Barton, Clara
Barton, Clara (1821–1912), Civil War nurse, relief worker, and founder of the American Red Cross.Raised in a quiet New England family, Clara Barton taught, founded a public school in New Jersey, and in 1854 became a copyist in the U.S. Patent Office. In 1861, the Civil War catapulted her to national prominence. During the first two years, Barton functioned as a one‐woman relief agency. Relying on the assistance of a few sympathetic politicians and friends, and shunning official channels of the U.S. Sanitary Commission and Dorothea Dix's nursing corps, Barton brought supplies and relief to thousands of suffering Union soldiers on fields in the Eastern theater. Her timely arrivals from Fredericksburg to Antietam earned her the nickname “Angel of...
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