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Civil War Science

Clarissa Harlowe Barton (1821-1912): "The Angel of the Battlefield", Clara Barton was not a trained nurse, but went on to found the American Red Cross in 1881, and would serve as President for many years thereafter. On December 25,1821, Clara Barton was born, in Oxford, Massachusetts. Growing up, Barton was educated, at home, by her two brothers and two sisters. In the beginning she was a teacher and is the founder of many free schools in New Jersey. But, in 1854, she went to Washington, D.C. to become a clerk in the Patent Office. At the outbreak of the Civil War, 40 year-old Clara resigned from the office to go work as a volunteer. She advertised for supplies and distributed bandages, socks, and other goods to help with the wounded soldiers. In 1862 she was given permission to deliver supplies directly to the front, which she did for the next two years. Knowing the nurses were urgently needed at the battlefield, she "broke the shackles and went into the battlefield." Barton was then given the position of superintendent of Union nurses in 1864. After the war, President Lincoln gave his permission to allow her to begin a letter-writing campaign to search for missing soldiers from the war. The following years of the war, Clara Barton went and lectured about the experiences she had endured during the war. Between 1869 and 1873, Clara lived in Europe where she had helped establish hospitals, (during the Franco-Prussian War), and was then honored with the Iron Cross of Germany. She threw herself into relief work in Europe and was impressed with the International Red Cross. She then lobbied for United States ratification of the Red Cross Treaty. Through Barton's efforts, the American Red Cross Society was formed in 1881; she served as the first President of the organization until 1904. On April 12, 1912, Clarissa Harlowe Barton died, in Glen Echo, Maryland, at the tender age of ninety.

Clara Barton (1821-1912)

Civil War Nurses are "The Angles of the Battlefield"

Bibliography:

http://www.greatwomen.org/barton.htm,

http://www.civilwarhome.com/bartonbio.htm