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On April 12, 1912, Clara Barton, American nurse and founder of the American Red Cross, died of tuberculosis at the age of 90. From the article:
"Clara Barton
1821-1912
Edited by Debra Michals, PhD
An educator and humanitarian, Clarissa “Clara” Harlowe Barton helped distribute needed supplies to the Union Army during the Civil War and later founded the disaster relief organization, the American Red Cross.
Born on December 25, 1821 in Oxford, Massachusetts, Barton was the youngest of Stephen and Sarah Barton’s five children. Her father was a prosperous farmer. As a teenager, Barton helped care for her seriously ill brother David—her first experience as a nurse.
Barton’s family directed their painfully shy daughter to become a teacher upon the recommendation of renowned phrenologist L.N. Fowler, who examined her as a girl. She began teaching at age 18, founded a school for workers’ children at her brother’s mill when she was 24, and after moving to Bordentown, New Jersey, established the first free school there in 1852. She resigned when she discovered that the school had hired a man at twice her salary, saying she would never work for less than a man.
In 1854 she was hired as a recording clerk at the US Patent Office in Washington, DC, the first woman appointed to such a post. She was paid $1,400 annually, the same as her male colleagues. However, the following year, Secretary of the Interior Robert McClelland, who opposed women working in government, reduced her to copyist with a lower salary. In 1857, the Buchanan Administration eliminated her position entirely, but in 1860, she returned as copyist after the election of President Abraham Lincoln.
When the Civil War began in 1861, Barton quit her job and made it her mission to bring supplies to Union soldiers in need—among them, men of the 6th Massachusetts Infantry. This started a life-long career of aiding people in times of conflict and disaster. In 1862, she received official permission to transport supplies to battlefields and was at every major battle in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina, where she also tended to the wounded and became known as the “angel of the battlefield.” She was officially named head nurse for one of General Benjamin Butler’s units in 1864, even though she had no formal medical training. She joined Frances Gage in helping to prepare slaves for their lives in freedom. After the war, Barton helped locate missing soldiers, mark thousands of graves, and testified in Congress about her wartime experiences.
In 1869, Barton traveled through Europe to regain her health. While in Switzerland, she learned about the International Red Cross, established in Geneva in 1864. Returning to the US, Barton built support for the creation of an American society of the Red Cross by writing pamphlets, lecturing, and meeting with President Rutherford B. Hayes. On May 21, 1881, the American Association of the Red Cross was formed; Barton was elected president in June. In 1882, the US joined the International Red Cross.
Barton remained with the Red Cross until 1904, attending national and international meetings, aiding with disasters, helping the homeless and poor, and writing about her life and the Red Cross. She was also an ardent supporter of women’s suffrage. In 1904, she established the National First Aid Association of America, an organization that emphasized emergency preparedness and developed first aid kits. Her Glen Echo, Maryland home became a National Historic Site in 1975, the first dedicated to the achievements of a woman."
"Clara Barton
1821-1912
Edited by Debra Michals, PhD
An educator and humanitarian, Clarissa “Clara” Harlowe Barton helped distribute needed supplies to the Union Army during the Civil War and later founded the disaster relief organization, the American Red Cross.
Born on December 25, 1821 in Oxford, Massachusetts, Barton was the youngest of Stephen and Sarah Barton’s five children. Her father was a prosperous farmer. As a teenager, Barton helped care for her seriously ill brother David—her first experience as a nurse.
Barton’s family directed their painfully shy daughter to become a teacher upon the recommendation of renowned phrenologist L.N. Fowler, who examined her as a girl. She began teaching at age 18, founded a school for workers’ children at her brother’s mill when she was 24, and after moving to Bordentown, New Jersey, established the first free school there in 1852. She resigned when she discovered that the school had hired a man at twice her salary, saying she would never work for less than a man.
In 1854 she was hired as a recording clerk at the US Patent Office in Washington, DC, the first woman appointed to such a post. She was paid $1,400 annually, the same as her male colleagues. However, the following year, Secretary of the Interior Robert McClelland, who opposed women working in government, reduced her to copyist with a lower salary. In 1857, the Buchanan Administration eliminated her position entirely, but in 1860, she returned as copyist after the election of President Abraham Lincoln.
When the Civil War began in 1861, Barton quit her job and made it her mission to bring supplies to Union soldiers in need—among them, men of the 6th Massachusetts Infantry. This started a life-long career of aiding people in times of conflict and disaster. In 1862, she received official permission to transport supplies to battlefields and was at every major battle in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina, where she also tended to the wounded and became known as the “angel of the battlefield.” She was officially named head nurse for one of General Benjamin Butler’s units in 1864, even though she had no formal medical training. She joined Frances Gage in helping to prepare slaves for their lives in freedom. After the war, Barton helped locate missing soldiers, mark thousands of graves, and testified in Congress about her wartime experiences.
In 1869, Barton traveled through Europe to regain her health. While in Switzerland, she learned about the International Red Cross, established in Geneva in 1864. Returning to the US, Barton built support for the creation of an American society of the Red Cross by writing pamphlets, lecturing, and meeting with President Rutherford B. Hayes. On May 21, 1881, the American Association of the Red Cross was formed; Barton was elected president in June. In 1882, the US joined the International Red Cross.
Barton remained with the Red Cross until 1904, attending national and international meetings, aiding with disasters, helping the homeless and poor, and writing about her life and the Red Cross. She was also an ardent supporter of women’s suffrage. In 1904, she established the National First Aid Association of America, an organization that emphasized emergency preparedness and developed first aid kits. Her Glen Echo, Maryland home became a National Historic Site in 1975, the first dedicated to the achievements of a woman."
Clara Barton Biography
Posted from womenshistory.orgPosted in these groups: 
American Red Cross
World History
American History
Military History
Civil War
American Red Cross World History American History Military History Civil War
Posted >1 y ago
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Clara Barton's Missing Soldiers Office
Director of Interpretation Jake Wynn takes a detailed look at the workings of Clara Barton's Missing Soldiers Office, and answers questions from the audience...
Thank you my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that on April 12, 1912 American nurse and founder of the American Red Cross, Clara Barton died of tuberculosis at the age of 90.
Clara Barton's Missing Soldiers Office
Director of Interpretation Jake Wynn takes a detailed look at the workings of Clara Barton's Missing Soldiers Office,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M174tKjrUPA
Images:
1. Clarissa Harlowe Barton
2. US Patent Office,
3. The First Rhode Island regiment slept on the shelves of the Patent Office
4. Missing Soldiers Office, 3rd Story, Room 9, Miss Clara Barton
Background from {[https://www.redcross.org/content/dam/redcross/enterprise-assets/about-us/history/history-clara-barton-v3.pdf]}
Background from redcross.org/content/dam/redcross/enterprise-assets/about-us/history/history-clara-barton-v3.pdf
"Clarissa Harlowe Barton, Clara, as she wished to be called, is one of the most honored women in American history. She began teaching school at a time when most teachers were men and she was among the first women to gain employment in the federal government. Barton risked her life to bring supplies and support to soldiers in the field during the Civil War. At age 60, she founded the American Red Cross in 1881 and led it for the next 23 years. Her understanding of the needs of people in distress and the ways in which she could provide help to them guided her throughout her life. By the force of her personal example, she opened paths to the new field of volunteer service. Her intense devotion to serving others resulted in enough achievements to fill several ordinary lifetimes.
Civil War Service
Clara Barton was working as a recording clerk in the U.S. Patent Office in Washington, D.C. when the first units of federal troops poured into the city in 1861. The war had just begun, the troops were newly recruited, and residents in the capital were alarmed and confused. Barton perceived an immediate need in all this chaos for providing personal assistance to the men in uniform, some of whom were already wounded, many hungry, and some without bedding or any clothing except what they had on their backs. She started by taking supplies to the young men of the Sixth Massachusetts Infantry who had been attacked in Baltimore, Maryland, by southern sympathizers and were temporarily housed in the unfinished Capitol building. Barton quickly discovered that many were “her boys,” as she put it; she had grown up with some of them and some she had even taught. Like a few other women, Barton provided clothing and assorted foods and supplies to the sick and wounded soldiers on behalf of such organizations as the U.S. Sanitary Commission, although she never formally affiliated with any agency or group. She collected some relief articles herself, appealed to the public for others, and learned how to store and distribute them. Besides supplies, Barton offered personal support to the men in hopes of keeping their spirits up: she read to them, wrote letters for them, listened to their personal problems, and prayed with them. She knew, however, that where she was needed most was not behind the lines in Washington but on the battlefields where the suffering was greatest.
Barton prodded leaders in the government and the army until she was given passes to bring her voluntary services and medical supplies to the scenes of battle and field hospitals. Following the battle of Cedar Mountain in northern Virginia in August 1862, she appeared at a field hospital at midnight with a wagon-load of supplies drawn by a four-mule team. The surgeon on duty, overwhelmed by the human disaster surrounding him, wrote later, “I thought that night if heaven ever sent out a[n] . . . angel, she must be one—her assistance was so timely.” Thereafter she was known as the “Angel of the Battlefield” as she served the troops at the battles of Fairfax Station, Chantilly, Harpers Ferry, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Charleston, Petersburg and Cold Harbor.
Barton was never satisfied with remaining with medical units at the rear of the column—hours or even days away from a fight. At Antietam, she ordered the drivers of her supply wagons to follow the cannon and traveled all night, actually pulling ahead of military medical units. While the battle raged, she and her associates dashed about bringing relief and hope to the field. She nursed, comforted, and cooked for the wounded. In the face of danger, she wrote, “I always tried . . . to succor the wounded until medical aid and supplies could come up—I could run the risk; it made no difference to anyone if I were shot or taken prisoner.”
The interest she showed in her “soldier boys” gave her a wealth of information about the men and the regiments to which they belonged. Toward the end of the war, she found herself writing to many families who inquired about men who had been reported missing. Here, again, she recognized a pressing human need and did something practical to address it. In the month before his assassination, President Abraham Lincoln wrote: “To the Friends of Missing Persons: Miss Clara Barton has kindly offered to search for the missing prisoners of war. Please address her . . . giving her the name, regiment, and company of any missing prisoner.” Barton established the Office of Correspondence with Friends of the Missing Men of the United States Army and operated it out of her rooms in Washington for four years. She and her assistants received and answered over 63,000 letters and identified over 22,000 missing men. Years later, Red Cross established a tracing service, one of the organization’s most valued activities today.
Barton climaxed her Civil War activity when she participated in establishing a national cemetery around the graves of the Union men who died in the notorious Andersonville Prison in Georgia. With the help of Dorence Atwater, who had secretly tabulated a list of the dead during his own imprisonment in Andersonville, and a team of 30 military men, Barton identified the graves of nearly 13,000 men. After Barton helped raise the U.S. flag over the Andersonville grounds at their dedication in 1865, she wrote, “I ought to be satisfied. I believe I am.” Coming events were to show, however, that she would never be satisfied except by responding again and again to the call of human need.
The International Red Cross
When Clara Barton visited Europe in search of rest in 1869, she was introduced to a wider field of service through the Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland. Subsequently, Barton read A Memory of Solferino, a book written by Henry Dunant, founder of the global Red Cross network. Dunant called for international agreements to protect the sick and wounded during wartime without respect to nationality and for the formation of national societies to give aid voluntarily on a neutral basis. The first treaty embodying Dunant’s idea was negotiated in Geneva in 1864 and ratified by 12 European nations. (This is called variously the Geneva Treaty, the Red Cross Treaty, and the Geneva Convention.) Later Barton would fight hard and successfully for the ratification of this treaty by the United States.
A more immediate call to action occurred in 1870 with the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. Though not yet allied to the Red Cross, Barton knew the needs of victims of battle and went to the war zone with volunteers of the International Red Cross. To protect herself with the newly accepted international symbol of the Red Cross (the reverse of the Swiss national flag which bears a white cross on a red field), she fashioned a cross out of red ribbon she was wearing. Barton helped distribute relief supplies to the destitute in the conquered city of Strasbourg and elsewhere in France. She also opened workrooms to help the citizens of Strasbourg make new clothes.
Founding and Leading the American Red Cross
Inspired by her experiences in Europe, Barton corresponded with Red Cross officials in Switzerland after her return to the United States. They recognized her leadership abilities for including this country in the global Red Cross network and for influencing the United States government to sign the Geneva Treaty. Armed with a letter from the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Barton took her appeal to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877, but he looked on the treaty as a possible “entangling alliance” and rejected it. His successor, President James Garfield, was supportive and seemed ready to sign it when he was assassinated. Finally, Garfield’s successor, Chester Arthur, signed the treaty in 1882 and a few days later the Senate ratified it.
The Red Cross received our first congressional charter in 1900 and a second in 1905, the year after Barton resigned from the organization. The most recent version of the charter–which was adopted in May, 2007 restates the traditional purposes of the organization which include giving relief to and serving as a medium of communication between members of the American armed forces and their families and providing national and international disaster relief and mitigation.
The American Red Cross, with Barton at its head, was largely devoted to disaster relief for the first 20 years of its existence. The Red Cross flag flew officially for the first time in this country in 1881 when Barton issued a public appeal for funds and clothing to aid victims of a devastating forest fire in Michigan. In 1884, she and 50 volunteers arrived in Johnstown, PA to help the survivors of a dam break that caused over 2000 deaths.
In 1892, she organized assistance for Russians suffering from famine by shipping them 500 railroad cars of Iowa cornmeal and flour. After a hurricane and tidal wave left over 5,000 dead on the Sea Islands of South Carolina in 1893, Barton’s Red Cross labored for 10 months helping the predominantly African-American population recover and reestablish their agricultural economy. In 1896, Barton directed relief operations on behalf of victims of unrest in Turkey and Armenia, the sole woman and only Red Cross advocate the Turkish government allowed to intervene. During her last relief operation, in 1900, Barton distributed over $120,000 in financial assistance and supplies to survivors of the hurricane and tidal wave that struck Galveston, Texas, and caused more than 6,000 deaths.
Although Henry Dunant had suggested in 1864 that Red Cross societies provide disaster relief as well as wartime services, Barton became its strongest advocate in the years that followed. During the Third International Red Cross Conference in Geneva in 1884, the American Red Cross proposed an amendment to the Geneva Treaty calling for expansion of Red Cross relief to include victims of natural disasters. Although some national societies were dubious, the resolution passed and became known as the “American Amendment” to the Geneva Treaty of 1864. Because of work like this in support of the global Red Cross network, several countries honored Barton with decorations, such as the German Iron Cross for her relief work in the Franco-Prussian War and the Silver Cross of Imperial Russia for the supplies provided during the famine of 1892.
The American Red Cross moved in a new direction near the end of Barton’s tenure as head of the organization when we delivered supplies and services to Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Recipients of Red Cross aid included members of the American armed forces, prisoners of war, and Cuban refugees. This was the first time that the American Red Cross provided assistance to American armed forces and civilians during wartime.
A Life of Contrasts
In addition to leading the Red Cross, Barton maintained interests in other fields, such as education, prison reform, women’s suffrage, civil rights, and even spiritualism. Her force and independent spirit created opponents, but her charm attracted many loyal followers. She was struck by periods of severe depression throughout her life but always seemed to revive quickly when a major calamity called for her services. She rose early and worked late into the night. She was said to be somewhat vain about her appearance, particularly her hair, although she did not consider herself a pretty woman. She liked dashes of bold color on her clothing, especially red. “It’s my color,” she once said.
Barton had a talent for words. Ready to spell three-syllable words when she started school at the age of four, she wrote voluminously throughout her life, often daily. She was also a highly skilled speaker. Veterans attending her lectures were often moved to tears as she vividly described battlefield scenes from her Civil War days. Her charisma alone could rally volunteers to meet whatever crises threatened the country.
Despite these strengths, mounting criticism of her management style, abilities, and age caused Barton to resign as president of the American Red Cross in 1904. Leaving the organization she created, Barton turned her attention to establishing the National First Aid Association of America and served as its honorary president for five years. This organization, though small and short-lived, emphasized basic first aid instruction, emergency preparedness, and the development of first aid kits. Though Barton had promulgated these activities at the Red Cross before her retirement, it was not until several years later that we absorbed them into our own array of health and safety programs.
Clara Barton published several books about the beginnings of the American Red Cross and the global Red Cross network. She also wrote The Story of My Childhood, intended as one of a series of short autobiographies detailing aspects of her life which she never completed. She died on April 12, 1912, at her home in Glen Echo, Maryland, and was buried in the Barton family cemetery plot in Oxford, Massachusetts.
Barton’s family donated her papers and awards, along with numerous mementoes, to the Library of Congress. The National Park Service manages what is now the Clara Barton National Historic Site in Glen Echo which is open daily for tours. Barton’s legacy to the nation—service to humanity—is reflected in the services provided daily by the employees and volunteers of the American Red Cross throughout the nation and in troubled spots around the world.
Bibliography
Anonymous (William D. Conklin), Clara Barton and Dansville. Dansville, NY: Clara Barton Chapter No. 1 (F.A. Owen Publishing Company), 1966. 621 pp.
Barton, Clara, The Red Cross—In Peace and War. Washington "
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs SMSgt Lawrence McCarter SPC Michael Duricko, Ph.D GySgt Thomas Vick SGT Denny Espinosa SPC Matthew Lamb LTC (Join to see)Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. PO1 William "Chip" Nagel PO2 (Join to see) SSG Franklin Briant SPC Woody Bullard TSgt David L. SPC Michael Terrell SFC Chuck Martinez CSM Charles HaydenSSG Bill McCoy SGT Herbert Bollum
Clara Barton's Missing Soldiers Office
Director of Interpretation Jake Wynn takes a detailed look at the workings of Clara Barton's Missing Soldiers Office,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M174tKjrUPA
Images:
1. Clarissa Harlowe Barton
2. US Patent Office,
3. The First Rhode Island regiment slept on the shelves of the Patent Office
4. Missing Soldiers Office, 3rd Story, Room 9, Miss Clara Barton
Background from {[https://www.redcross.org/content/dam/redcross/enterprise-assets/about-us/history/history-clara-barton-v3.pdf]}
Background from redcross.org/content/dam/redcross/enterprise-assets/about-us/history/history-clara-barton-v3.pdf
"Clarissa Harlowe Barton, Clara, as she wished to be called, is one of the most honored women in American history. She began teaching school at a time when most teachers were men and she was among the first women to gain employment in the federal government. Barton risked her life to bring supplies and support to soldiers in the field during the Civil War. At age 60, she founded the American Red Cross in 1881 and led it for the next 23 years. Her understanding of the needs of people in distress and the ways in which she could provide help to them guided her throughout her life. By the force of her personal example, she opened paths to the new field of volunteer service. Her intense devotion to serving others resulted in enough achievements to fill several ordinary lifetimes.
Civil War Service
Clara Barton was working as a recording clerk in the U.S. Patent Office in Washington, D.C. when the first units of federal troops poured into the city in 1861. The war had just begun, the troops were newly recruited, and residents in the capital were alarmed and confused. Barton perceived an immediate need in all this chaos for providing personal assistance to the men in uniform, some of whom were already wounded, many hungry, and some without bedding or any clothing except what they had on their backs. She started by taking supplies to the young men of the Sixth Massachusetts Infantry who had been attacked in Baltimore, Maryland, by southern sympathizers and were temporarily housed in the unfinished Capitol building. Barton quickly discovered that many were “her boys,” as she put it; she had grown up with some of them and some she had even taught. Like a few other women, Barton provided clothing and assorted foods and supplies to the sick and wounded soldiers on behalf of such organizations as the U.S. Sanitary Commission, although she never formally affiliated with any agency or group. She collected some relief articles herself, appealed to the public for others, and learned how to store and distribute them. Besides supplies, Barton offered personal support to the men in hopes of keeping their spirits up: she read to them, wrote letters for them, listened to their personal problems, and prayed with them. She knew, however, that where she was needed most was not behind the lines in Washington but on the battlefields where the suffering was greatest.
Barton prodded leaders in the government and the army until she was given passes to bring her voluntary services and medical supplies to the scenes of battle and field hospitals. Following the battle of Cedar Mountain in northern Virginia in August 1862, she appeared at a field hospital at midnight with a wagon-load of supplies drawn by a four-mule team. The surgeon on duty, overwhelmed by the human disaster surrounding him, wrote later, “I thought that night if heaven ever sent out a[n] . . . angel, she must be one—her assistance was so timely.” Thereafter she was known as the “Angel of the Battlefield” as she served the troops at the battles of Fairfax Station, Chantilly, Harpers Ferry, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Charleston, Petersburg and Cold Harbor.
Barton was never satisfied with remaining with medical units at the rear of the column—hours or even days away from a fight. At Antietam, she ordered the drivers of her supply wagons to follow the cannon and traveled all night, actually pulling ahead of military medical units. While the battle raged, she and her associates dashed about bringing relief and hope to the field. She nursed, comforted, and cooked for the wounded. In the face of danger, she wrote, “I always tried . . . to succor the wounded until medical aid and supplies could come up—I could run the risk; it made no difference to anyone if I were shot or taken prisoner.”
The interest she showed in her “soldier boys” gave her a wealth of information about the men and the regiments to which they belonged. Toward the end of the war, she found herself writing to many families who inquired about men who had been reported missing. Here, again, she recognized a pressing human need and did something practical to address it. In the month before his assassination, President Abraham Lincoln wrote: “To the Friends of Missing Persons: Miss Clara Barton has kindly offered to search for the missing prisoners of war. Please address her . . . giving her the name, regiment, and company of any missing prisoner.” Barton established the Office of Correspondence with Friends of the Missing Men of the United States Army and operated it out of her rooms in Washington for four years. She and her assistants received and answered over 63,000 letters and identified over 22,000 missing men. Years later, Red Cross established a tracing service, one of the organization’s most valued activities today.
Barton climaxed her Civil War activity when she participated in establishing a national cemetery around the graves of the Union men who died in the notorious Andersonville Prison in Georgia. With the help of Dorence Atwater, who had secretly tabulated a list of the dead during his own imprisonment in Andersonville, and a team of 30 military men, Barton identified the graves of nearly 13,000 men. After Barton helped raise the U.S. flag over the Andersonville grounds at their dedication in 1865, she wrote, “I ought to be satisfied. I believe I am.” Coming events were to show, however, that she would never be satisfied except by responding again and again to the call of human need.
The International Red Cross
When Clara Barton visited Europe in search of rest in 1869, she was introduced to a wider field of service through the Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland. Subsequently, Barton read A Memory of Solferino, a book written by Henry Dunant, founder of the global Red Cross network. Dunant called for international agreements to protect the sick and wounded during wartime without respect to nationality and for the formation of national societies to give aid voluntarily on a neutral basis. The first treaty embodying Dunant’s idea was negotiated in Geneva in 1864 and ratified by 12 European nations. (This is called variously the Geneva Treaty, the Red Cross Treaty, and the Geneva Convention.) Later Barton would fight hard and successfully for the ratification of this treaty by the United States.
A more immediate call to action occurred in 1870 with the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. Though not yet allied to the Red Cross, Barton knew the needs of victims of battle and went to the war zone with volunteers of the International Red Cross. To protect herself with the newly accepted international symbol of the Red Cross (the reverse of the Swiss national flag which bears a white cross on a red field), she fashioned a cross out of red ribbon she was wearing. Barton helped distribute relief supplies to the destitute in the conquered city of Strasbourg and elsewhere in France. She also opened workrooms to help the citizens of Strasbourg make new clothes.
Founding and Leading the American Red Cross
Inspired by her experiences in Europe, Barton corresponded with Red Cross officials in Switzerland after her return to the United States. They recognized her leadership abilities for including this country in the global Red Cross network and for influencing the United States government to sign the Geneva Treaty. Armed with a letter from the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Barton took her appeal to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877, but he looked on the treaty as a possible “entangling alliance” and rejected it. His successor, President James Garfield, was supportive and seemed ready to sign it when he was assassinated. Finally, Garfield’s successor, Chester Arthur, signed the treaty in 1882 and a few days later the Senate ratified it.
The Red Cross received our first congressional charter in 1900 and a second in 1905, the year after Barton resigned from the organization. The most recent version of the charter–which was adopted in May, 2007 restates the traditional purposes of the organization which include giving relief to and serving as a medium of communication between members of the American armed forces and their families and providing national and international disaster relief and mitigation.
The American Red Cross, with Barton at its head, was largely devoted to disaster relief for the first 20 years of its existence. The Red Cross flag flew officially for the first time in this country in 1881 when Barton issued a public appeal for funds and clothing to aid victims of a devastating forest fire in Michigan. In 1884, she and 50 volunteers arrived in Johnstown, PA to help the survivors of a dam break that caused over 2000 deaths.
In 1892, she organized assistance for Russians suffering from famine by shipping them 500 railroad cars of Iowa cornmeal and flour. After a hurricane and tidal wave left over 5,000 dead on the Sea Islands of South Carolina in 1893, Barton’s Red Cross labored for 10 months helping the predominantly African-American population recover and reestablish their agricultural economy. In 1896, Barton directed relief operations on behalf of victims of unrest in Turkey and Armenia, the sole woman and only Red Cross advocate the Turkish government allowed to intervene. During her last relief operation, in 1900, Barton distributed over $120,000 in financial assistance and supplies to survivors of the hurricane and tidal wave that struck Galveston, Texas, and caused more than 6,000 deaths.
Although Henry Dunant had suggested in 1864 that Red Cross societies provide disaster relief as well as wartime services, Barton became its strongest advocate in the years that followed. During the Third International Red Cross Conference in Geneva in 1884, the American Red Cross proposed an amendment to the Geneva Treaty calling for expansion of Red Cross relief to include victims of natural disasters. Although some national societies were dubious, the resolution passed and became known as the “American Amendment” to the Geneva Treaty of 1864. Because of work like this in support of the global Red Cross network, several countries honored Barton with decorations, such as the German Iron Cross for her relief work in the Franco-Prussian War and the Silver Cross of Imperial Russia for the supplies provided during the famine of 1892.
The American Red Cross moved in a new direction near the end of Barton’s tenure as head of the organization when we delivered supplies and services to Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Recipients of Red Cross aid included members of the American armed forces, prisoners of war, and Cuban refugees. This was the first time that the American Red Cross provided assistance to American armed forces and civilians during wartime.
A Life of Contrasts
In addition to leading the Red Cross, Barton maintained interests in other fields, such as education, prison reform, women’s suffrage, civil rights, and even spiritualism. Her force and independent spirit created opponents, but her charm attracted many loyal followers. She was struck by periods of severe depression throughout her life but always seemed to revive quickly when a major calamity called for her services. She rose early and worked late into the night. She was said to be somewhat vain about her appearance, particularly her hair, although she did not consider herself a pretty woman. She liked dashes of bold color on her clothing, especially red. “It’s my color,” she once said.
Barton had a talent for words. Ready to spell three-syllable words when she started school at the age of four, she wrote voluminously throughout her life, often daily. She was also a highly skilled speaker. Veterans attending her lectures were often moved to tears as she vividly described battlefield scenes from her Civil War days. Her charisma alone could rally volunteers to meet whatever crises threatened the country.
Despite these strengths, mounting criticism of her management style, abilities, and age caused Barton to resign as president of the American Red Cross in 1904. Leaving the organization she created, Barton turned her attention to establishing the National First Aid Association of America and served as its honorary president for five years. This organization, though small and short-lived, emphasized basic first aid instruction, emergency preparedness, and the development of first aid kits. Though Barton had promulgated these activities at the Red Cross before her retirement, it was not until several years later that we absorbed them into our own array of health and safety programs.
Clara Barton published several books about the beginnings of the American Red Cross and the global Red Cross network. She also wrote The Story of My Childhood, intended as one of a series of short autobiographies detailing aspects of her life which she never completed. She died on April 12, 1912, at her home in Glen Echo, Maryland, and was buried in the Barton family cemetery plot in Oxford, Massachusetts.
Barton’s family donated her papers and awards, along with numerous mementoes, to the Library of Congress. The National Park Service manages what is now the Clara Barton National Historic Site in Glen Echo which is open daily for tours. Barton’s legacy to the nation—service to humanity—is reflected in the services provided daily by the employees and volunteers of the American Red Cross throughout the nation and in troubled spots around the world.
Bibliography
Anonymous (William D. Conklin), Clara Barton and Dansville. Dansville, NY: Clara Barton Chapter No. 1 (F.A. Owen Publishing Company), 1966. 621 pp.
Barton, Clara, The Red Cross—In Peace and War. Washington "
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs SMSgt Lawrence McCarter SPC Michael Duricko, Ph.D GySgt Thomas Vick SGT Denny Espinosa SPC Matthew Lamb LTC (Join to see)Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. PO1 William "Chip" Nagel PO2 (Join to see) SSG Franklin Briant SPC Woody Bullard TSgt David L. SPC Michael Terrell SFC Chuck Martinez CSM Charles HaydenSSG Bill McCoy SGT Herbert Bollum
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LTC Stephen F.
Clara Barton: The Woman Who Went to the Field (and More)!
Rev. Jane PageNovember 12, 2017
Clara Barton: The Woman Who Went to the Field (and More)!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_MTzUKHMS0
Images:
1. Clara Barton 1865, red cross nurse in 1914, Clara Barton, Red Cross-Era, 1906
2. The 6th Massachusetts Infantry was attacked by a mob of Confederate sympathizers while switching trains in Baltimore
3. 1892 St. Pétersbourg. Clara Barton with American Red Cross delegate B. F. Tillingbast (left), editor of the Davenport, Iowa, Democrat, and Russian admiral N. Kazakoff
4. Clara Barton, Red Cross-Era, 1906
Background from {[https://www.clarabartonmuseum.org/bio/]}
Biography
Clara Barton was thirty-nine and on her second career when the Civil War started.
That didn’t stop her from getting involved, making a difference, and ultimately changing the world.
Let’s Back Up a Bit
Clarissa Harlowe Barton was born on Christmas Day (December 25th) 1821 in Massachusetts. The youngest child, with four much older siblings, Clara did not have an easy childhood. Her mother was not kind to her. Her siblings were more parents than playmates. However, Clara’s childhood wasn’t all bad. She attended school, where she excelled despite her shy demeanor. At home, Clara loved to hear her father’s war stories. When she was eleven, Clara’s older brother David fell off a barn roof and was bedridden for the following two years. Young Clara helped nurse him back to health. These experiences would prove beneficial, and at times crucial, to her humanitarian work later in life.
Clara Goes to Work
At the age of eighteen, Clara Barton went to work: not as a nurse, but as a teacher. In the 1800s in the United States, nursing was a predominately male profession. Teaching was one of the few careers available to women. But that wasn’t the only reason Clara taught; she both excelled at teaching and enjoyed it. She began teaching near her home in Oxford, Massachusetts, then went on to start a school from the children of her brother’s mill workers, and finally established the first free public school in the town of Bordentown, New Jersey. Barton’s Bordentown school was a huge success, so successful that the powers-that-be in the town felt it was necessary to hire a male principal to run the school. Clara, who had established the school and built it up, was outraged.
“I may sometimes be willing to teach for nothing, but if paid at all, I shall
Indignant, Clara left Bordentown and stopped teaching. She moved to Washington, DC and began her second career: working for the U.S. Patent Office. Clara was one of the earliest women to work for the federal government … and it was not easy. Many of Barton’s male coworkers harassed Clara and tried to besmirch her good name and get her fired. Lucky for Clara, she had a great boss who defended her and refused to dismiss her due to hearsay. Instead, he saw her talents and drive, and is believed to pay Clara Barton the same wage as a man. However, when her boss changes, she is demoted to a copyist.
This didn’t last forever. Although Clara had a supportive boss, there were many men in the government who were opposed to women working in their midst. Secretary of the Interior Robert McClelland demoted Clara to a copyist who only earned 10 cents per every 100 words copied.
In 1857, James Buchanan won the presidential election and fired his opponent’s outspoken supporters, including Clara. She returned home to Massachusetts to wait out Buchanan’s term. In the interim, she helped out in the homes of her friends and family members. Clara was never meant to be a homebody. She was miserable.
In 1861, Abraham Lincoln took office and Clara returned to Washington, DC and to the Patent Office. She, however, would never return to the position of clerk and the equal salary she enjoyed. She moved into a boarding house on 7th Street, two blocks from the Patent Office. Today, that boarding house is our museum.
The Country Goes to War
No one ever said 1861 was an uneventful year in the United States. In April of 1861, the Battle of Fort Sumter marked the beginning of the American Civil War. Union troops flooded into Washington, DC.
The 6th Massachusetts Infantry was among these troops. While switching trains (and train stations) in Baltimore, the regiment was attacked by a mob of Confederate sympathizers. Members of the mob tore up the street’s paving stones, and threw them at the soldiers. Others jeered at the soldiers, with pistols and muskets in their hand. Then someone fired a shot, which led to more shots and more stone throwing from both sides. Finally the police arrived and put an end to the violence. The police escorted the soldiers to Camden Street station and their train to Washington.
The Baltimore Riot resulted in the first casualties of the Civil War. Eight of the Confederate sympathizers were killed, along with three soldiers, and one innocent bystander. Twenty-four soldiers were wounded.
The news of the riot arrived in Washington before the train did. Clara, along with many other women, were at the station to meet the train. When the soldiers emerged, Clara discovered they were her old friends, school mates, and students from Massachusetts. She sprung into action, organizing who should go where for treatment and rest.
In the following days, more and more soldiers arrived in Washington. They were everywhere. Without suitable barracks, soldiers set up camp in government buildings. The Sixth Massachusetts camped on the floor of the Senate. The First Rhode Island regiment slept on the shelves of the Patent Office. Clara visited old friends and made new acquaintances. She also noticed that not only did the troops have nowhere to camp, they were sorely without supplies.
Clara was determined to fix this. She began collecting supplies, first in her neighborhood, then from her friends in Massachusetts and New Jersey. Soon, Barton had acquired three warehouses full of supplies, and had to figure out how to get them to the soldiers.
Clara Goes to War
Getting the supplies to the soldiers was easier said than done. Clara wanted to deliver the supplies herself, but was apprehensive how the soldiers would treat her. After all, there were names for the women that hung around camp … and not nice names. After much soul searching, and even more permission searching, Clara had gathered both the permission and resolve to deliver supplies to the troops at the field hospitals set up outside the Battle of Cedar Mountain. She arrived at the camp and immediately got to work. She worked for days on end, without rest, then collapsed with exhaustion when she returned home. Throughout the war, Clara continued this pattern: collect supplies, visit field hospitals (and later on the battlefields themselves) and work fervently, then collapse, exhausted, ill, and at times depressed. Repeat.
When Johnny Doesn’t Come Marching Home
As the Civil War drew to a close, Clara Barton was not ready to end her war work. She loved being useful and serving those in need. She had to find a new way to help. Her solution was the Missing Soldiers Office. Tens of thousands of men were missing. Their friends and families wrote to Clara, asking, have you seen Wilber? Joseph? Thomas? Clara Barton and her small staff received over 63,000 requests for help. They were able to locate over 22,000 men, some of whom were still alive.
Of the 22,000 men located by the Missing Soldiers Office, 13,000 were in one place: Andersonville Prison. These men were located due to the cunning and courage of another soldier: Dorence Atwater. Atwater had been imprisoned in Andersonville. As a prisoner, he was responsible for burying the men who passed away, and keeping a list of their names and the locations of their graves for the Confederate government. Atwater secretly kept a duplicate list for himself. When the war ended, he wanted to publish the list. He ultimately turned to Barton to do so. Together they not only published the list naming 13,000 men who died in Andersonville, they ensure each of the 13,000 men’s graves were marked.
What Comes Next?
In 1868, Clara was exhausted from years of working for soldiers. Her doctors recommended she go to Europe to rest, so Clara packed up her things—leaving many of them in the attic of her boarding house rooms—and headed off for Europe and a break.
When Clara got to Europe, she didn’t relax. Instead, she met representatives from the International Red Cross who inspired her to found the American Red Cross. However, before returning to the states, Clara provided nursing and humanitarian assistance during the Franco-Prussian War.
Once back in America, Clara did found the American Red Cross, and set the precedent that the Red Cross will respond to natural disasters, in addition to war. Clara also advocated for America to ratify the Geneva Convention. Clara worked tirelessly to serve others for the rest of her life. She responded to the Johnstown Flood and the Galveston Hurricane, she even helped out in Armenia and Cuba. She served as president of the American Red Cross until 1904, when at the age of 82 she resigned, then started the National First Aid Association of America. At the age of ninety, Clara Barton died in her home in Glen Echo, Maryland in 1912. Today, we celebrate her legacy and tell her story."
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_MTzUKHMS0
Images:
1. Clara Barton 1865, red cross nurse in 1914, Clara Barton, Red Cross-Era, 1906
2. The 6th Massachusetts Infantry was attacked by a mob of Confederate sympathizers while switching trains in Baltimore
3. 1892 St. Pétersbourg. Clara Barton with American Red Cross delegate B. F. Tillingbast (left), editor of the Davenport, Iowa, Democrat, and Russian admiral N. Kazakoff
4. Clara Barton, Red Cross-Era, 1906
Background from {[https://www.clarabartonmuseum.org/bio/]}
Biography
Clara Barton was thirty-nine and on her second career when the Civil War started.
That didn’t stop her from getting involved, making a difference, and ultimately changing the world.
Let’s Back Up a Bit
Clarissa Harlowe Barton was born on Christmas Day (December 25th) 1821 in Massachusetts. The youngest child, with four much older siblings, Clara did not have an easy childhood. Her mother was not kind to her. Her siblings were more parents than playmates. However, Clara’s childhood wasn’t all bad. She attended school, where she excelled despite her shy demeanor. At home, Clara loved to hear her father’s war stories. When she was eleven, Clara’s older brother David fell off a barn roof and was bedridden for the following two years. Young Clara helped nurse him back to health. These experiences would prove beneficial, and at times crucial, to her humanitarian work later in life.
Clara Goes to Work
At the age of eighteen, Clara Barton went to work: not as a nurse, but as a teacher. In the 1800s in the United States, nursing was a predominately male profession. Teaching was one of the few careers available to women. But that wasn’t the only reason Clara taught; she both excelled at teaching and enjoyed it. She began teaching near her home in Oxford, Massachusetts, then went on to start a school from the children of her brother’s mill workers, and finally established the first free public school in the town of Bordentown, New Jersey. Barton’s Bordentown school was a huge success, so successful that the powers-that-be in the town felt it was necessary to hire a male principal to run the school. Clara, who had established the school and built it up, was outraged.
“I may sometimes be willing to teach for nothing, but if paid at all, I shall
Indignant, Clara left Bordentown and stopped teaching. She moved to Washington, DC and began her second career: working for the U.S. Patent Office. Clara was one of the earliest women to work for the federal government … and it was not easy. Many of Barton’s male coworkers harassed Clara and tried to besmirch her good name and get her fired. Lucky for Clara, she had a great boss who defended her and refused to dismiss her due to hearsay. Instead, he saw her talents and drive, and is believed to pay Clara Barton the same wage as a man. However, when her boss changes, she is demoted to a copyist.
This didn’t last forever. Although Clara had a supportive boss, there were many men in the government who were opposed to women working in their midst. Secretary of the Interior Robert McClelland demoted Clara to a copyist who only earned 10 cents per every 100 words copied.
In 1857, James Buchanan won the presidential election and fired his opponent’s outspoken supporters, including Clara. She returned home to Massachusetts to wait out Buchanan’s term. In the interim, she helped out in the homes of her friends and family members. Clara was never meant to be a homebody. She was miserable.
In 1861, Abraham Lincoln took office and Clara returned to Washington, DC and to the Patent Office. She, however, would never return to the position of clerk and the equal salary she enjoyed. She moved into a boarding house on 7th Street, two blocks from the Patent Office. Today, that boarding house is our museum.
The Country Goes to War
No one ever said 1861 was an uneventful year in the United States. In April of 1861, the Battle of Fort Sumter marked the beginning of the American Civil War. Union troops flooded into Washington, DC.
The 6th Massachusetts Infantry was among these troops. While switching trains (and train stations) in Baltimore, the regiment was attacked by a mob of Confederate sympathizers. Members of the mob tore up the street’s paving stones, and threw them at the soldiers. Others jeered at the soldiers, with pistols and muskets in their hand. Then someone fired a shot, which led to more shots and more stone throwing from both sides. Finally the police arrived and put an end to the violence. The police escorted the soldiers to Camden Street station and their train to Washington.
The Baltimore Riot resulted in the first casualties of the Civil War. Eight of the Confederate sympathizers were killed, along with three soldiers, and one innocent bystander. Twenty-four soldiers were wounded.
The news of the riot arrived in Washington before the train did. Clara, along with many other women, were at the station to meet the train. When the soldiers emerged, Clara discovered they were her old friends, school mates, and students from Massachusetts. She sprung into action, organizing who should go where for treatment and rest.
In the following days, more and more soldiers arrived in Washington. They were everywhere. Without suitable barracks, soldiers set up camp in government buildings. The Sixth Massachusetts camped on the floor of the Senate. The First Rhode Island regiment slept on the shelves of the Patent Office. Clara visited old friends and made new acquaintances. She also noticed that not only did the troops have nowhere to camp, they were sorely without supplies.
Clara was determined to fix this. She began collecting supplies, first in her neighborhood, then from her friends in Massachusetts and New Jersey. Soon, Barton had acquired three warehouses full of supplies, and had to figure out how to get them to the soldiers.
Clara Goes to War
Getting the supplies to the soldiers was easier said than done. Clara wanted to deliver the supplies herself, but was apprehensive how the soldiers would treat her. After all, there were names for the women that hung around camp … and not nice names. After much soul searching, and even more permission searching, Clara had gathered both the permission and resolve to deliver supplies to the troops at the field hospitals set up outside the Battle of Cedar Mountain. She arrived at the camp and immediately got to work. She worked for days on end, without rest, then collapsed with exhaustion when she returned home. Throughout the war, Clara continued this pattern: collect supplies, visit field hospitals (and later on the battlefields themselves) and work fervently, then collapse, exhausted, ill, and at times depressed. Repeat.
When Johnny Doesn’t Come Marching Home
As the Civil War drew to a close, Clara Barton was not ready to end her war work. She loved being useful and serving those in need. She had to find a new way to help. Her solution was the Missing Soldiers Office. Tens of thousands of men were missing. Their friends and families wrote to Clara, asking, have you seen Wilber? Joseph? Thomas? Clara Barton and her small staff received over 63,000 requests for help. They were able to locate over 22,000 men, some of whom were still alive.
Of the 22,000 men located by the Missing Soldiers Office, 13,000 were in one place: Andersonville Prison. These men were located due to the cunning and courage of another soldier: Dorence Atwater. Atwater had been imprisoned in Andersonville. As a prisoner, he was responsible for burying the men who passed away, and keeping a list of their names and the locations of their graves for the Confederate government. Atwater secretly kept a duplicate list for himself. When the war ended, he wanted to publish the list. He ultimately turned to Barton to do so. Together they not only published the list naming 13,000 men who died in Andersonville, they ensure each of the 13,000 men’s graves were marked.
What Comes Next?
In 1868, Clara was exhausted from years of working for soldiers. Her doctors recommended she go to Europe to rest, so Clara packed up her things—leaving many of them in the attic of her boarding house rooms—and headed off for Europe and a break.
When Clara got to Europe, she didn’t relax. Instead, she met representatives from the International Red Cross who inspired her to found the American Red Cross. However, before returning to the states, Clara provided nursing and humanitarian assistance during the Franco-Prussian War.
Once back in America, Clara did found the American Red Cross, and set the precedent that the Red Cross will respond to natural disasters, in addition to war. Clara also advocated for America to ratify the Geneva Convention. Clara worked tirelessly to serve others for the rest of her life. She responded to the Johnstown Flood and the Galveston Hurricane, she even helped out in Armenia and Cuba. She served as president of the American Red Cross until 1904, when at the age of 82 she resigned, then started the National First Aid Association of America. At the age of ninety, Clara Barton died in her home in Glen Echo, Maryland in 1912. Today, we celebrate her legacy and tell her story."
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LTC Stephen F.
Clarissa Harlowe "Clara" Barton (1821- 1912) was a famous American nurse and humanitarian who organized the American Red Cross..
Clarissa Harlowe "Clara" Barton (1821- 1912) was a famous American nurse and humanitarian who organized the American Red Cross.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssBg4TW-5AQ
Images
1. Clara Barton seated at a desk
2. Clara Barton Birthplace Museum
3. Clara Barton Red Cross Monument at Antietam battlefield
4. 1948 Clara Barton 3 cent stamp Scott # 967
Background from {[https://historythings.com/historys-badasses-clara-barton/]}
History’s Badasses: Clara Barton
ELIZABETH LUNDINFEBRUARY 28, 2021
Last time, on History’s Badasses, we covered the life of Spartacus, the Thracian slave who led a revolt against the Roman Empire itself. Today, we’re talking about Clara Barton, the timid girl who grew up to be a total badass and ended up founding the American Red Cross. As a child, she could hardly talk in class. As an adult, she became a schoolteacher on the American frontier, then went on to bring her skills in nursing to the battlefield during the American Civil War. Here’s her story:
Early Life
Clara Barton was born on December 25th, 1821, in Oxford, Massachusetts. Her father was Captain Stephen Barton, who was a member of the local militia. While Clara was growing up, he used to tell her stories about the ‘Indian Wars’ fought in Ohio and Michigan. It was from these stories that young Clara would learn military tactics, geography, and the importance of keeping an army well-supplied.
Clara was an extremely shy child. She was sent to school with her older brother when she was just three, and excelled in reading and spelling, but made few friends and often lost her voice when called upon by her teacher.
That didn’t mean she wasn’t a strong little person, though. Clara was more courageous and self-disciplined than anyone knew.
When she was just ten years old, her brother, David, fell from the roof of the barn and suffered a severe injury. Clara took it upon herself to nurse him back to health and learned how to prescribe medication and place leeches. Even after the doctors had given up, Clara looked after her brother. Under her care, he made a full recovery.
She spent much of her childhood caring for sick or injured animals, but still remained timid and shy. In an effort to cure her shyness, her parents tried to send her to boarding school when she was a teenager, but it was a complete disaster. Boarding school pushed Clara to depression, and she refused to eat. Finally, she became so ill that the school was forced to send her home to recover.
As a last resort, her family sent her to live with a family member and his four children on a farm to heal. Clara began to play with her male cousins, and to everyone’s surprise, became an expert horseback rider. Clara’s mother was worried, though, that Clara needed to learn some feminine skills, so she invited one of Clara’s female cousins over to help her learn how to properly socialize with women.
After Clara’s recovery, her parents persuaded her to become a schoolteacher in hopes of curing her shyness once and for all. Clara received her teaching certificate when she was just seventeen.
Clara Barton: Schoolteacher
Clara’s first assignment wasn’t easy. Schoolhouses in the American Midwest in the 1800s were dangerous. They were full of rowdy, big teenage boys who bullied small children and teachers alike. Most schoolteachers were male, and kept order in their schoolrooms with severe corporal punishment. Well, seventeen-year-old Clara Barton wasn’t about that life. She knew that if she was going to be successful, she would have to demand real respect in her classroom…somehow.
The story goes that, during her first week of teaching, she was met with a great deal of resistance from the oldest boys in her class. Instead of trying to punish them, Clara brought an extremely heavy keg of cider for the class to enjoy… on one condition. The boys had to carry it into the schoolhouse themselves. She chose the biggest, rowdiest boy for the task. He huffed, puffed, and struggled to heave the keg of cider to the schoolhouse. After a moment, he had to stop to take a break. Clara, strong from her years of horseback riding and playing with her male cousins and work on her family’s farm, lifted the keg up in one fell swoop and shouldered it all by herself to the schoolhouse. The boys in her classroom were so impressed that they never gave her trouble again.
In 1850, Clara pursued writing and languages at Clinton Liberal Institute in New York. Two years later, she opened a free school in New Jersey. Later, she moved to Washington D.C. and worked at the U.S. Patent Office as a clerk in the mid-1850s.
Clara Barton: Angel of the Battlefield
On April 19, 1861, the Baltimore Riot shed the first blood of the American Civil War. When victims of the riot were transported to Washington D.C. for care, Clara rushed to the railroad station and nursed 40 of the men in uniform. She was a firm patriot and wanted to serve her country in any way she possibly could. So, she personally took supplies to the unfinished Capitol Building where the men were being housed.
Clara began to learn the best way to store and distribute medical supplies and became one of the few people who offered and successfully provided emotional support to the wounded soldiers. Very few other people cared enough to read books to them, write letters to their families for them, and talk to them like human beings.
From then on out, Clara Barton began her efforts toward collecting medical supplies for the Union soldiers. Despite opposition from field surgeons and the War Department, she organized Ladies’ Aid societies to send bandages, food, and clothing to soldiers fighting on the front lines.
After a lot of lobbying and a great deal of persistence, in 1862 Clara gained permission from Quartermaster Daniel Rucker to go to the front lines of the Civil War, where Union soldiers were hit the hardest. Undeterred by the danger and ready to help her country, she rushed to the front lines and worked alongside reluctant doctors and field surgeons to distribute stores, apply dressings, serve food, and sanitize dirty field hospitals. Clara was present for the battles of Cedar Mountain, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fairfax Station, Chantilly, Harpers Ferry, South Mountain, Charleston, Petersburg, Cold Harbor, and Fredericksburg.
Clara worked in the heat of battle to get the wounded off the field, give immediate medical attention, and serve those who were dying. At one point, she survived a stray bullet that ripped through the sleeve of her dress and killed the wounded man she was tending. At another battle, the battle of Cedar Mountain in Northern Virginia, Clara rushed to the field hospital at midnight, having successfully brought in a massive amount of supplies through the active battle. She relieved an overwhelmed surgeon and saved the lives of hundreds of wounded soldiers. Her timing and courage earned her the title: “Angel of the Battlefield”.
After the Civil War ended in 1865, Clara worked for the War Department to reunite missing soldiers and their families or to find information on soldiers buried in unmarked graves. She also toured around the States, lecturing about her experiences in the war.
The Red Cross, Later Years, and Death
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, Clara visited Europe and worked with a relief organization called the “International Red Cross”. Her experience in Europe inspired her long after she returned home, and she began to lobby for the creation of an American “Red Cross”.
Eventually, her efforts paid off in 1881, and the American Red Cross Society was founded. Clara Barton was its first president, and oversaw relief for victims of several disasters, including massive, deadly floods that hit during 1889 and 1900.
In 1904, Clara Barton resigned from the Red Cross after an internal power struggle. She had never taken a salary for her efforts in the society, and often used her own money to fund relief efforts. She didn’t slow down after she left, not Clara! She toured around the U.S., giving speeches and lectures and raising support for the Red Cross. During the last years of her life, she wrote an autobiography, The Story of My Childhood, which was published in 1907.
Clara Barton died in her home in Maryland on April 12th, 1912. Because of Clara’s efforts throughout her life in government work, war relief, and her leadership in the Red Cross, the road was paved for more and more women to take leadership roles throughout the United States. Her story would become internationally famous. This badass would forever be remembered as America’s “Angel of the Battlefield”.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssBg4TW-5AQ
Images
1. Clara Barton seated at a desk
2. Clara Barton Birthplace Museum
3. Clara Barton Red Cross Monument at Antietam battlefield
4. 1948 Clara Barton 3 cent stamp Scott # 967
Background from {[https://historythings.com/historys-badasses-clara-barton/]}
History’s Badasses: Clara Barton
ELIZABETH LUNDINFEBRUARY 28, 2021
Last time, on History’s Badasses, we covered the life of Spartacus, the Thracian slave who led a revolt against the Roman Empire itself. Today, we’re talking about Clara Barton, the timid girl who grew up to be a total badass and ended up founding the American Red Cross. As a child, she could hardly talk in class. As an adult, she became a schoolteacher on the American frontier, then went on to bring her skills in nursing to the battlefield during the American Civil War. Here’s her story:
Early Life
Clara Barton was born on December 25th, 1821, in Oxford, Massachusetts. Her father was Captain Stephen Barton, who was a member of the local militia. While Clara was growing up, he used to tell her stories about the ‘Indian Wars’ fought in Ohio and Michigan. It was from these stories that young Clara would learn military tactics, geography, and the importance of keeping an army well-supplied.
Clara was an extremely shy child. She was sent to school with her older brother when she was just three, and excelled in reading and spelling, but made few friends and often lost her voice when called upon by her teacher.
That didn’t mean she wasn’t a strong little person, though. Clara was more courageous and self-disciplined than anyone knew.
When she was just ten years old, her brother, David, fell from the roof of the barn and suffered a severe injury. Clara took it upon herself to nurse him back to health and learned how to prescribe medication and place leeches. Even after the doctors had given up, Clara looked after her brother. Under her care, he made a full recovery.
She spent much of her childhood caring for sick or injured animals, but still remained timid and shy. In an effort to cure her shyness, her parents tried to send her to boarding school when she was a teenager, but it was a complete disaster. Boarding school pushed Clara to depression, and she refused to eat. Finally, she became so ill that the school was forced to send her home to recover.
As a last resort, her family sent her to live with a family member and his four children on a farm to heal. Clara began to play with her male cousins, and to everyone’s surprise, became an expert horseback rider. Clara’s mother was worried, though, that Clara needed to learn some feminine skills, so she invited one of Clara’s female cousins over to help her learn how to properly socialize with women.
After Clara’s recovery, her parents persuaded her to become a schoolteacher in hopes of curing her shyness once and for all. Clara received her teaching certificate when she was just seventeen.
Clara Barton: Schoolteacher
Clara’s first assignment wasn’t easy. Schoolhouses in the American Midwest in the 1800s were dangerous. They were full of rowdy, big teenage boys who bullied small children and teachers alike. Most schoolteachers were male, and kept order in their schoolrooms with severe corporal punishment. Well, seventeen-year-old Clara Barton wasn’t about that life. She knew that if she was going to be successful, she would have to demand real respect in her classroom…somehow.
The story goes that, during her first week of teaching, she was met with a great deal of resistance from the oldest boys in her class. Instead of trying to punish them, Clara brought an extremely heavy keg of cider for the class to enjoy… on one condition. The boys had to carry it into the schoolhouse themselves. She chose the biggest, rowdiest boy for the task. He huffed, puffed, and struggled to heave the keg of cider to the schoolhouse. After a moment, he had to stop to take a break. Clara, strong from her years of horseback riding and playing with her male cousins and work on her family’s farm, lifted the keg up in one fell swoop and shouldered it all by herself to the schoolhouse. The boys in her classroom were so impressed that they never gave her trouble again.
In 1850, Clara pursued writing and languages at Clinton Liberal Institute in New York. Two years later, she opened a free school in New Jersey. Later, she moved to Washington D.C. and worked at the U.S. Patent Office as a clerk in the mid-1850s.
Clara Barton: Angel of the Battlefield
On April 19, 1861, the Baltimore Riot shed the first blood of the American Civil War. When victims of the riot were transported to Washington D.C. for care, Clara rushed to the railroad station and nursed 40 of the men in uniform. She was a firm patriot and wanted to serve her country in any way she possibly could. So, she personally took supplies to the unfinished Capitol Building where the men were being housed.
Clara began to learn the best way to store and distribute medical supplies and became one of the few people who offered and successfully provided emotional support to the wounded soldiers. Very few other people cared enough to read books to them, write letters to their families for them, and talk to them like human beings.
From then on out, Clara Barton began her efforts toward collecting medical supplies for the Union soldiers. Despite opposition from field surgeons and the War Department, she organized Ladies’ Aid societies to send bandages, food, and clothing to soldiers fighting on the front lines.
After a lot of lobbying and a great deal of persistence, in 1862 Clara gained permission from Quartermaster Daniel Rucker to go to the front lines of the Civil War, where Union soldiers were hit the hardest. Undeterred by the danger and ready to help her country, she rushed to the front lines and worked alongside reluctant doctors and field surgeons to distribute stores, apply dressings, serve food, and sanitize dirty field hospitals. Clara was present for the battles of Cedar Mountain, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fairfax Station, Chantilly, Harpers Ferry, South Mountain, Charleston, Petersburg, Cold Harbor, and Fredericksburg.
Clara worked in the heat of battle to get the wounded off the field, give immediate medical attention, and serve those who were dying. At one point, she survived a stray bullet that ripped through the sleeve of her dress and killed the wounded man she was tending. At another battle, the battle of Cedar Mountain in Northern Virginia, Clara rushed to the field hospital at midnight, having successfully brought in a massive amount of supplies through the active battle. She relieved an overwhelmed surgeon and saved the lives of hundreds of wounded soldiers. Her timing and courage earned her the title: “Angel of the Battlefield”.
After the Civil War ended in 1865, Clara worked for the War Department to reunite missing soldiers and their families or to find information on soldiers buried in unmarked graves. She also toured around the States, lecturing about her experiences in the war.
The Red Cross, Later Years, and Death
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, Clara visited Europe and worked with a relief organization called the “International Red Cross”. Her experience in Europe inspired her long after she returned home, and she began to lobby for the creation of an American “Red Cross”.
Eventually, her efforts paid off in 1881, and the American Red Cross Society was founded. Clara Barton was its first president, and oversaw relief for victims of several disasters, including massive, deadly floods that hit during 1889 and 1900.
In 1904, Clara Barton resigned from the Red Cross after an internal power struggle. She had never taken a salary for her efforts in the society, and often used her own money to fund relief efforts. She didn’t slow down after she left, not Clara! She toured around the U.S., giving speeches and lectures and raising support for the Red Cross. During the last years of her life, she wrote an autobiography, The Story of My Childhood, which was published in 1907.
Clara Barton died in her home in Maryland on April 12th, 1912. Because of Clara’s efforts throughout her life in government work, war relief, and her leadership in the Red Cross, the road was paved for more and more women to take leadership roles throughout the United States. Her story would become internationally famous. This badass would forever be remembered as America’s “Angel of the Battlefield”.
FYI LTC John Shaw 1SG Steven ImermanGySgt Gary CordeiroSMSgt Tom BurnsSgt Jim BelanusSGM Bill FrazerMSG Tom EarleySGT Randell Rose[SGT Denny EspinosaA1C Riley SandersSSgt Clare MaySSG Robert WebsterCSM Chuck StaffordPFC Craig KarshnerSFC Bernard WalkoSPC Nancy GreenePVT Mark Zehner Lt Col Charlie BrownSP5 Dennis Loberger SSG Robert Mark Odom
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Excellent biography share brother on Clara Barton, I've read a few different accounts on her, thank you for this great share SGT (Join to see)
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Amazing woman. If you are ever in the National Capital Region, visit her home in Maryland. It's a national park site and well worth the visit.
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