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Clara Barton was born in Massachusetts. She was the youngest of five kids. Clara was born to Stephen and Sarah Barton.
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Claras brother was injured. She had to tend to him throughout his healing process. This marked the start of her medical career.
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After a career in teaching, Clara moved to work in the patent office. She worked as a copier. This put her in Washington, closer to the action when the Civil War began.
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After a war battle many wounded soldiers arrived in Washington D.C. Clara found them. She used her own supplies to tend them.
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Clara Clara received official approval for her travel to the battlefields to care for the wounded. The U.S. Surgeon General, William A. Hammond, gave her permission to travel to places where fighting was taking place. Clara did not work primarily as a nurse during the war. She mostly traveled around the battlefield handing out supplies.
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While working on the battlefield to help wounded soldiers, Clara was nicked by a stray bullet. She was okay, but the bullet killed the soldier she was working on.
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With the approval of President Abraham Lincoln, Clara established an office to find lost soldiers. She spends the year tending to and looking for the soilders. She located over 22,000 lost soldiers.
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Clara succeeded in forming the American Red Cross. She was elected its first president.
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In late 1881, Michigan was ravaged by forest fires. The Red Cross stepped in and rebuilt 50 homes.
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After returning to America, Clara worked hard to establish a Red Cross in America. She wrote and distributed a pamphlet called The Red Cross of the Geneva Convention. It explained a confederation of Relief Societies in different countries, acting under the Geneva Convention.
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Clara Barton died at the age of 90. Her legend of helping the wounded and finding the missing has lived on with the American Red Cross. She will be remembered as the Angel of the Battlefield.
