Clara Barton, Female Humanitarian
She Provided Supplies and Comfort to Soldiers of the US Civil War
At fifteen, Clara Barton began teaching at a private school in New Jersey. She realised the need for free education, and despite opposition,set up the first state school. In 1854, when officials appointed a male principal in her place, Barton resigned and moved to Washington. She became the first woman to work at the patent office. Even more amazing, she earned the same wage as the male clerks.
She was in Washington in 1861 when the 6th Massachusetts Regiment arrived in the city after the Baltimore Riots. Barton organised a relief program for the soldiers.
The Beginning of her Relief Operation
When she realised that many of the wounded from the First Bull Run had suffered, not from neglect but from the lack of medical supplies. She advertised for donations in the newspaper and began an independent organisation to distribute goods. The relief operation was successful and in July 1862, US Surgeon General William A. Hammond granted her a general pass to travel with army ambulances"for the purpose of distributing comforts for the sick and wounded and nursing them."
She reached some of the grimmest battlefields of the war and served during the seiges of Petersburg and Richmond.
On the Front LIne
Arriving at the infamous "Cornfield" at about noon, Barton watched as harried surgeons dressed soldiers' wounds with cornhusks. The medical supplies were far behind the fast- moving troops at Antietam Battlefield. She handed over to grateful surgeons, supplies of bandages and other medical supplies she had personally collected over the past year.
On the front line and under fire, Barton cradled heads, prepared food and provided water to the wounded. When night fell, and the surgeons could not work, this time due to lack of light. Barton produced lanterns from the wagon of supplies and the grateful doctors went back to work.
But the journey to the battlefields had not been easy. The day before she arrived, Barton's wagon was mired near the back of the army's massive supply line. Prodded by Barton, her teamsters drove the mules all night to get closer to the front line.
A few days after the battle, the Confederates retreated and wagons of extra medical supplies were rolling onto Sharpsburg. Barton collapsed from lack of sleep and a budding case of typhoid fever. She returned to Washington lying in the back of a wagon, exhausted and delirious. She soon regained strength and returned to the battlefields of the Civil War.
For three years she followed army operations throughout the Charleston SC area. Her work in Fredericksburg, caring for casualties from the Battle of the Wilderness and her nursing work at Bermuda Hundred attracted national notice.
Barton delivered aid to soldiers of both the North and the South.
In 1865 she helped with the effort to identify 13,000 unknown Union dead at the horrific prisoner of war camp at Andersonville. Her experiences here launched her on a nationwide campaign to identify soldiers missing during the Civil War. She published lists of names in newspapers and exchanged letters with veterans and soldiers' families.
Founder of the American Red Cross
Barton travelled to Europe in 1870 for a well deserved break and found herself in the outbreak of the war between France and Prussia ( modern day Germany). She witnessed the hardship the war brought to many French civilians and joined the relief effort. She was impressed with a new organisation- The Red Cross.Created in 1864 the Red Cross chartered to provide humane services to all victims during wartime under a flag of neutrality.
When she returned to the USA, she began her most enduring work- the establishment of the American Red Cross. The US government, however, were reluctant as they couldn't imagine the country ever again being involved in armed conflict after the Civil War.
Finally, by 1881, at the age of sixty she persuaded the government to recognise the Red Cross to provide aid for natural disasters. She continued to do relief work in the field until well into her seventies. She was not a strong administrator and political feuding at the American Red Cross forced her to resign in 1904. She retired to her home at Glen Echo outside Washington DC, where she died on 12th April 1912.
Clara Barton was a humanitarian, who gave aid and relief to every soldier, both North and South. Her compassion and dedication to her cause resulted in the establishment of one the greatest humanitarian organisations
Sources:
civilwarhome.com
historynet.com
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