1821-1912, U.S. Civil War Nurse and Humanitarian
A one-woman relief agency and the outstanding Union battlefield nurse in the eastern theater of the
American Civil War, Clara Barton served in field hospitals at or near the battlegrounds of Second bull run,
Antietam, Fredericksburg, Battery Wagner, the Wilderness, and the Richmond-Petersburg siege. Often under fire, she showed a skeptical military establishment that women could serve in the field with bravery and competence and thus cleared the way for other Northern women to follow her to the Virginia front. The Civil War was the central, defining event in Barton's life: it gave her the opportunity to reach out and seize control of her destiny in the relief of the suffering. She later served in military hospitals in Europe and Cuba and founded and became first president of the American Association of the Red Cross.
Stephen B. Oates
