmon, or "Moe", the sister of Queen Marau and the second consort of King Pōmare V of Tahiti. Moetia had been educated in France and England. They were married in 1875.
  The Atwaters had a home in San Francisco as well as in Tahiti. Their San Francisco house stood on Market Street, and while they were vacationing in Mexico, the great earthquake of 1906 occurred. In order to create a firebreak, Market Street had to be demolished by explosives and with it, the Atwater home. In their house was the original death list, the one Atwater had copied at the risk of his life.
caption: Moetia Salmon Atwater (1848–1935)
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