Clarissa Harlowe Barton, nicknamed “the angel of the battlefield”, was a hospital nurse of the American Civil War who would rise up to become the founder of the American Red Cross (britannica.com). In April 1857, the month in which the war would begin, 39 year old Clara Barton working as a temporary copyist for the U.S. Patent Office, which was then located in Washington D.C. Upon hearing of the Baltimore Riot of April 19 in which Southern sympathizers attacked Union soldiers en route to the capital, Barton rushed to care for the wounded troops, carrying food, medicine, and other vital supplies. She would soon resign from her position as temporary copyist, devoting herself to supporting the war effort in any way possible (Oates 3). Regarded as one of the most honored women in American history, she was involved in many major battles, risking her life countless times to aid wounded soldiers. Barton showed an unusual initiative at the outbreak of the war in the First Battle of Bull Run, bringing it upon herself to collect supplies and to distribute them to the wounded (Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia). Touched by the sight of the many neglected wounds of soldiers in the First Battle of Bull Run, she desire to do …show more content…
Most of the volunteer nurses, when the war ended, would come home to revert to their their original roles as wives, daughters, factory workers, etc. Clara Barton was an exception. Barton came to the attention of several important figures for her services, such as President Abraham Lincoln. President Lincoln personally requested her to search for missing prisoners of war. Using her own funds, she founded the organization Friends of the Missing Men of the United States Army in order to locate missing soldiers. (britannica.com). Soldiers, at the time, were largely unaccounted for, making the search difficult (historyinthemargins.com). She completed her search in