Clara Barton
Inscription:
“1862 – 1962
In Memory of Clara Barton
Founder of the American Red Cross. A devoted nurse and tireless organizer who knew no enemy but the unfeeling heart. We walk the ways she took in easing the suffering at the Battle of Fredericksburg when the churches became military hospitals.”
Research:
Clarissa “Clara” Harlow Barton (December 25, 1821 – April 12, 1912) was born in North Oxford, Massachusetts to Captain Stephen Barton and his wife, Sarah. Her father’s career in the local militia and a politician later inspired his daughter to have an interest in patriotism and broad humanitarianism.(1) When Clara was ten years old she took on the job of nursing her brother back to health after he fell off the roof of the barn.(2) Her continuing care, even after doctors had given up, is what led her brother to have a full recovery.(3)
Barton became a school teacher at age 17, however, after the Baltimore Riot in April of 1861 she left her new job to provide aid to the wounded. Soldiers were transported to Washington D.C. for care, Barton’s hometown at the time, where she provided personal and crucial care for many of the soldiers. It was at this time that she identified herself with army work, and began her efforts toward a large-scale collection of medical supplies for Union soldiers.
After the First Battle of Bull Run, Barton began to place ads in newspapers for supplies, which resulted in a larger influx of donated supplies.(4) Though her supplies were mainly for the Union soldiers, when it came to the care of soldiers, Barton cared for Union and Confederate soldiers.
Clara first visited Fredericksburg in April of 1862 when she was supplying supplies to the boys who camped there. In December 1862 Clara Barton assisted in the hospital of the IX Corps at Chatham Manor in Fredericksburg, VA.(5) However, later in the day, it was requested that Barton’s help was needed in the city. As she arrived in Fredericksburg and she was assisted by an officer, a shell passed under their arms that tore away part of her skirt and coattail.(6) She remained
in the field for most of the month of December, caring for the wounded and continuing to provide supplies for the hospitals that needed them. Not much is known of the soldiers who were attended to at Fredericksburg, however, Barton wrote the names of the soldiers who died at Chatham, as well as where they were buried.(7)
During the heaviest fighting of the Battle of Fredericksburg, on December 13, 1862, Barton watched in horror from the doorway of her room as a shot that stuck Chatham Manor severed a soldier’s artery.(8) When a shell struck the door of the room that she was in, it has been recorded that, “she did not flinch, but continued her duties,” in assisting the doctors.(9)
On exhibit at Chatham Manor is a letter that Clara Barton wrote to her cousin Elvira. Dated the night/day before December 13th, Barton writes,
Mine are not the only waking hours, the light yet burns brightly in our kind hearted General’s tent where he pens what may be a last farewell to his wife and children and thinks sadly of his fated men. Already the roll of the moving artillery is sounded in my ears. The battle draws near and I must catch one hour’s sleep for tomorrow’s labor.(10)
This quote shows the pre-battle anxiety that Barton, as a nurse, and her sympathy for the men who fought in the battle. After the war, Barton began “The Search for the Missing Men,” in the attempt to either reconnect family members with soldiers or to inform the family of the fate of their son/father/husband. Her widespread renown from her lectures between 1865-8. After her experience nursing during the Franco-Prussian War, Barton decided to introduce a national infirmary system similar to the ones she saw in Europe.
When Barton returned to the United States she began a movement to gain recognition for the International Committee of the Red Cross.(11) After she became the president of the society on May 21, 1881, she held the first official meeting in Washington D.C. Almost 100 years later In 1962, this monument was erected to celebrate the assistance Barton provided during the Battle of Fredericksburg 100 years after December 13, 1862.
Text by Rachel Dacey
Featured Image
Lakelyn Wiley, “Historical Marker for Clara Barton in Fredericksburg, Virginia,” 2018.
(1) James Edward, Janet James Wilson, and Paul Boyer, Notable American Women 1607 – 1950: A Biographical Dictionary (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971), 1; 103-7.
(2) Clara Barton, The Story of My Childhood (New York, NY: Arno Press Inc., 1980).
(3) Ibid.
(4) Bonnie Tsui, She Went to the Field: Women Soldiers of the Civil War (Guilford, IN: Two Dot Press, 2006), 113.
(5) “Clara Barton Chronology 1861-1869 – Clara Barton NHS” National Park Service, accessed 23 March 2018, .
(6) “Clara Barton at Chatham,” National Park Service, accessed 23 March 2018, https://www.nps.gov/frsp/learn/historyculture/barton.htm.
(7) Ibid.
(8) “Clara Barton at Chatham,” National Park Service, accessed 23 March 2018, https://www.nps.gov/frsp/learn/historyculture/barton.htm.
(9) Ibid.
(10) Ibid.
(11) Ibid.
(12) “Chatham Manor – The Civil War Years,” Belle Grove Plantation Bed and Breakfast, April 6, 2013.