Clara Barton: The Angel of the Battlefield

On Christmas day, 1821 in Massachusetts, Stephen and Sarah Barton had the last of their of their five children. They named her Clarissa Harlowe Barton. The little girl would grow up to be a suffragette, abolitionist, battlefield nurse and founder of the American Red Cross.

Her first patient was her brother David, who fell from a rafter in the barn. Clara cared for him for two years, sparking her lifelong love of nursing. On May 21, 1881, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross in Washington D.C. She would also serve as the first president of the organization.

During the Civil War, Clara Barton served as a nurse on the Battlefield. In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln placed her in charge of locating the wounded and missing soldiers of the Union Army. She later achieved widespread fame and recognition by delivering lectures about her experiences of a wartime nurse. She teamed up with Susan B. Anthony and beginning her connection with he Women's Suffrage movement. She also met Frederick Douglass and became an advocate for the rights of black Americans.

Her years on the battlefield had taken a toll on Clara's health. In 1870, she sought a healthier climate in Europe, where she started working with the International Committee of the Red Cross. The organization was created in 1864. Returning to the States, Clara Barton began advocating the formation of an American red Cross. At the time, many people said that the United States would never again have a crisis like the Civil War. Still, Barton insisted that her organization could assist in disasters other than war.

The American Red Cross performed disaster relief during the 1893 Sea Islands Hurricane, the Spanish American War and in 1896, the Hamidian Massacres in the Ottoman Empire. Soon after, the first American International Red Cross was founded in the heart of Beijing, China.

At the age of 77, Clara Barton was still working with the American Red Cross, even helping in the hospitals of Cuba. Barton resigned as president of the organization in 1904, at the age of 83.

Today, the American Red Cross is there to provide disaster relief in America and abroad. The organization also teaches First-Aid skills to 12 million ordinary people every year. More than a hundred years after little Clara Barton nursed her older brother, applying leeches and never flinching in the face of illness, the company she founded still helps millions of people when they need it the most. The month of March is American Red Cross month and also Women's History Month- Clara Barton is honored for the sake of both.

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Barton: Clara Barton