CLARA BARTON
Angel of the Battlefield and Founder of the American Red Cross
A bullet passes through her sleeve instantly killing the man she holds, but without regard for personal safety, Clara Barton continues tending to the wounds of the stricken soldiers around her.
Clarissa Harlowe Barton was born on Christmas Day, 1821, in North Oxford, Massachusetts. Barton was both an excellent student and a “tomboy,” preferring to re-enact battles based on stories her father told her, rather than concentrating on suitable activities for young ladies of that time. She had, however, always been encouraged by her parents to serve others. When she was 11, she spent two years nursing her brother back to health from an injury he had suffered from a fall. Barton never forget the joy that such service brought her.
Following her own schooling, she began teaching at a privately funded school in Bordentown, New Jersey, only to notice how many children couldn’t afford to go to school. She managed to convince the town officials to fund the state’s first free public school, and by 1852, there were several hundred students attending. She left the project when a man was hired to run the school following its success.
She also left New Jersey, heading for Washington D.C. in 1854, where she took a job as a clerk at the National Patent office. She worked there for several years, applying some of her salary to the care for her nephew who had contracted tuberculosis.
When the Civil War broke out in April 1861, Barton wanted to serve her country and support the Union Army. She spent the first year gathering provision for soldiers by working with private citizens and other relief organizations. When she offered to deliver the provisions directly to the battlefield, she met heavy resistance. Most men were opposed to women, especially unmarried women, working outside the home.
The Union Army’s medical department, however, was ill-prepared for war and needed help, so they agreed to her request. In 1862, Barton began personally delivering supplies and caring for the wounded. Throughout the war, she worked tirelessly, serving near the front lines of many major battles and even assisted surgeons in the field at the battle of Antietam. As one observer remarked, Barton was "the true heroine of the age, the angel of the battlefield.”
After the war, Barton continued to serve her country by organizing and assisting in the identification of the dead and missing. Through her efforts, 13,000 unknown soldiers who died at the prisoner of war camp in Andersonville, Georgia, were identified.
But the war and its aftermath had taken its toll on Barton’s health. Advised by her doctors to take a rest, she traveled to Europe in 1869. A few months later, though, war broke out between France and Prussia and Barton joined the Red Cross to help refugees from both sides. She was extremely impressed with the organization, which had been established in Europe in 1864 to provide humane services to victims of war under a flag of neutrality.
After returning to the United States, Barton began a campaign to establish an American Red Cross organization and have it recognized by the U.S. government. She also advocated to expand the Red Cross services to include aid to citizens during natural or manmade disasters. Thanks to her efforts, the American Red Cross was born in the summer of 1881.
Barton remained with the Red Cross until 1904, formally resigning at age 82. By then, both Barton and the American Red Cross had been involved in nearly every major war, catastrophe, and natural disaster that had occurred since the organization’s inception in 1881.
Clara Barton died in 1912, at the age of 90.
Sources:
Stephen B. Oates, A Woman of Valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War, The Free Press, 1994.
Elizabeth Brown Pryor, Clara Barton, Professional Angel, The University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987.
http://www.nps.gov/archive/anti/clara.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/6732/files/cb1.html
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