night fell, she gave the
surgeons her lanterns as well.
Steadfastly she worked
alongside them, bringing water
to the wounded, preparing
food in the nearby farmhouse,
and assisting the surgeons. At
one point she was kneeling
next to a wounded soldier,
giving him water, when she felt
her sleeve quiver—and
discovered a bullet hole. The
bullet had pierced her sleeve
and killed the man to whom
she was ministering.
After the battle she kept on
working, refusing sleep and
taking little time to eat. A few days
later she collapsed from exhaustion
and typhoid and was taken back
to Washington, delirious. Barton
recovered quickly and returned to
the front. She accompanied the
Army of the Potomac on many
major campaigns, but the Army
Medical Department had been fully
mobilized since 1863 and civilian
volunteers such as Barton,
though still welcome, could
do little to augment the
army’s medical systems.
In April 1863, she
was given
information comforted
countless loved ones in the
North who yearned for news
that could confirm the fate of a
husband, brother, or son who
had not returned. Under the
auspices of her new position,
Barton was instrumental in
identifying nearly 13,000
dead Union prisoners of war at
Andersonville, Georgia, and placing
headstones over their graves.American Red Cross
In 1870, at the outbreak of the Franco-
Prussian War, Barton was in Europe
and offered her assistance to the sick
and wounded of both sides. Working
mainly in Strasbourg and Paris, she
learned much about the International
Red Cross and became an enthusiastic
supporter of the organization. Returning
home, she led a crusade to found an
American branch of the society,
meeting strong institutional and
governmental resistance. Finally, in
1881, Barton’s persistence bore fruit as
she was sworn in as the first president
of the American Red Cross.
She remained at the head of the
organization until 1904, when she
resigned over criticism of her
management—some of which may
have stemmed from her work on behalf
of the women’s suffrage movement, in
which she was also active until her
death. Living another eight years in
retirement, Barton died aged 90 at her
home in Glen Echo, Maryland.Andersonville graves
Barton was involved in the monumental task of tracing
all the men who had gone missing in the war. Many had
died—of malnutrition and disease—in the hellish prison
camp at Andersonville, Georgia, where she played a
major part in organizing their grave markers.permission to accompany her brother
David, who was quartermaster of the
Eighteenth Corps, to South Carolina.
In the summer of 1864, Barton
headed to Bermuda Hundred, below
Richmond, where Benjamin Butler’s
Army of the James lay bottled up inentrenchments. Butler was so taken by
her character and efficiency that he
appointed her “lady in charge” of all
the nurses in his hospitals at the front.Missing Soldiers Office
As the war drew to a close, President
Lincoln, aware of her selfless efforts on
behalf of the sick and wounded, made
her the supervisor of the Missing
Soldiers Office. Most of the missing
men were never found, but Barton’s
office succeeded in locating hundreds
of soldiers’ remains, their graves, and,
occasionally, a live soldier. ThisCLARA BARTON■ December 25, 1821 Born Clarissa Harlowe
Barton, the youngest of five children, in Oxford,
Massachusetts.
■ 1832 Aged 11, she nurses her brother David for
three years after he is injured in a farm accident.
■ 1838 Starts a teaching job in Massachusetts.
■ 1854 She establishes the first free school in
New Jersey, at Bordentown, but is overlooked as
principal in favor of a man.
■ 1854 Moves to Washington, D. C., where she
becomes the first woman to work as a clerk at
the Patent Office.
■ July 1861 Leaves the Patent Office and sets up
an agency to help wounded Union soldiers in
Washington. Receives clothing and other
donations from all over the country.
■ August 13, 1862 Arrives in Virginia a few days
after the Battle of Cedar Mountain, having obtained
permission to take medical supplies to the front.
■ September 17, 1862 Nurses the wounded on
the battlefield of Antietam. Returns to Washington
to recover from exhaustion and typhoid, but soon
rejoins the Army of the Potomac on campaign.
■ April 1863 Travels to South Carolina. She is
present at the siege of Fort Wagner in July.
■ Spring 1864 Tends the wounded at
Fredericksburg, and works in a mobile field
hospital with General Butler’s Army of the James.
■ 1865 Put in charge of finding missing Union
soldiers by President Lincoln. Does valuable
work identifying those who died at the notorious
Confederate prison at Andersonville.
■ November 1866 Embarks on a lecture tour of
the United States entitled, “Work and Incidents
of Army Life,” recounting her war experiences.
■ 1869 Travels to Europe. While in Switzerland,
she learns about the Geneva Convention and
International Red Cross.
■ 1870–71 In the Franco-Prussian War, Barton
helps injured soldiers and organizes relief work.
■ 1873 Returns to the United States in poor health.
■ 1877 Travels to Washington to campaign for the
United States to sign the Geneva Convention
and recognize the International Red Cross.
■ 1881 The American Red Cross is formed with
Barton as its first president.
■ 1898 In the Spanish-American War, Barton
works in hospitals in Cuba at the age of 77.■ 1904 Resigns as president of the American Red
Cross amid criticism of her leadership.
■ April 12, 1912 Dies at Glen Echo, Maryland.TIMELINEAMBULANCE FROM
SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR“... General McClellan ... sinks
into insignificance beside the
true heroine of the age, the
angel of the battlefield.”
DR. JAMES DUNN, A SURGEON AT ANTIETAM, ON CLARA BARTON, SEPTEMBER 1862Tending the wounded
Clara Barton worked days and nights on end
to help wounded soldiers on the battlefield,
especially after the bloody clash at Antietam
in 1862. Her selfless work was the subject of
many popular engravings and lithographs.