How Did Clara Barton Contribute To The American Red Cross

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Clara Barton was an American nurse suffragist and humanitarian who is best remembered for organizing the American Red Cross. Following the outbreak of the Civil War, she independently organized relief for the wounded often bringing her own supplies to front lines. As the war ended she helped locate thousands of missing soldiers, including identifying the dead at Andersonville prison in Georgia. Clara Barton lobbied for U.S. recognition of the International Committee of the Red Cross and became president of the American branch when it was founded in 1881 Clara Barton continued her humanitarian work throughout several foreign wars and domestic crises before her death in 1912. Clara Barton was born in Massachusetts and worked briefly as a schoolteacher. …show more content…
The network Barton believed, had to be disentangled from the bureaucracy of the War Department and the U.S. Sanitary Commission Her work of soliciting and distributing supplies and nursing the wounded was grueling and endless She once complained to a friend i cannot tell you how many times I have moved with my whole family (the Army) of a thousand or fifteen hundred and with a half hour’s notice in the night. Her efforts however were much appreciated at battle sites especially Antietam and Fredericksburg. At war’s end she set up an office to sort out the difficult business of locating and identifying prisoners missing men and the dead buried in unmarked graves. But the strain of her work took its toll and she was ordered to Europe by her doctor for a rest cure in 1869. While abroad Barton came into contact with the International Committee of the Red Cross. She participated in relief efforts during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870-1871, but was forced into temporary retirement by ill health in 1872. After recovering, she campaigned to establish an American branch of the Red Cross, despite government resistance arising from fears of foreign

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