(Photo)
In 1862 she received permission from
Surgeon
General
William Hammond to travel with the army
for the
purpose of
distributing comforts for the sick and
wounded,
and
nursing them. Barton, however, described
her job
as
"staunching
blood and feeding fainting men" and her
post as
"the open field between the bullet and
the
hospital." For the next
three years Barton earned a national
reputation
as
the angel of the
battlefield for
her work in
caring for Union wounded. At President
Abraham
Lincoln's request, Barton led the search
at the
end
of the war for the
many missing soldiers, traveling to
Andersonville,
Ga., to identify the graves of Union
prisoners.
Clara Barton worked to establish the
American Red Cross
finally
achieving her goal in 1881.
Appointed president of the organization
(a
position
held for 23 years), she succeeded in
having the
United States
adopt the Geneva Agreement on the
treatment of
prisoners and wounded.
Clara Barton was born in Oxford, Mass.,
in
1821, the fifth and youngest child of a
middle-class
family that
educated the children at home. At age
15 she
began
an 18 year teaching career. Barton was
39 and
working in the
Washington Patent Office when the Civil
War broke
out. She began organizing relief
programs for the
many Union
troops stationed in the city, which led
to her
aiding the wounded from the 1st Battle
of Bull
Run.
Barton was so close to the front
lines at the
Battle of Sharpsburg that a bullet
passed through
her clothes and
killed the wounded soldier she was
tending.