She met and was one of the first to tend to the routed multitudes from the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861 and, in October, the soldiers returning from the Battle of Ball’s Bluff, who included soldiers she knew from Massachusetts. Following David’s recovery, Captain Barton sent Clara to a private boarding school and though she was able to keep up academically, her shyness affected her health and she returned home. She went home to North Oxford but later returned to the Patent Office and was in Washington, D.C. when the American Civil War began. Clara Barton became the first president of the American Red Cross and led the organization for the next 23 years. Clara Barton was one of the most prominent medical volunteers in the Civil War and helped revolutionize battlefield medicine well after it ended. Her father was a prosperous businessman and community leader who served in the Indian wars and regaled Clara with war stories. Clara then traveled with the army to Antietam Creek outside Sharpsburg, Maryland. Fact #1: Barton had little to no practical medical experience before the outbreak of the war. In 1872, nervous exhaustion caused Clara to temporarily lose her eyesight and she went to England to recuperate. While tending to a wounded soldier during the Battle of Antietam, she felt her sleeve move—a bullet had gone through it and killed the man she was tending. She also testified about the freed slaves, many of whom had not been told of their freedom, and her observations of the whites in Georgia. North Oxford, Massachusetts, April 12, 1912 (aged 90) Clara also directed her last relief operation in 1900, for victims of a hurricane that devastated Galveston, Texas. Relevance. In 1905, she established the National First Aid Association of America, which emphasized basic first aid instruction and emergency preparedness, and served as honorary president for five years. How did Clara Barton change the world? Her father was a respected farmer, horse breeder, and also a politician. Clarissa "Clara" Barton was born on December 25th, 1821 in Oxford, Massachusetts to Stephen and Sarah Barton. Soon after, on March 11, 1865, Clara was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln to "search for missing prisoners of war," helping soldiers separated from the units reunite with those units or their families and helping families learn the fate of missing soldiers. She was also a supporter of the women’s suffrage movement and dedicated her life to helping people.. Clarissa "Clara" Harlowe Barton was born December 25, 1821, in North Oxford, Massachusetts, to Captain Stephen and Sarah (Stone) Barton. Services, Working Scholars® Bringing Tuition-Free College to the Community. Because the physicians were too busy to keep records, Clara wrote the names of the men who died at Chatham and where they were buried in her diary. She collected food, medicine, clothing, and other supplies for the troops, many of whom arrived with just the clothes they were wearing. In 1900, after several contentious attempts in the 1890s, the U.S. Congress granted the American Red Cross a charter, making the independent, non-profit organization responsible for fulfilling the provisions of the Geneva Conventions, providing family and other support to the U.S. military, and providing a system for disaster relief. The family enlisted the help of a doctor who used hydrotherapy to cure David within a few weeks. She set up Friends of the Missing Men of the United States Army using her own funds and with the assistance of several volunteers, including her sister Sally. In 1898, Clara herself traveled with nurses to Cuba during the Spanish-American War to nurse the wounded and provide supplies and food—she was 76 at the time. "Clara Barton's life of service has been a role model for generations of nurses, teachers, social workers, doctors, and allied health professionals. Four years later, bowing to pressure for new, larger centralized leadership of the American Red Cross, she resigned her position. The American Red Cross also provided international relief, helping victims of the Russian famine of 1892 and providing relief to Armenians living in Turkish-controlled Armenia in 1896, among other endeavors. Clara wrote friends in Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey urging them to help, soon building a volunteer supply network that would last the entirety of the war. Founder of the National First Aid Association of America. The American Red Cross is still on effect today, and helping millions of people that have suffered each year. The neglected wounds of the men, which had weighed on her mind since Bull Run, led her to campaign for the ability to travel to the field hospitals, which were restricted to male-only staffs by both military regulations and societal mores. She finally received official permission on August 3, 1862, to transport supplies to battlefields and arrived in the Union camps four days after the Battle of Cedar Mountain, Virginia. She was also a supporter of the women’s suffrage movement and dedicated her life to helping people. answer! To assist a physician, she even traveled into Fredericksburg itself to tend the wounded and was able to set up a soup kitchen, returning to Chatham the next day to continue helping the wounded. The hope was that veterans seeing the list might recognize a name or two and provide Clara with information, which her organization would then provide to whoever had inquired about that soldier. At the time, New Jersey had no free public schools, but with support from the local community Clara opened a free public school. In February 1866 she testified before Congress about the Andersonville prison grounds, which still stood, a stockade with no running water or shelter. Clara Barton summary: Clara Barton is best known as one of the founders of the American Red Cross and as a pioneer in the field of nursing. In these ways, the legacy of Clara Barton lives on, along with the Red Cross. Clara resigned and moved to Washington, D.C., where she became the first female clerk at the U.S. Patent Office. During the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, she assisted in a hospital at Chatham, known as the Lacy House, tending wounded from both sides. Because of Clara Barton, nursing is now a … First female clerk at U.S. Patent Office Clara Barton's war-related efforts didn't end with the war. Finally, her mother had her examined by a noted phrenologist, who recommended she become a teacher to overcome her shyness. I am doing a report on Clara Barton and I need to make an argument that she changed world history. Become a Study.com member to unlock this Please consider these ten facts to expand your appreciation for this important and influential woman.