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| Mathew Brady photo of Clara Barton, circa 1865 |
Clara Barton was born in Oxford, Massachusetts, just a few miles from my hometown, so I've always had an affinity for her. The "angel of the battlefield" added yet another line to her already impressive résumé on this date in 1881, when she founded the American Red Cross.
Barton “began teaching school at a time when most teachers were men,” according to a biography on the American Red Cross web site. “She was among the first women to gain employment in the federal government. As a pioneer and humanitarian, she risked her life when she was nearly 40 years old to bring supplies and support to soldiers in the field during the Civil War." She was 60 when she founded the American Red Cross, which she led for 23 years.
Barton was independent-minded; she never became formally affiliated with any organization or group as she cared for wounded soldiers during the war. And she was fearless, racing onto battlefields to offer aid instead of enjoying the relative safety of medical units that were stationed at the rear. Such was the case at the Battle of Antietam.
“As bullets whizzed overhead and artillery boomed in the distance, Miss Barton cradled the heads of suffering soldiers, prepared food for them in a local farm house, and brought water to the wounded men,” according to a National Park Service web site. “As she knelt down to give one man a drink, she felt her sleeve quiver. She looked down, noticed a bullet hole in her sleeve, and then discovered that the bullet had killed the man she was helping.”
"In my feeble estimation,” said Dr. James Dunn, surgeon at Antietam, “General McClellan, with all his laurels, sinks into insignificance beside the true heroine of the age, the angel of the battlefield."
Barton established an organization to find and identify missing prisoners of war; successfully proposed the creation of a national cemetery in Andersonville, Georgia; led an effort to identify the graves of nearly 13,000 men who died at Andersonville Prison; and went to the war zone with volunteers from the International Red Cross during the Franco-Prussian War.
"In my feeble estimation,” said Dr. James Dunn, surgeon at Antietam, “General McClellan, with all his laurels, sinks into insignificance beside the true heroine of the age, the angel of the battlefield."
Barton established an organization to find and identify missing prisoners of war; successfully proposed the creation of a national cemetery in Andersonville, Georgia; led an effort to identify the graves of nearly 13,000 men who died at Andersonville Prison; and went to the war zone with volunteers from the International Red Cross during the Franco-Prussian War.
With Barton at the helm, the American Red Cross aided forest-fire victims in Michigan; flood victims along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers; survivors of the 1889 Johnston flood in Pennsylvania; Russians plagued by famine; survivors of a hurricane and tidal wave in South Carolina; refugees in Turkey and Armenia; and survivors of the 1900 flood and tidal wave in Galveston, Texas.
In the midst of helping others, Barton battled her own demons, as the Red Cross web site explains.
“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.”
