In 1861, America was divided. Southern and northern states were at war over the power of the federal government, the ownership of slaves, and trade tariffs. While most American women remained at home, working hard to keep their homes and communities going, one young woman wanted to join the men on the battlefield.
Clara Barton wrote in her diary, "I’m well and strong and young─young enough to go to the front lines. If I cannot be a soldier, I’ll help soldiers." She kept her word. Not only did Clara Barton become the "angel of the battlefield" in the American Civil War, she later founded the American Red Cross, fought for social justice, and led a remarkable and courageous life.
Clara Barton was born on December 25, 1821, in Massachusetts in the United States. Her father was a farmer and her mother was a housewife. She had four siblings who were much older than she was. Clara herself said that she "had no playmates, but in effect, six fathers and mothers." She was homeschooled, and while most young women were discouraged from learning too much, Clara’s liberal family encouraged her scholastic pursuits.
They also let her be a tomboy; Clara rode horses bareback and played outside with her brothers. Despite this freedom, she was extremely shy as a young girl. But if there was a crisis, Clara could overcome her shyness and anxiety. When her brother fell from a barn roof, eleven-year-old Clara nursed him during his two-year recovery. Throughout her life, her inner strength would show itself again and again.
Clara became a school teacher in 1839, and for several years she taught at schools in her hometown. She treated her students fairly and disciplined them without using violence. Clara won over the toughest boys in the class by joining in their games at recess─the tomboy in her still shone through.
In the mid-1840s, Clara became involved in charity work for the first time. At one school, she had to teach in a run-down building with dark and dingy classrooms. Students were often absent and there weren’t enough textbooks. Clara drew up plans for improvement and presented them at a town meeting. Her plans were approved, and the school was moved to new facilities and equipped with new books. Students started attending again and the school became a better place for learning.
In her late twenties, Clara moved to New Jersey where she established a "free school" that anybody could attend, even the very poor. At first, only six students enrolled, but enrollment quickly rose to six hundred! When the town decided to hire a school principal, the town councilors gave the position to a man because they thought a woman couldn’t do the job. Clara left New Jersey disappointed, and soon after, she quit teaching to pursue a new career.
She traveled to Washington, where she met with a high-level government official. Greatly impressed by Clara’s intelligence and political awareness, he decided to hire her at the Patent Office. In 1854, Clara Barton became the first female employee to be hired by the government, and the first female employee to receive a salary equal to that of a man. Clara would accept no less, saying, "I shall never do a man’s work for less than a man’s pay."
In 1861, the American Civil War broke out, and many government buildings in the city of Washington were used as makeshift hospitals. Clara quickly realized that the Army Medical Department was not properly prepared, so she gathered medical supplies to take to the battlefields. The army, however, thought that unmarried women like, Clara Barton, should do "women’s work" with other women and that only men should be allowed in war zones.
After a year of lobbying, Clara was given permission to drive her wagon full of supplies onto the Civil War battlefields. In 1862, Clara "broke the shackles," as she put it, and went into the battlefields of Cedar Mountain. The conditions there sickened her. She found that clean bandages and water were lacking, and many wounded soldiers were not receiving enough food or medical care.
On the Civil War battlefields, Clara Barton gave admirable assistance to soldiers and medical staff, especially considering the dangerous conditions. Bullet fire filled the air, and bombs exploded all around her. One army surgeon wrote, "At a time when we were entirely out of dressings, Clara supplied us with everything, and while the shells were bursting in every direction, she gave out clean shirts and prepared soup. I thought that if heaven ever sent out an angel, she must be one." Clara became known as the "angel of the battlefield."
Throughout the American Civil War, from 1861 to 1865, Clara traveled from battle to battle, bringing much-needed supplies and nursing the wounded soldiers on both sides of the conflict. While serving others, she found she forgot her shyness and concentrated only on her work. After the Civil War ended, she helped families track down missing soldiers. This work wore Clara out and a doctor recommended that she take a rest.
In 1869, Clara traveled to Europe on vacation. While she was there, some friends in Geneva, Switzerland, introduced her to a new organization called the Red Cross. The Red Cross movement, founded in Switzerland by Henri Dunant, called for international agreements to protect the sick and wounded during wartime, no matter what country they were from. These ideals later became embodied in an international treaty called the Geneva Convention, which governments still honor today.
Considering Clara’s experiences during the Civil War, it is not surprising that the Red Cross appealed to her immensely. In 1870, while she was still on vacation, the Franco-Prussian War began (Prussia is modern-day Germany), and Clara went to the battlefields again, this time working as a Red Cross volunteer. After her work in the war, Clara helped establish sewing factories in the German city of Strasbourg to provide clothing for the people of that war-torn city and employment for its women. Later, she traveled through French cities distributing aid and directing relief work.
In 1873, Clara Barton returned to the United States and began an endeavor that occupied her for the rest of her life: the American Red Cross. It took many years of lobbying, but by 1881, at the age of sixty, she persuaded the U.S. government to officially recognize the American Red Cross and allow it to provide aid during natural disasters. Clara was so committed to her work that in 1897 her house in Glen Echo, Maryland, was remodeled so that it could become the headquarters of the American Red Cross. It had bedrooms for volunteers, as well as offices, a library, and a storeroom for donated supplies.
Clara was president of the American Red Cross from 1881 to 1904, and during that time the Red Cross was the only non-government organization helping victims of fires, earthquakes, droughts, tornadoes, and floods in the United States. For example, in 1889, Clara and other Red Cross volunteers organized temporary shelters for the victims of a massive flood in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
When a huge tidal wave and tornado hit Houston, Texas, in 1900, Clara Barton visited with the Red Cross. The main crop in the farming area around Houston was strawberries, and all the crops had been destroyed. Clara arranged for medical supplies and food to be shipped to the area. She also arranged for 1.5 million strawberry plants to be distributed to the farmers so that they could replant their crops and rebuild their lives.
Clara never stopped working, even into her eighties. When she died in 1912 at age ninety, she was recognized internationally for her courage, commitment, and hard work in both peacetime and war. At a time when people believed women should be housewives, Clara defied convention in order to help others and build a better world. In her own words: "I have an almost complete disregard of precedent and a faith in the possibility of something better."