Clara Barton (1821-1912) was born in Oxford, Massachuettes in 1821. Her older brother became her first patient when he fell from the rafters of the family's barn. At the age of 11 Clara stayed by her brother's side for 3 years nursing him back to health, learning to administer all of his medications, including leeches.
Nine days after the Civil War began Clara found herself tending to wounded Massachusetts soldiers in the US Senate Chambers in Washington DC. Three months later Clara established the agency that obtained and distributed supplies to wounded soldiers. She was then given a pass to travel with the Army ambulances into the war zone to give comfort and aid to wounded soldiers. During the years that followed she was given permission to travel to the front lines and reached some of the grimmest battlefields of the war and was allowed to bring her own supplies.
In 1865 President Lincoln put Clara in charge of searching for missing soldiers. She met a soldier who had compiled a list of 13,000 dead soldiers. The list was eventually published and became known as the Atwater List and is still available today. Clara became known as the Angel of the Battlefield and her work in finding missing soldiers led her on a nationwide campaign to identify missing soldiers and she became recognized nationally for her work. She began lecturing around the country on her work on the battlefield and met Susan B Anthony, the women's suffergate and began a lifelong association with women's issues and after meeting Frederick Douglas became an activist for black civil rights.
On a trip to Geneva in 1869 she was introduced to the Red Cross and she began a campaign to have the American Red Cross recognized the American government. The American Red Cross was born on May 21, 1881. In 1896 Clara traveled to Istanbul and established the first American International Red Cross headquarters in turkey.
What a gal!
