(1821-1912): "The
Angel of the Battlefield"
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"The
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Trademark.
Clarissa
"Clara" Harlowe Barton-
(1821-1912) Clarissa
"Clara" Barton is best known as the
founder of the American Red Cross. She
began her lifetime of helping others at
the beginning of the Civil War, when she
organized medical care for Union troops
wounded in the Baltimore Riots of
1861. Born
into a middle-class family in Oxford
Massachusetts, she entered into a typical
middle-class career for a woman at the
time as a school teacher. When the war
began, she was living in Washington D.C. ,
working as a clerk in the U.S. Patent
Office, (at the time, she was the first
woman to hold the important clerkship
position in the Federal government), when
she saw the need to help wounded soldiers.
Prior to Barton's work with wounded
soldiers, the military had never allowed
female nurses in army camps or hospitals.
She accompanied the U.S. Army as it
marched and fought in Virginia, nursing
the wounded soldiers at great risk to her
own life. In one battle, a bullet passed
through the sleeve of her dress, killing
the wounded man she was helping. While
with the army, she contracted typhoid
fever, but later recovered. Her
efforts to bring better medical care and
to help locate missing servicemen laid the
groundwork for her future role as the
founder and leader of the American Red
Cross, which she began in 1881. Her drive
to create an American chapter of the Red
Cross, came during a trip to Europe, which
began in 1869. While there, she learned of
the International Red Cross, an
organization to which the United States
did not belong . Observing Red Cross
volunteers at work with the wounded during
the 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War (see
Franco-German
Wars),
she saw the need for the United States to
form its own branch of the Red Cross. One
feature of the U.S. Red Cross that she
added to the original role as a source of
wartime aid, was the idea of Red Cross
assistance in times of natural disasters,
such as hurricanes and floods. Under
Clara Barton's leadership, the American
Red Cross's early peacetime work included
helping victims of of the Mississippi and
Ohio River floods in 1882 and 1884, the
Texas famine of 1886, the yellow fever
epidemic in 1887 in Florida, an Illinois
earthquake in 1888, and the now-famous
1889 Johnstown, Pennsylvania flood.
Through Barton's and the Red Cross's
peacetime work, other countries saw need
for such peacetime aid and the Geneva
Convention adopted the so-called "American
Amendment" to its charter in 1884 to make
peacetime work part of the purpose of the
International Red Cross. The American Red
Cross first experience in war was in the
Spanish-American
War
of 1898. In her career after the Civil
War, she also travelled the country giving
speeches, for which she was paid quite
well. Her friendship with Susan B. Anthony
and Julia Ward Howe led her to support the
women's suffrage movement. She also
supported civil rights for freed
African-Americans after the
war. She
ran the Red Cross until retiring in 1904.
She died in Glen Echo, Maryland on April
12, 1912. Your
Ad Could Be Working For You On This
Page! Links
and Resources Internet
Links: Clara Barton
National Historic Site --From the
National Park Services. Provides
information on the Glen Echo house which
served as Barton's home, the headquarters
for the American Red Cross, and a
warehouse for disaster relief supplies.
Includes biography, images, and lesson
plans. Testimony
of Clara Barton to Congress -Testifies
during the 39th Congress concerning her
experiences and observations while working
in Andersonville, Georgia. Her testimony
is recorded in the Reports of the
Committees of the House of Representatives
on February 21, 1866. Clara
Barton in Dansville --Traces Barton's
service during the years of 1866 and
1876-1886. Clara
Barton: American Humanitarian Life
Stories of Civil War Heroes: Clara Barton
--Biography of the nurse and founder
of the American Red Cross. Profiles
in Caring: Clara Barton --Tribute to
the woman who was known during the U.S.
Civil War as the Angel of the
Battlefield. Spectrum
Biography: Clara Barton "The
History Guy" is a Registered Trademark. Contact
the webmaster Personal
Data Role
in the war years: Clara Barton
organized relief efforts for wounded Union
soldiers. She worked as a nurse, and
worked to bring better medical care for
the wounded. She also began efforts to
locate soldiers missing in
action. Soldiers
called her "The Angel of the Battlefield,"
for her nursing work. Date
of Birth: December 25, 1821 Date
of Death: April 12, 1912 Occupation:
Nurse Post-War:
Nurse, Founder of the American Red
Cross World
Biography-More
pages on contemporaries of Clara
Barton. Clara
Barton--
The "Angel of the Battlefield"
who brought nursing care to
wounded soldiers during the Civil
War and later founded the
American Red
Cross. Mathew
Brady--
The "Father of Photojournalism"
whose photos of Civil War
battlefields brought the horrors
of war home to civilians on the
homefront. Dr.
Benjamin
Rush--
Signer of the Declaration of
Independence, member of the
Constitutional Convention, noted
physician and ardent supporter
for the abolition of
slavery. Thomas
Nast-American
political cartoonist. General
George Armstrong
Custer--
Famous American Cavalry officer
who died at the Battle of the
Little Bighorn in
1876. General
Robert E.
Lee--
The commanding general for the
South in the American Civil
War.--New Lorenzo
de
Zavala--First
Vice-President of the Republic of
Texas. Frederick
Douglass--
The famous orator, author, and
champion against
slavery. Site
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in progress
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Joe
Stack Joins Other Domestic
Terrorists on the Dark Side of
History--History
Guy Commentary, posted Feb.
19, 2010
Copyright
© 1998-2010 Roger A. Lee and History
Guy Media; Last Modified:
04.25.10
Copyright
© 1998-2010 Roger A. Lee and History Guy
Media; Last Modified 04.25.10
Pre-War:
School Teacher, Founder of a free
public school in Bordentown, New
Jersey, first female clerk in the U.S.
Patent Office