Dorence Atwater (February 3, 1845 – November 26, 1910) 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.

[1] He secretly made a 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.

He was a proficient businessman who worked with lepers and other charities and was beloved by the Tahitian people, who named him "Tupuuataroa" (Wise Man).

"[3] One morning in July 1863, Atwater was exercising his horse in the woods when he was captured by two Confederates disguised in Yankee uniforms.

Upon his recovery, his handwriting was discovered again, and he was given the task of keeping the "Death List", a register of those who had died at the camp.

He suspected the Union would never see this copy and decided to keep his own list, hidden among the papers of the ones belonging to the Confederates.

[4] Shortly after Atwater arrived home, he pulled the Andersonville death list out of his bag and showed it to his father and siblings.

Atwater took the death list and traveled with Barton, Dr. James Moore, and 42 headboard carvers to mark the graves of the soldiers who had died at Andersonville.

After lobbying by Barton, Atwater was freed under a general pardon from President Andrew Johnson in December 1865.

On the other side, the inscription reads, "He builded better than he knew that one day he might awake in surprise to found he had wrought a monument more enduring than brass."