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Clara Barton 1821 ~ 1912
Clara Barton
By Mrs. John A. Logan
One of the greatest, if not the greatest woman of the nineteenth
century, is Clara Barton, who, in a Christmas greeting to her
legion of friends, writes: "I would tell you that all is well
with me ; that, although the unerring records affirm that on
Christmas Day of 1821, eighty-four years ago, I commenced this
earthy life, still, by the blessing of God, I am strong and
well, knowing neither illness nor fatigue, disability nor
despondency."
Miss Barton is the daughter of Stephen Barton, of North Oxford,
Mass., a man highly esteemed in the community in which he dwelt.
In early youth he had served as a soldier under General Wayne,
the "Mad Anthony" of the early days of the Republic. His boyish
years had witnessed the evacuation of Detroit by the British in
1796, and his military training may have contributed to the
sterling uprightness of his character and his inflexible will.
His daughter Clara was the youngest, by seven years, in a family
of two brothers and three sisters. She was early taught that the
primeval benediction, miscalled a curse, which requires mankind
to earn their bread, was really a blessing. Besides domestic
duties and a very thorough public school training, she learned
the general rules of business by acting as clerk and bookkeeper
for her eldest brother. Next, she betook herself to the district
school, the stepping-stone for all aspiring women in New
England. She taught for several years in various places in
Massachusetts and New Jersey. One example will show her
character as a teacher. She went to Bordentown, New Jersey, in
1853, where there was not and never had been a public school
Three or four unsuccessful attempts had been made to establish
one, and the idea had been abandoned as un-adapted to that
locality. The brightest boys in the town ran untaught in the
streets. She offered to teach a free school for three months at
her own expense, to convince the citizens that it could be done.
They laughed at her idea as visionary. Six weeks of waiting and
debating induced the authorities to fit up an unoccupied
building at a little distance from the town. She commenced with
six out-cast boys, and in five weeks the house would not hold
the number that came. The commissioners, at her instance,
erected a large brick building, and early in the winter of
1853-4 she organized the city free school, with a roll of six
hundred pupils. But the severe labor and the great amount of
loud speaking required in the newly plastered rooms destroyed
her health and for a time destroyed her voice, the prime agent
of instruction. Being unable to teach, she left New Jersey about
the first of March, 1854, seeking rest, quiet and a milder
climate, and went as far as Washington.
A brief summary of her career will show that an ever-ruling
Providence had destined her for a higher and nobler work for
mankind than the routine duties, noble as they are, of a teacher
in the public schools.
While in Washington, a friend and distant relative, then in
Congress, voluntarily obtained for her an appointment in the
Patent Office. There she continued until the fall of 1857, She
was employed at first as a copyist and afterwards in the more
responsible work of abridging original papers and preparing
records for publication, and the large circle of friends made
while so employed was not without its influence in determining
her military career.
Thus it happened that at the beginning of the Civil War she was
in Washington. When news came that the troops, on their way to
the Capital, under Mr. Lincoln's first call for volunteers in
1861, had been fired upon, and that wounded men were lying in
Baltimore, she volunteered, with others, to go and care for
them. Unconsciously she had entered upon what proved to be her
life work, for Clara Barton is to the American battlefield what
Florence Nightingale was to the English in Crimea. From April,
1861, to the close of the war, Miss Barton was, by authority of
President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton, to be found in the
hospitals or wherever soldiers were in need of attention, and
soon she was recognized as a woman of great ability and
discretion, and could pass in and out at will, where others met
with constant hindrances and "red tape." So many of her pupils
had volunteered in the first years of the war that at the second
battle of Bull Run she found seven of them, each of whom had
lost an arm or a leg.
She met the wounded from Virginia, she was present at the
battles of Cedar Mountain, second Bull Run, Falmouth,
Charleston, Fort Wagner, Spottsylvania, Deep Bottom, Antietam
and Fredericksburg, and was for eight months at the siege of
Charleston, at Fort Wagner, in front of Petersburg and at the
Wilderness. She was also at the hospitals near Richmond and on
Morris Island Neither were her labors over when the war ended. A
friend desiring that the world should know her actual connection
with the government during this period of strife, as well as
throughout her administration as head of the Red Cross, has
induced Miss Barton to tell the story in her own inimitable way,
and this is what she says:
"When in the four years of this work the military authorities
unquestioningly provided me transportation, teams, men and an
open way to every field in the service, it had something to do
with the government.
"When, at its close, the President, over his own signature, "A.
Lincoln,' informed all the people of the United States that I
would, voluntarily, search for the records of eighty thousand
missing men, of whom the government nor army had any record, and
asked the people to write me, it had something to do with the
government."
The editor cannot resist the temptation to insert Mr. Lincoln's
letter:
"To the friends of missing prisoners: Miss Clara Barton has
kindly offered to search for the missing prisoners of war.
Please address her at Annapolis, Md., giving name, regiment and
company of any missing prisoner. A. Lincoln."
This brought the heartbroken correspondence of the friends of
all missing soldiers to her, and placed on the records of the
government the names of twenty thousand men who, otherwise, had
no record of death, and today their descendants enjoy the proud
heritage of an ancestor who died honorably in the service of his
country, and not the possible suspicion of his being a deserter.
"When, in the search, I learned the true condition of the dead
at Andersonville, and informed the authorities that, through the
death records of Dorence Atwater, the graves of the thirteen
thousand buried there could be identified, and was requested by
the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, to take an expedition to
Andersonville to mark the graves and enclose a cemetery, and did
so, it had something to do with the government.
"Without this there could have been no cemetery of
Andersonville, which the government now so worthily owns as a
gift from our active women of the Woman's Relief Corps auxiliary
to the Grand Army of the Republic.
"And when, in this long search for the missing men of the army,
carried on at my own cost until I had invested the greater part
of my own moderate means and the brave thirty-seventh Congress
stepped into the breach and, unsolicited, voted remuneration and
aid in the sum of fifteen thousand dollars, and sent it to me
with thanks, it had something to do with the government.
"When a few years later, weary and weak from the war-sacked
fields of Europe, I brought the germs of the thrice-rejected Red
Cross of Geneva, and with personal solicitations from the
'International Committee' sought its adoption, I had very little
to do with the government, for it steadily declined to have
anything to do with me, or with the cause I brought to it.
"It had been 'officially declined" books of the State Department
were produced to show this 'we wanted no more war,' neither
'Entangling Alliances.'
"Then followed five years of toil, cost and explanations with
the people as well as the government to show that the Red Cross
could mean neither war nor entangling alliances; and when at
length one martyred President promised and a successor made his
promise good, and Congress again acted and the treaty was
signed, proclaimed and took its place among the foremost
treaties of the country, and we became thence-forth and forever
a Red Cross nation, it surely had something to do with the
government.
"But this treaty covered only the relief of suffering from war,
and realizing the far greater needs we might have in the
calamities of civil life, I personally addressed the governments
through the 'International Committee of Geneva,' asking their
permission for the American Red Cross to act in our national
calamities, as in war. This request was gravely considered in
the congress of Berne, and was granted by the powers as the
American Amendment to the International Treaty of Geneva.
Inasmuch as it became a law, under which all nations act to-day,
it might be said not only to have had something to do with the
government but with all governments.
"Later on, when another martyred President requested and opened
the way for me to take the Red Cross to the starving
reconcentrados of Cuba; and a little later, when war desolated
its fields, to take ship, join the fleet, and seek an entrance
for humanity, and the highest admiral in the service bade it go
alone with its cargo of food to the starving of the stricken
city, and Santiago lay at our feet, it might be said it had
something to do with the government.
"During the twenty or more years of such efforts was mingled the
relief of nearly an equal number of fields of disaster, none of
which were unserved, and for which relief, not one dollar in all
the twenty years was drawn from the treasury of the United
States; the munificence of the people through their awakened
charities was equal to all needs."
The fields of disaster were the Michigan forest fires of 1881;
Mississippi River floods and cyclone of 1882-3; Ohio and
Mississippi River floods of 1884, especially disastrous,
requiring relief for thousands of people; Texas famine, 1885;
Charleston earthquake catastrophe, 1886; the Mt Vernon,
Illinois, cyclone, 1888, which swept away almost the entire
town, leaving the people destitute and homeless; Florida
yellow-fever, 1888; Johnstown disaster, where Miss Barton
personally distributed $250,000.00 and spent months laboring in
the field for and with the stricken people in 1889; Russian
famine, 1892; Pomeroy, Iowa, cyclone, 1893; South Carolina
Islands hurricane and tidal wave of 1893-4; Armenia massacres,
1896; Cuban reconcentrados relief, 1889-1900, where Miss Barton
and her staff spent months among these absolutely destitute and
suffering people before the declaration of war, saving thousands
of lives, establishing orphan asylums and hospitals, a work
which claimed the highest commendation from Senator Proctor, of
Vermont, on the floor of the Senate, after he had visited the
island to know positively the conditions; Spanish-American War.
Miss Barton having in 1908 preceded the army and the navy by
many weeks on the chartered steamer "State of Texas" loaded with
medical, surgical, sanitary and other supplies, was prepared to
save many lives before the government had anything ready.
Galveston storm and tidal wave 1909, requiring unprecedented
strength and courage, patience and expenditure of money.
Miss Barton modestly omits to speak of the innumerable appeals
made to her for aid in all directions. The United States Marshal
at Key West, Florida, in his dilemma of how to provide for the
people on board the captured vessels, many of them aliens,
Cubans and some American citizens who had no means of support or
for transportation, petitioned Miss Barton for relief until
provision could be made for them. Her response was immediate. By
her direction, for many days, food, medicine, and all their
needs were supplied by Miss Barton until after long official
delays the proper authorities finally assumed the
responsibilities they should have taken in the beginning.
Miss Barton reached Havana, February 9, 1898. February 14th she
was the guest of honor of Captain Sigsbee on board the ''Maine"
the captain paying her the compliment of reviewing the men. With
characteristic thoughtfulness, she placed the Red Cross at the
service of Captain Sigsbee, should any of his brave men be sick
or need relief. On the night of the 15th of February, the
unspeakable calamity of the destruction of the ''Maine"
occurred. In the early morning of the 16th, Miss Barton and her
nurses visited the Spanish Hospital, San Ambrosia, , where the
brave marines were dying in great numbers. Miss Barton had gone
to Cuba to carry out her mission as President of the Red Cross.
She was in no way assisted by the government but used her own
money. The citizens of Davenport, Iowa, wired her twelve hundred
dollars to be used for the reconcentrados. This sum she diverted
from its intended purpose and used for the relief of the victims
of this unprecedented catastrophe. The official reports of
officers of the navy and Secretary of War gratefully thank Miss
Barton and the Red Cross workers for their timely service and
supplies in the absence of any provision of the government for
war or for such a disaster as that of the "Maine."
Miss Barton represented the United States at the International
Congress, at Geneva, in 1884; at Carlsruhe, Germany, 1887. At
Rome, Italy, in 1890, she was appointed but would not leave her
work in Russia at the time of the Russian famine, but did attend
the Congress at Vienna, Austria, in 1900.
Miss Barton was decorated with the Iron Cross of Prussia, by
Emperor William I and Empress Augusta, in 1871; with the Gold
Cross of Remembrance, by the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of
Baden, in 1870; with the medal of International Committee of the
Red Cross of Geneva, Switzerland, 1882; with the Red Cross, by
Queen of Servia, 1884; with the silver medal by Empress Augusta,
of Germany, 1884; with the flag voted by Congress of Berne,
Switzerland, 1884; with jewels by the Grand Duchess of Baden,
1884-87; with the diploma of honor from German War Veterans,
1885; with jewels by the Queen of Prussia, 1887; with the
diploma of honor from Red Cross of Austria, 1888; with diploma
and decoration by the Sultan of Turkey, 1896; with diploma and
decoration by the Prince of Armenia, 1896; with diploma and
decoration by Spain, 1899; with vote of thanks by the Cortez of
Spain, 1899; with vote of thanks by the Portuguese Red Cross,
1900; with resolutions of the Central Relief Committee of
Galveston, Texas, 1900; with vote of thanks from the legislature
of the state of Texas, 1901; and with the decoration of the
Order of the Red Cross by the Czar of Russia, 1902.
Press notices, eulogies, enrolled and engrossed resolutions
innumerable, and every other conceivable tribute has been paid
her by her own countrymen, who are and were her compatriots and
who revere her as the most self-sacrificing, loyal, upright,
honorable, patriotic, courageous woman of her time, and as a
woman who has known no creed, political or religious, that is
not founded upon the Golden Rule and universal humanity to
mankind; whose moral courage has been equal for all emergencies,
but who is at the same time as guileless and as loving and as
tender as a child. Her masterful mind has ever instantly grasped
the most subtle schemes of designing persons, but she has turned
the other cheek to the cruel thrusts of the envious and
ambitious. Her only fault has ever been lack of resentment and
self-assertion when injuries have been inflicted. Her motto has
been, "Father forgive them; they know not what they do."
Time moves, and at last Clara Barton reached her Gethsemane, and
she proved her greatness in the hour of her bitterest trial. She
let her detractors have their way, bowed her head and slipped
away without a murmur into retirement, unrewarded and uncared
for by a great government in whose service she has given the
best of her life and her all. And who shall say she is not the
greatest woman of the Nineteenth century? Is there another with
such a record of noble achievements for humanity? No other woman
has appeared, bearing the banner of the Red Cross, and
personally ministering to the suffering on the field of
disaster, though many calamities have occurred since Clara
Barton was driven from the work to which she was divinely
called.
Women of
America
Source: The Part Taken by Women in
American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle
Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
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