Clara Barton

 Hamilton, Leni. Clara Barton. New York: Chelsea House, 1988.Print.

 

Since Clara Barton was ill from the exhaustion of teaching and opening the new school in Bordentown, she moved to Washington and stayed with her sister, Sally. After her recovery, she got a job in the government office which she was the only woman working and got paid as equal to men, but it didn’t last long since there was so many complains. So Barton started to know people in higher offices in order to keep her job and she became a close friend with Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts. As the Civil War had started in April of 1861, the number of wounded and dead soldiers was rising and Barton found out nothing was done to prepare for the medical treatment of the soldiers. She tried to help as much as she could, but she realized most of the wounded soldiers died because of not being treated for three to four days and they died because of infection, excessive bleeding and hunger. She started writing to the War Department to ask to go to the battle frontline to treat the soldiers. In the time of the Civil War, there was no nursing school to be trained, women always nursed the wounded during the war and that was how they learned the job. There were few organizations during the Civil War such as the U.S. Sanitary Commission, Soldiers Aid Society and spiritually- oriented Christian Commission to gather medical supply and care for soldiers behind the lines, but Barton changed that by receiving a letter from the surgeon general to serve in the battle front line. Barton purchased all the medical supply and food to take to the front line from her own money. She worked patiently and efficiently with very little rest and food. After the war was over, she arranged an organization to locate and trace the missing soldiers and she helped to find more than 22,000 soldiers in about four years. She also gave many lectures about her experience during the war. Due to her illness and exhaustion during the war, she traveled to Switzerland to recover and met Dr. Louis Appia the president of the Red Cross in Geneva. Dr. Appia asked Barton if she could help him with his organization and if she also could make the U.S. be part of the Red Cross since the American Officials denied joining this organization few times. During her stay in Geneva, the Franco- Prussian war between the Treaty of Geneva-Germany and France began and Barton rose from the sick bed and pushed herself to help in the battle. After her return to U.S., she had the desire to open the Red Cross in her country and started her mission by asking help from Dr. Appia and writing to the American Official to grant the permission. She tried to explain to the officials that the Red Cross could help during the war and the peace time when there were some natural disasters. Barton received the approval from the President James Garfield to organize the American Red Cross. Her organization was a remarkable help during the natural disasters such as a massive fire in northern Michigan and the tremendous flooding on the Ohio and the Mississippi River. She attended the International Red Cross Conference in Geneva and gave lectures and wrote a 700 page book about the Red Cross. She also helped other countries during war like Spain and Armenia and opened Red Cross in those countries. She never wed and died at age 90 from tuberculosis with all her friends by her side. The home she lived in is a national historic site and her childhood home is a museum.