A Woman Savior

God has finally sent us a woman savior. Her name is Clara Barton and she has founded the American Red Cross for our nation. Now, a lot of people can get aid when they are hurt in the war. The red cross helps to heal the wounds of hurt soldiers, civilians, and prisoners.

Clara was a very special girl, born into a very special family. She was born on December 25, 1821(Christmas Day) in North Oxford, Massacusetts. She was the youngest of five children. Clara’s family had the "patriot" blood in them. For example, her father was the town official of Massachusetts, the captain of the militia and a member of the Massachusetts legislature. He helped the less fortunate people by buying them a house to stay in. Clara’s mother was also a very strong woman. She did all the housework around the house, like the cooking, cleaning, washing, sewing, etc. Furthermore, she had a very strong belief that all women should have the same right’s as the men did. The "patriot" blood does not stop there, either because Clara’s ancestors also had the blood in them. They fought in wars of the Roses between English families in the mid-1400s. One of her ancestors named Samuel Barton, was a lawyer in the Salem Witch trial during the 1600s. Her great-grandmother’s brother fought in the American Revolution. Furthermore, Clara had the "patriot" blood in her, because she inherited it from her family. She was very interested in nursing and loved to care for the sick. When Clara was eleven, her brother got hurt while working on the rafters of their barn. At first everyone thought he was okay, but he kept getting headaches and fevers, so they called a doctor. The doctor recommended leeching, to get rid of the "bad" blood. So, Clara committed herself to nursing her brother. She got the leeches and put them on her brother to suck out the blood, for 2 years. But, instead of getting better, her brother got worse, so the family called in a physician. He said that the leeches had sucked out too much blood, so they had to stop that, and start other treatments, like the steam cure, a special diet, and lots of exercise. Soon, David was all well again. Clara was the one who nursed him when he was sick for those 2 years.

However, Clara left her interest for a few years, when she became a teacher. Clara began teaching in 1839. She was never really interested in teaching, but she was shy and the doctor recommended teaching to get rid of her shyness. As it turned out, she started to enjoy teaching because all the students and parents liked her, so as a teacher, she felt like she was needed somewhere. Later on, she founded New Jersey’s first public school, but she was not able to be headmaster because she was a girl, so she left teaching and went on to Washington, DC, hoping to find a new challenge there. Well, she did find a new challenge, she became a clerk at the Patent Office, where she copied patent applications, regulations, and research studies. She was paid poorly (compared with today’s pay). She got $0.10 per one hundred words, which totaled to be about $70-$80 a month. Clara continued work at the office, until 1857, when she got malaria. This illness caused her to move back north. But, three years later(1860), she returned because she was called back to work by the Patent Office.

Since Clara was living in DC during the war, she got to see all the wounded soldiers go to hospitals around there to get help. When she saw all this, it reminded her of her first love of nursing/helping others. It brought back memories of her nursing others back to health, just like when she was eleven and helped her brother get well again. At first, Clara was too shy to ask if she could help the wounded, but in the end, she overcame her shyness, and asked the Union Colonel, Daniel Rucker if she could go to the front lines and help the soldiers, by bringing them food, clothing, and medicine. At first, the colonel said "no" because she was only about 5 feet tall, less than 100 pounds, and she was a girl. But finally she convinced him by telling about warehouses she had filled with supplies to help the soldiers. So, in the end, Clara did get a pass to go onto the battlefield to help the wounded soldiers. Also, the colonel gave her six wagons with soldiers to help her pack, drive, and unload all her materials.

In everything, there is a first. So, there is of course, a first in going onto the battlefield to help the wounded. Clara’s first experience was in August of 1862 at Culpeper, Virginia. The battle had been fought six days earlier, so a lot of hurt soldiers were all over the battlefield. Clara traveled all around to feed them food & water, bathe them, and bandage their wounds. From her first experience, she learned many things. She now knew what the soldiers needed, and where to get them. Also, she began to pack the supplies carefully, and labeled the boxes so that when they arrived at the battlefield, they knew where everything was. This battle at Culpeper, was just one of the many battles that Clara helped in. Clara also helped in the Second Battle of Bull Run (Manassas). At that particular battle, Clara had very limited supplies, so she had to do with what she had. She only had: two water buckets, five tin cups, one camp kettle, one stewpan, two lanterns, four bread knives, three plates, and a two quart dish. From this, she made a soup out of army biscuits, wine, water, and brown sugar. Al the men appreciated it because it was better than nothing, and they were all starving. Then, she also helped out at the battle of Antietam Creek. She arrived at that battlefield late, and many men had already died or were unconscious. She felt like she had failed to help the soldiers because of this battle, so she vowed never to be late again to another battlefield. She declared at this battlefield, that she was a US soldier. Clara learned her lesson at Antietam, because at Fredericksburg, she raced across a swaying pontoon bridge, amidst a bunch of flying bullets, and cannons. She stayed there for several weeks and helped about 12,000 soldiers. This was one of the first battles where she had other untrained volunteers to help her. It was very difficult to work with them because they often couldn’t do the basic duties correctly. For example, they failed to get supplies and food for the soldiers. By offering herself to the war, Clara helped a lot of the soldiers in the war.

Not only did Clara help others in the war, but she also helped her own family. For example, in October of 1864, she got a letter saying that her brother had been taken prisoner in Norfolk, Virginia. He had been caught trading goods to help the Confederates. Since Clara had military connections, she helped to free her brother. She asked a general to send a note for her brother to be released and sent to Virginia so he could be with her. He arrived on October 20, 1864. But, he was sick with malaria, and chronic dysentery. Clara took care of him for several weeks, then she sent him to Washington DC to be under the care of their sister. However, his condition wasn’t very good, and he never got better. So, on March 10, 1865, Stephen died in Washington DC.

After Stephen’s death, she realized there were so many more families out there that were missing family members too, so she resolved to find them. She asked Lincoln for permission and he agreed to it. He let her search in Annapolis, Maryland. She received about one-hundred inquiries a day. Since she had so many, she developed a system. When a family member inquired about a soldier, she put his name in a list that she published in newspapers, and distributed everywhere. She had just started doing this, when the war finally ended. On April 9, 1865, General Lee surrendered to General Grant. So, from there, Clara went to the Andersonville Prison in 1865 by the request of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Thirteen-thousand men had died there, and by the middle of August 1865, Clara had identified almost 12, 500 dead. Later, back in Washington, Clara had to eventually stop her work because the government didn’t fund it and she was out of money. She had no more money left from her inheritance and savings. Then, in 1866, a man named Frances Gage, encouraged Clara to ask congress for a $30,000 grant so she could continue her work. Congress, however, only granted her $15,000. So, in 1866, Clara started a series of tours to raise money to continue her work. She earned between $75-$100 a night and spoke about 14 times a month, so soon she did have enough money to track down the missing soldiers. By 1868, She had answered over 63,000 letters and identified 22,000 missing men. Her work here was finally done.

By this time, Clara had gotten so accustomed to helping the wounded, that when she had nothing to do, she would get sick. When she saw a doctor, he recommended her to take a trip overseas, so she and her sister when to England and Switzerland. At Switzerland, she found out about the American Red Cross. At the time, those people were helping soldiers in the Franco-Prussian War. The workers wore a red cross symbol on their sleeves and carried banners. They wanted to provide both professional and volunteer help on the battlefields and establish rules for treatment of the wounded. In July of 1870, Clara joined the Red Cross and started working in Basal, Switzerland. She spent most of her time there providing aid to people, working in refugees, and peasants who feared attack on the village. She made herself a ribbon that she wore as a necklace and sewed the symbol to a piece of white cloth that she sewed onto her sleeve. However, in 1873, Clara had to stop working there. She had to return to the United States because she had gotten sick with chronic cough, bronchitis, and overall weakness.

Clara’s sickness didn’t prevent her from still participating in the red cross. In 1877, Clara wrote to a representative of the Red Cross in Geneva, asking if he would allow her to start a Red Cross Association here, in America. The representative agreed and appointed her the representative for the US. However, before she could start one, she had to get the approval of the Congress. She talked to many people in the Congress and a lot rejected her, thinking there was no need to add the Red Cross. But, in 1881, President Garfield was elected as the president. Clara went to visit him and he liked the idea of the red cross. So, now all she needed was to have the State Department approve of it. Finally, it seemed like she was going to get it approved. Then, in March 1882, the State Department ratified the Red Cross! Now Clara could begin a Red Cross Association in the United States. She finally reached her goal.

Clara Barton was such a savior sent by God. She gave up her life to help save others. She wanted to help make the United States even better than it was. Even though she was rejected many times, she finally reached her goal and now she can rest in peace.