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Web
www.historyguy.com
www.worldbiography.net 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 Citation http://www.worldbiography.net/barton_clara.html
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
Map--revision
in progress
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Copyright
© 1998-2006 Roger A. Lee and History Guy
Media; Last Modified 11.18.06.
Lee, R. "World Biography: Clara Barton
(1821-1912)"
Pre-War:
School Teacher, Founder of a free
public school in Bordentown, New
Jersey, first female clerk in the U.S.
Patent Office
