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Civil War nurse Clara Barton's
memorabilia found Posted 12-15-97 Historians recently found new information on an elusive period in the life of Clara Barton after workers, preparing to demolish a three-story building in downtown Washington D.C., stumbled upon 10 boxes of her military records and artifacts. The items date back to the late 1860s, when Barton was the first woman to head a government bureau. Long hailed as the founder of the American Red Cross and dubbed "angel of the battlefield" by Civil War soldiers, Barton also operated the Missing Soldiers Office from 1865 to 1868, after the war ended. She tracked down information about 22,000 soldiers and founded the first national cemetery, in Andersonville, Ga., marking the graves of more than 13,000 anonymously buried Union soldiers. Until now, historians have had scant physical evidence about this part of Barton’s life, said Patrick Gilboe, historian for the American Red Cross. That has changed with the discovery of the boxes, which contained newspaper clippings, billing receipts, Civil War-era clothing, and a metal sign that reads: Missing Soldiers Office, 3rd Story, Room 9, Miss Clara Barton. The big surprise was finding Barton’s working quarters, Gilboe said. He called the sign "tangible evidence of what was really going on in that office." Born in North Oxford, Mass., in 1821, Barton was an ex-school teacher working as a U.S. Patent Office clerk when war broke out in 1861. After recognizing some wounded soldiers on a train as her former students, Barton immediately launched a grassroots effort to stockpile food, medicine, and other supplies for the soldiers. "She was very personally involved right from the beginning," Gilboe said. Over the next few years, Barton acquired military funding to organize a massive supply effort, and by 1864 she was named superintendent of nursing for the Union Army. Overseeing 10 mule-driven wagons loaded with supplies, Barton positioned herself and her convoy on the front lines. Barton who had not been trained as a nurse, wrote letters, fixed gruel, and held a lamp while surgeons performed amputations. After the war Barton lectured widely, eventually settling in Switzerland in 1868. During her stay, members of the International Committee of the Red Cross persuaded Barton to bring the principles of the Red Cross and the Geneva Convention to the United States. Barton eventually succeeded in establishing the American Red Cross in 1881. The two years prior to Barton’s going on the lecture circuit had been neglected by historians, Gilboe reported. It was during those years that Barton received a small staff and $15,000 from the government to search for missing soldiers. As word of her efforts spread, Barton was inundated with thousands of letters regarding lost husbands, sons, and brothers. Barton died in 1912. The recently discovered artifacts will be displayed at the Ford Theater in Washington, D.C. Related Site |
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