lesson 59 Clara Barton

 

First Red Cross assignment 1881 Michigan

Clara Barton (December 25, 1821 North Oxford, MA-April 12, 1912 90 yrs old- Glen Echo, MD

Education: Clinton Liberal Institute

1. What is Clara Barton known for?

Clarissa Howard Barton, known as Clara, is one of the most honored women in American history.

Barton risked her life to bring supplies and support to the soldiers during the Civil War.

She founded the American Red Cross in 1881, at the age of 59, and led it for the next 23 years.

-Born in Massachusetts in 1821, she was the youngest of five children.

-Clara supplemented her early education with practical experience, working as a clerk and book

keeper for her oldest brother.

-She worked for several years as a teacher, even starting her own school in New Jersey in l853.

2.  How many lives did Clara save for the men missing in action during the Civil War and beyond?

Barton and her small staff received 63,000 requests for help.  They were able to locate over 22,000

men located in the Missing Soldiers Office, 13,000 were in one place, Andersonville Prison.

3.Odd facts about Clara:

-Clara always went to the army camps with a male escort or with her sister Sally, it was 

considered improper for an unmarried woman to visit an army camp alone.

-Clara loved animals especially cats. During the Civil War, Senator Schuyler Colfax sent her a

kitten with a bow around its neck in appreciation for her work during the Battle of Antietam.

-Clara was honored by parties on both sides ofor her work during the Franco-Prussion War.

(19 July 1870-January 1871 France-German)

4. What was Clara's opinion on slavery?

- Clara was raised in a family of abolitionists, meaning they did not support slavery and openly 

spoke against the practice.

-Clara agreed with her family and continued to speak against slavery, but not as a full-time

practice.

5. What were Clara's beliefs?

-Her personal beliefs and religious convictions, in particular her membership in the Universalist

Church, was a large part of her life.

-Clara was drawn to technology, as seen in the latest equipment she acquired for the Red Cross

volunteers and workers.

6. What side did Clara support during the Civil War?

-An educator and humanitarian, Clara helped distribute needed supplies to the Union Army

during the Civil War and later founded the disaster relief organization, the American

Red Cross.

7. What did Clara do in 1854 that was significant?

-In 1854, Clara moved to Washingto, D.C. where she took a job as a recording clerk for the

U. S. Patent Office.

-The job in the U.S. Patent Office made her one of the first women to work for the federal

government.

8. What is Clara's famous quote?

-"I may sometimes be willing to teach for nothing, but if paid at all, I shall nver do a man's work

for less than a man's pay."

9. Did Clara help both sides of the Civil War?

-Clara was known as the "Angel of the Battlefield" because she traveled from conflict to conflict,

nursing the wounded soldiers of both sides.

10.  What did Clara do in 1852?

-In 1852 in Bordertown, N.J, she established a free school that soon became so large that

the townsmen would no longer let a woman run it.  

-Rather than subordinate herself to a male principal, she resigned and went to work at the

U.S. Patent office in Washington, D.C. from 1854-1857 and then again in 1860.

11. Did Clara have a father?

Clara's father was a prosperous businessman, captain of the local militia and a selectman in Oxford,

Massachusetts.

-Clara's father was a generous man who help the less fortunate in his community.  Captain Barton

thrilled his daughter with stories of the Indian Wars in Ohio and Michigan.

12. What were Clara's last words?

-She died at her home in Glen Echo, Maryland, now a national historic site, in April 1912.  Her

last words were: "Let me go. Let me go."

13. Did Clara have any children?

Clara never married or had children.  She had several nieces and nephews on whom she lavished her

attention.

14. What color were Clara's eyes?

Her eyes were brown with some lights appearing black.  When she appeared at a lecture, she was 

described as tall, with hair and eyes black as the raven's wing.

15.How was Clara subsidized for her health care of the soldiers?

Much of the money she raised to support her efforts came out of her own pocket.

-Clara bought most of her supplies and paid for their transportation to and around the battlefields.

-She was later reimbursed by Congress and supplemented with money from donations across the

country.

16. Did Clara ever get sick during her experiences with soldiers?

Clara but herself at risk from infection many times due to her work.  In South Carolina, she nearly

died from illness and had to be relocated to one of her own hospitals on Hilton Head island

until she recovered,

17. How much of her time was spent on the battlefields?

-Clara continued to lend aid to the American Military well into old age.  She volunteered her medical

and philanthropic services for the final time in Cuba during the Spanish American war, aiding

refugees and prisoners. 

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