Clara Barton, a humanitarian for the ages

Is there a woman in all of American history whose humanitarian credentials are more impressive than those of Clara Barton?

On this day in 1881, Barton established the American Red Cross. That alone would have assured her legacy, but it was only one of the many accomplishments of this tireless, determined crusader.

Born in 1821 in Oxford, Mass., Barton developed an early interest in nursing, worked as a teacher for several years at a time when most teachers were men and then distributed supplies to Civil War soldiers, initially behind the lines.

Barton eventually obtained permission to tend to the wounded at the front, which took her to several battlefields.

“At Antietam, she ordered the drivers of her supply wagons to follow the cannon and traveled all night, actually pulling ahead of military medical units,” according to a biography of her at www.redcross.org. “While the battle raged, she and her associates dashed about bringing relief and hope to the field. She nursed, comforted, and cooked for the wounded."

Barton found herself so close to the action at one point that a bullet passed through her sleeve and killed the man she had been assisting. 

"I always tried . . . to succor the wounded until medical aid and supplies could come up," Barton, who never married. wrote of her battlefield experience. "I could run the risk; it made no difference to anyone if I were shot or taken prisoner."

After the war, Barton created the Office of Correspondence with Friends of the Missing Men of the United States Army to locate missing veterans. She and her assistants answered over 63,000 letters and identified over 22,000 missing men. At the infamous Andersonville Prison in Georgia, she and her crew identified the graves of nearly 13,000 men.

Barton delivered lectures across the country, became active in the fights for women’s suffrage and civil rights, distributed supplies in France during the Franco-Prussian War and began a movement in America in 1873 to establish the American Red Cross, which finally bore fruit in 1881.

But her work was not yet done.

That year, Barton appealed for donations to help forest-fire victims in Michigan. In 1884, she chartered steamers to carry supplies for flood victims along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. In 1889, she went to Johnston, Pa., to help survivors of the flooding there.

And the list goes on, as Barton worked with victims of famine and natural disasters in Russia, South Carolina, Turkey, Armenia, Texas and Cuba. Barton finally resigned as president of the American Red Cross in 1904. She died in Maryland at the age of 90 in 1912.

The creation of the Red Cross was Barton’s greatest legacy, but her work as a battlefield nurse during the Civil War produced some of the most dramatic moments in her long career, and earned her a lasting nickname as well.

"In my feeble estimation, General (George) McClellan, with all his laurels, sinks into insignificance beside the true heroine of the age, the angel of the battlefield,” said Dr. James Dunn, a surgeon at Antietam.