Clara Barton, who grew up to be a strong, brave nurse, was born on Christmas Day in 1821. When she was young, she loved all creatures. Her father was a Massachusetts farmer and she was able to play with many different animals. How much did she love them? She even had a pet turkey, which is the most unfriendly bird. Barton’s father greatly affected her life because he explained the Gospel to her. By telling her stories about his experiences with battles in the war, she became interested in military matters. She also enjoyed nursing. Accidentally, Clara’s brother, David, fell from the barn roof while he was trying to fix it. Nursing her brother, Clara stayed with him for two years until he was healed. Clara had excellent character, but she was very shy. As a result, she had few friends. It is amazing that a humble farmer’s daughter became a courageous, vocal advocate for soldiers and their families.
During the Civil War, many people suffered and there was a scarcity of food, clothing, and medical supplies. Initially, Barton drove supply carts. Many people disagreed that she should be on the battlefield because they believed it was not lady-like. However, stubborn Clara insisted and was eventually given permission to pass through the battlefields. Barton, who was a nurse, served on the front, which was the most dangerous, deadly place. Amazingly, she was not injured. When the war was over, Clara Barton didn’t rest, but searched for missing soldiers and continued to nurse the wounded. She worked as hard as a farmer. She worked as if her job was the most important job in the world. Providing food and medicine, Clara Barton was a determined woman, who cared for suffering people suffering.
After serving in the American Civil War, Clara Barton travelled to Europe for a much deserved rest, where she discovered the International Red Cross. She was excited. She was amazed. She was overjoyed. The Red Cross offered her the opportunity to serve in the Franco-Prussian War. Eagerly, she brought greatly needed medicine, clothes, and food to her patients. Upon returning to the United States, Clara Barton worked for nine years to establish the American Red Cross, and was its first president. Willingly, she worked in her job.
In many of her letters home Wakeman speaks of her love for her family and her overwhelming pride for her patriotic military service. She also states that army life has changed her in certain ways. Right around Christmas eve 1863 she ...
After the war ended in 1865, Clara Barton worked for the War Department, to either reunite lost soldiers and their families or find out more about those who were lost . She also became a lecturer and crowds of people came to hear her talk about her war experiences. President and volunteered in Cuba during the Spanish-American war (Civil War Trust).In 1869 Clara Barton traveled to Geneva, Switzerland as a member of the International Red Cross. In 1880 the American Red Cross was created, the culmination of a decade of work by Barton. She served as the organization’s first president until 1904 and continued her tradition of philanthropy as a volunteer in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.Clara Barton passed away in 1912 at the age of ninety-one.Clara Barton decided to leave the American Red Cross in 1904 amid an internal power struggle and maintained of financial mismanagement (Civil War Trust). While she was known to be an autocratic leader, she never took a salary for her work within the organization and sometimes used her funds to support relief efforts. After leaving the Red Cross, Clara Barton remained active, giving speeches and lectures. She also wrote a book entitled The Story of My Childhood, which was published in 1907. Barton died at her home in Glen Echo, Maryland, on April 12, 1912 (civil war trust). Overall clara barton successfully helped many people in the war and did us a lot of
When first examining the documentation it is difficult to comprehend whether women were being patronized or treated too delicately; the fact of the matter is the average treatment of women during this era was radically different from society’s attitude toward men. It is also evident women exploited stereotypes to their advantage. Larry G. Eggleston explains the particular viewpoint of American society in Women of the Civil War as “Women were held with respect even though they were considered to be the weaker sex. Many women broke away from society’s traditional view of women when the Civil War began” (1). To avoid detection agents often manipulated social stigmas. Traditionally, Men were expected to join their countrymen upon the battlefield and women were to remain at home attempting to keep order. Some women were equally effective from their posts at home, while acting as scouts for their respected causes.
In the book Women in the Civil War, by Mary Massey, the author tells about how American women had an impact on the Civil War. She mentioned quite a few famous and well-known women such as, Dorothea Dix and Clara Barton, who were nurses, and Pauline Cushman and Belle Boyd, who were spies. She also mentioned black abolitionists, Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, feminist Susan B. Anthony, and many more women. Massey talks about how the concept of women changed as a result of the war. She informed the readers about the many accomplishments made by those women. Because of the war, women were able to achieve things, which caused for them to be viewed differently in the end as a result.
...early years of the organization. Not only does the American Red Cross help large communities after disasters, but individual families are helped as well. One of the many beautiful stories is when the Red Cross helped a Holocaust survivor named Saul Dreier find his family. Saul had been held at Schindler’s Camp during the Holocaust. After being freed, he thought that he was the only member of his family still alive. With the Red Cross’s help, he was able to find his family, a great gift for one who went through such a terrible tragedy. All of these stories, though, and all of the disaster relief given would not have been possible had Miss Clara Barton not went through grueling work to create the American Red Cross. Every life saved and every community rebuilt goes back to Clara Barton and shows just how important her life is to American history, and America today.
Clara Barton’s ‘The Women Who Went to the Field’ describes the work of women and the contribution they made on the civil war battlefield in 1861. Barton highlights the fact that when the American Civil War broke out women turned their attention to the conflict and played a key role throughout as nurses. Therefore, at first glance this poem could in fact be seen as a commemoration of the women who served in the American Civil War as its publications in newspapers and magazines in 1892 ensured that all Civil War veterans were honoured and remembered, including the women. However, when reading this poem from a feminist perspective it can be seen instead as a statement on the changing roles of women; gender roles became malleable as women had the
When all the men were across the ocean fighting a war for world peace, the home front soon found itself in a shortage for workers. Before the war, women mostly depended on men for financial support. But with so many gone to battle, women had to go to work to support themselves. With patriotic spirit, women one by one stepped up to do a man's work with little pay, respect or recognition. Labor shortages provided a variety of jobs for women, who became street car conductors, railroad workers, and shipbuilders. Some women took over the farms, monitoring the crops and harvesting and taking care of livestock. Women, who had young children with nobody to help them, did what they could do to help too. They made such things for the soldiers overseas, such as flannel shirts, socks and scarves.
Ms. Barton was born in 1821 on Christmas Day – perhaps she was a gift to mankind as a whole (Biography). Even from her childhood years, she found herself taking care of people. After her brother David fell from the rafters of their barn, an 11-year-old Clara took care of him for two years before he was taken to a doctor who could help (Birthplace). Two years after that, at fifteen, Clara was inspired to start teaching – and did just that, even opening up a free public school in New Jersey. As a young woman, she had already accomplished more than many people would in their lifetime. In her thirties, Clara Barton moved to Washington D.C. to become a clerk in the U.S. Patent Office (Biography). She would never marry – she knew the limitations of women in her society and chose to keep herself free from obligations of children and housework (Wikipedia).
Subsequently, women volunteered through national or local associations or by getting permission from a commanding officer (“Nursing”). In April 1861, Dorothea Dix assembled a collection of volunteer female nurses which staged a march on Washington, demanding that the government distinguish their desire to assist the Union’s wounded soldiers. She organized military hospitals for the care of all sick and wounded soldiers, aiding the head surgeons by supplying nurses and considerable means for the ease and aid of the suffering. After she recruited nurses; nursing was greatly improved and her nurses were taken care of under her supervision (Buhler-Wilkerson). During the Civil war, most nurses were women who took care of the ill and injured soldiers. Both male and female nurses have cared for the soldiers in every American war. The majority of nurses were recruited soldiers pressed into duty. Civil war nurses worked in hospitals, on the battlefield, and in their homes (Post). The first carnage of the war made it possible for nursing to become a professional occupation. The women who proved themselves as capable volunteers established nursing as an acceptable field of employment for women after the war. The contributions of the thousands of female nurses helped to alter the image of the professional nurse and changed American nursing from a male-dominated to a largely female profession (Woodworth). Clara Barton, one of the nurses who contributed to the Civil War, founded the American Red Cross, brought supplies and helped the battlefronts before formal relief organizations could take shape to administer such shipments (Buhler-Wilkerson). The religious orders given responded to the new opportunity for servicing the injured by sending t...
From childhood to death Clara Barton dedicated her life to helping others. She is most notably remembered for her work as a nurse on the battlefield during the Civil War and for the creation of the American Red Cross. Barton was also an advocate for human rights. Equal rights for all men, women, black and white. She worked on the American equal Rights Association and formed relations with civil rights leaders such as Anna Dickensen and Fredric Douglass. Her undeterred determination and selflessness is undoughtably what made her one of the most noteworthy nurses in American history.
Born on December 25, 1921, Clara grew up in a family of four children, all at least 11 years older than her (Pryor, 3). Clara’s childhood was more of one that had several babysitters than siblings, each taking part of her education. Clara excelled at the academic part of life, but was very timid among strangers. School was not a particularly happy point in her life, being unable to fit in with her rambunctious classmates after having such a quiet childhood. The idea of being a burden to the family was in Clara’s head and felt that the way to win the affection of her family was to do extremely well in her classes to find the love that she felt was needed to be earned. She was extremely proud of the positive attention that her achievement of an academic scholarship (Pryor, 12). This praise for her accomplishment in the field of academics enriched her “taste for masculine accomplishments”. Her mother however, began to take notice of this and began to teach her to “be more feminine” by cooking dinners and building fires (Pryor, 15). The 1830’s was a time when the women of the United States really began to take a stand for the rights that they deserved (Duiker, 552). Growing up in the mist of this most likely helped Barton become the woman she turned out to be.
Some famous nurses that helped in the Civil war were, Clara Barton was often found working behind the lines. After the war she had started the American Red Cross. Louisa May Alcott was a volunteer nurse in the Civil War, more formally known for her book, Little Women. Many of these women had other things to do but found it in their hearts to help the soldiers. And that was just some of many nurses in the Civil War.
One of Harriet’s greatest achievements is that Harriet had worked as a nurse in the civil war. During the Civil war Harriet had worked in a hospital helping wounded soldiers. For four years and hard effort she did not ...
When the Civil War broke out, Barton chose to resign from her position in the US Patent Office. She started working on the battlefield as a volunteer. At first her basic job was to distribute bandages and war supplies to the wounded soldiers. Barton took her job to another extreme.
During the Civil War, women began to feel like part of the work force, but along with it, was the downfall of being considered "service workers", which is very similar to being a servant. Nurses had to suffer through much conformity, as they had to wait hand and foot on male patients, while at the same time being scrutinized by their male "overseers". These issues that nurses faced in the nineteenth century, continue even to this day, with a little more ease, but we are still driven by a patriarchal society that just isn't ready to let go. Through the works of Louisa May Alcott and Charlotte Perkins Gillman, one can see the hardships that Nineteenth century women were faced with when it came to working. These stories bring to light the fact that, by overcoming oppression, through the strength and desire that leads to resistance, women have been able to achieve self-reliance, which makes their "service work" considered to have with it, an achieved independence. These stories show us the struggles that women faced in the nin...