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| Clara Barton was born on December 25, 1821. She probably never knew that she would grow up to be one of the greatest people ever to have something to do with the Civil War. She first began work by collecting and distributing brandy and tobacco and lemons, soaps and she also distributed and collected sewing kits and homemade jellies. |
| The first time that she had anything to do with the battlefields was on August 2, 1861 in Fredericksburg she delivered supplies. She was inspired to do this by her former landlady named Elmira Fales. She did not start working during the Civil War until after the Battle of Bull Run in 1861. She started out taking supplies to the soldiers and caring for the wounded brought to her. She did her work so well that she soon became known as “Angel of the Battlefield”. |
| During her time of helping the wounded soldiers of the Civil War she helped them at Cedar Mountain, The Second Bull Run, Chantilly, South Mountain, and Antietam. While serving very close to the front lines at Antietam a bullet passed her sleeve and killed a soldier that she was caring for. Also while working on the battlefields she operated on a soldier with a bullet in his cheek. Clara said when she first started working as a nurse in the Civil War” She quickly found out her place is anywhere between the bullet and the battlefield.” |
| Other things she did and said while working on the battlefield and
in the hospitals was that once she had to use a penknife to get a bullet
out of a soldier. In an old hotel 500 men lying on the cold, wet
and bloody floor begging her to give them a cracker or something to drink
so they could survive. She also once said, “I had to wring the blood
from the bottom of my clothing before I could step, for the weight about
my feet.” Clara Barton also found the American Red Cross. So these
are just many things that Clara Barton did during the Civil War.
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Geoffrey C. Ward with Ric Burns and Ken Burns, "The Civil
War" Alfred A. Knope 1990
By: Casey Lambotte
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