Clara Barton: The Angel of the Battlefield

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Clara Barton was born in Oxford Massachusetts on December 25, 1821. Little did everyone know the huge role she would fill in American history. The medical field caught her attention when she helped heal her brother after he was in an accident. Barton became a teacher when she was 15 and later opened a free public school in New Jersey. She moved to Washington, D.C., to work in the U.S. Patent Office as a clerk in the mid-1850s. During the Civil War, Barton strived to help the soldiers in any way she could. Toward the beginning of the war, she collected and distributed supplies for the Union Army. Not content sitting on the sidelines and wanting to do more to help out, Clara became an independent nurse. The first battle scene she experienced was in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1862. She also treated soldiers at the Battle of Antietam. Barton became known as "the angel of the battlefield" for her hard work and determination. After the war ended in 1865, Barton’s work didn’t stop there. Later, Clara Barton worked for the War Department, helping to either reunite missing soldiers and their families or find out more about those who were missing. She also became a lecturer and crowds of people came to hear her talk about her war experiences. …show more content…

After returning home to the United States, she began to build the American branch of this organization up. The American Red Cross Society was founded in 1881 and Clara Barton became its first president. Clara Barton resigned from the American Red Cross in 1904 because of financial mismanagement. She never took a salary for her work within the organization and sometimes used the funding she got to continue to support the cause. Barton died at her home in Glen Echo, Maryland, on April 12,

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