F • O • U • R

Clara Barton: Angel of the Battlefield

Karen Egenes and Frances Vlasses

U.S. postage stamp issued in 1948 (left) and 1995 (right) honoring Clara Barton.

Clara Barton (1821–1912) was born in North Oxford, Massachusetts, on Christmas Day in 1821. She was the youngest of the five children born to Stephen and Sarah Barton. The family had deep roots in New England. Her father was descended from Samuel Barton, who came to the Massachusetts colony in 1640. Her grandfather fought in the American Revolution, while her father fought under General Anthony Wayne during the War of 1812.

Clara’s siblings were responsible for much of her early education. By the age of 5, her brother David had taught her to ride a horse, and in a short time, her equestrian skills surpassed those of many men. When Clara was 11, David suffered a serious accident that left him an invalid for the next 2 years. During this time, Clara was responsible for providing the majority of his care, which included both basic comfort measures and the application of leeches. This experience may have helped to prepare Clara for the roles she would play later in her life.

The Barton family belonged to the Universalist Church and faithfully attended Sunday services. The Universalist Church was a sect that had split from the strict Puritan doctrine of human depravity, and instead, embraced the tenet of salvation for all, not just Christians. This belief system might have contributed to Barton’s later willingness to extend her humanitarian efforts to all persons afflicted by disaster rather than only to those considered to be “deserving” (C. Barton, 1907; Jones, 2013).

As Clara grew older, she became increasingly shy and sensitive. She was short in stature, prone to obesity, and plagued by insomnia. The persistence of these traits caused her parents anxiety about a future course of action for their “difficult” daughter. They consulted L. N. Fowler, a lecturer visiting their town who specialized in phrenology, a forerunner of modern psychology. Following his assessment, Fowler predicted, “The sensitive nature will always remain. She will never assert herself for herself. She will suffer wrong first, but for others she will be perfectly fearless. She has all the qualities of a teacher” (C. Barton, 1907, pp. 112–115). Years later, Clara often repeated this story, stating she believed Fowler’s words were prophetic.

At the age of 15, Barton began a course in education at a New Jersey seminary for women, passed a teacher qualification examination with a high score, and began a career in teaching that continued for the next 15 years. Barton taught in a variety of private schools in Massachusetts and New Jersey, and then settled in Bordentown, New Jersey. There she founded a free public school, one of the first in New Jersey. In 1 year, the school grew in size from 6 to 600 students. This growth required the town’s citizens to secure a new school building at the cost of $4,000. Unfortunately, when the school was enlarged, Barton was replaced as principal by someone less qualified, a male teacher who had been born and educated abroad. Although Barton was well liked by her students, she was firm and held high standards for them. She corresponded with some of her former students for many years (Bacon-Foster, 1918).

In search of employment, Barton traveled to Washington, DC, to ask her Congressman and distant cousin, Alexander DeWitt, for help in her pursuit of a position as a governess. Instead, he recommended her to the commissioner of patents for a position as a government patent clerk (Pryor, 1987, pp. 60–61). In her appointment as one of the first female patent clerks, Clara Barton reputedly suffered much harassment from her male colleagues in the form of negative remarks, showers of spittle, and attempts to trip her as she approached her work space. At times, her managers required her to work at home in a small and dimly lit room in a boarding house to avoid the disruptions her presence in the workplace engendered. Barton’s’s perfect handwriting and hours spent copying legal documents by hand, however, led to a promotion and increase in salary after only 1 year (Jones, 2013). According to a close friend and daughter of Clara Barton’s immediate superior, the chief clerk of the patent office praised Barton as “the best clerk we have ever had in this office” (Bacon-Foster, 1918, p. 284).

In 1856, when James Buchanan, who was sympathetic toward the continuance of slavery, was elected president, Clara Barton, who had been vocal in her opposition to slavery, lost her patronage position. She returned to Massachusetts and resumed her study of French and art with the hope of securing another teaching position. While in her home state, she resumed correspondence with some of her former students, writing to one that she hoped to secure a teaching position in the South, preferably in Mobile, Alabama (Bacon-Foster, 1918). In view of her strong abolitionist views and later work, this seems to be an unusual choice; however, it is indicative of her quest for new and challenging experiences. In 1860, when the newly formed Republican party came to power, Clara Barton was recalled to Washington and reappointed to her prior position, forsaking a suitor of many years who had recently proposed marriage. Enthralled by the promise of change that followed the election of President Lincoln, Barton gave her full support to the antislavery movement. The years that she worked in Washington seemed to give Clara the strength she would need for her future endeavors. During those years, she developed skills in organizational management, became confident in her abilities, and developed a sense of political activism.

Clara Barton was in Washington, DC, in April 1861, and witnessed the beginning of the Civil War, and foresaw the suffering the war would entail. Later that month, the Massachusetts Sixth Regiment, while en route to Washington, was attacked by rebels while marching through Baltimore. As the wounded volunteers streamed into Washington, Barton left her desk and rushed to their aid. Among the wounded, she recognized many as her former neighbors, classmates, and students. This early experience led her to bond with the ill and wounded soldiers she cared for throughout the war, often referring to them as “my boys” (Oates, 1994, p. 17).

At the beginning of the war, little thought had been given to the casualties of the war, the ill and wounded soldiers who would require medical and nursing care, as well as food, hospitals, and medical supplies to aid in their recovery. Dorothea Dix (see Chapter 8), who before the war had gained renown for her efforts to reform asylums and improve the care of persons with mental illness, was appointed superintendent of nurses for the Union Army. In this capacity, she was responsible for the recruitment of suitable women to serve as nurses for the Union Army and the coordination of the activities of these “nurses.” At the time of the Civil War, no schools for the education of nurses had yet been established in the United States. Volunteers recruited by Dix had only a rudimentary knowledge of nursing care, gleaned primarily from personal experiences caring for sick family members. In addition, the U.S. Sanitary Commission, established by the government but supported by donations from citizens of the Northern states, raised money, gathered food and supplies, and mobilized resources to aid the sick and wounded soldiers. It took some time, however, before these efforts were sufficiently organized and functional to yield any demonstrable outcomes.

EARLY EFFORTS TO INSPIRE A SHARED VISION

Some women volunteers for the war effort eschewed the efforts of Dix and the U.S. Sanitary Commission, preferring instead to mount their own efforts. Included in this group of volunteers was Clara Barton. As sick and injured soldiers continued to stream into Washington, Clara Barton, acting independently, solicited clothing, food, and medical supplies from friends and relatives and distributed them to regiments in need. Her goal was to provide care to soldiers within days, or even hours, of their affliction. During the first years of the war, Clara Barton distinguished herself among fellow relief workers by her willingness to travel to battlefields and provide care on the front lines of the fray. She began to provide care on fields of battle in August 1862 during the Second Battle of Bull Run. But this was possible only after she had gathered personal warehouses of supplies, secured an army wagon and teamster for transportation, and persuaded reluctant army officers to issue her the passes necessary to travel to the front lines of battle.

A decade later, in a series of lecture tours, Clara Barton delighted in describing her Civil War service. It is believed, however, that many of her heroic exploits benefitted from a certain amount of personal embellishment. For example, in a tale often related, during the Battle of Antietam, as Clara Barton reached to the ground to offer a drink of water to a weary soldier, a bullet tore a hole in the sleeve of her dress, mortally wounding her patient. As the battle continued, she made repeated trips to the front to care for the wounded and comfort the dying soldiers. At a makeshift hospital, she assisted surgeons with sedation and restraint of patients, as well as with provision of lanterns so that care of the wounded could continue through the night (Oates, 1994).

Clara Barton launched similar initiatives later in 1862 during the battles of Cedar Mountain, Chantilly, Harpers Ferry, and Fredericksburg. Her work in these battles is considered to be the most significant of her service in the Civil War. Through her independent efforts, she was able to gather supplies, distribute them to sick and wounded soldiers, and provide nursing care to those in need. Her ability to provide aid quickly during these emergency situations helped thousands of soldiers whose needs could not be met by the poorly organized, government-sponsored mechanisms. These efforts also formed the framework for Barton’s lifelong work.

By 1863, the efforts off the U.S. Sanitary Commission and army medical services had matured and become better systematized. As a result, Clara Barton found that the services she offered were increasingly marginalized. This proved to be a time, however, when Barton developed personal relationships that would influence her later life and work. In April of that year, Clara Barton joined her brother David in Hilton Head, South Carolina, where he had been appointed quartermaster. From this post, she witnessed the 8-month-long siege of Charleston, as well as the siege of Fort Wagner by the Massachusetts 54th Regiment, a unit composed entirely of African American troops. It was also at this time that Clara Barton had a brief romantic affair with Lieutenant Colonel John Elwell of Cleveland, Ohio, a married man who was an officer in the Quartermaster Corps. Before the war, Elwell had practiced both medicine and law and had served a term in the Ohio legislature. When they first met, he was a patient who had sustained a broken leg in a fall from a horse. He later wrote about his injury, “Two boys of the 62nd Ohio found me and carried me to our … hospital.… Clara Barton was there, an angel of mercy doing all in her mortal power to assuage the miseries of the unfortunate soldiers” (W. E. Barton, 1922, Vol. 1, pp. 251–252). During his recovery from the injury, Elwell also contracted yellow fever. But through his difficulties, Clara remained his nurse and constant companion. The couple found they shared many interests, including horseback riding and lively conversations, and spent increasing amounts of time together. Although Barton ended the relationship when she learned that Elwell’s wife planned to visit South Carolina, there is evidence that, following the war, she continued to correspond with Elwell by mail, sharing fond memories of their time together and seeking his advice about matters of importance in her life (Oates, 1994; Pryor, 1987).

During the 4 years of the war, Clara Barton was present on 16 battlefields, in addition to the 8 months she spent in South Carolina during the siege of Charleston. A contemporary described her as “always calm, cheerful and well poised, and philosophical, but strict, firm, and unflinching in maintaining authority” (Harper, 1912, p. 703).

Jones (2013) asserts that Clara Barton’s work on the battlefields of the Civil War developed in her the sense of humanitarianism that would be a force that drove her efforts for the rest of her life. She transferred the traditional Victorian virtue of “women as care givers” from the home to the battlefields and in the process demonstrated remarkable courage, a virtue not usually attributed to women of the era. Her work was based on her firm belief that the pain of wounded soldiers must be relieved as soon as possible. Thus, she expressed human sentiment, or concern for the welfare of others, blended with a rational call to action.

During the last months of the war, Barton became involved in a new venture, called by historians as “the search for the missing men,” which would impact her later work. Of the Union soldiers known to be dead or imprisoned in the South, more than half were unidentified. More than 80,000 were listed on the government rolls only as “missing.” Letters from distressed relatives flooded the office of the War Department, but because no information was available, the letters remained unanswered. Clara Barton, feeling a deep sense of injustice at the lack of response to these inquiries, personally asked President Abraham Lincoln if this correspondence might be routed to her and if she might officially respond to these letters. The President responded with the notice to the public, “To the friends of missing persons; Miss Clara Barton has kindly offered to search for the missing prisoners of war. Please address her at Annapolis, Maryland, giving name, regiment, and company of any missing prisoner” (Bacon-Foster, 1918, p. 296).

Because of the high mortality rates from disease and injury, many soldiers who died were quickly buried in unmarked graves. Although at the end of the war there were 315,555 known graves of Union soldiers, 143,155 of these were unmarked. In addition, 44,000 had been recorded, with no site of burial given. Over the next 4 years, Clara Barton answered more than 63,000 letters and identified more than 22,000 missing soldiers (Somervill, 2007, p. 59).

Clara Barton also established a Bureau of Correspondence for Friends of Paroled Prisoners, which carefully compiled lists of soldiers’ names from hospital and prison rolls. Of particular concern was the Confederate prison in Andersonville, Georgia, where 13,000 Union soldiers were reported to have died in 1 year. During the summer of 1865, Barton supervised the disinterment, identification, and reburial of the bodies in graves with individual name markers. In addition, the graves of 4,000 Confederate dead were carefully marked. This work led to the establishment of Andersonville as one of the first national cemeteries in the United States.

Initially, Clara Barton financed this project using her own funds and spent over $8,000 to pay for maintenance of an office staff of 12. When her private funds were nearly exhausted, she appealed to Congress for funding to continue the work. In 1866, Congress appropriated $15,000 to reimburse Barton for the money that she, as a private citizen, had spent for a public cause. Although these funds enabled her to pay many of the bills she had accrued, they provided no salary for her work on this project.

DEVELOPING THE TOOLS TO INSPIRE A SHARED VISION

In 1866, Clara Barton, now almost insolvent after her search for missing soldiers, sought a means to support herself. During the Civil War, her fame had become so widespread that admirers across the country were eager to hear about her work during the war years. During this era, lectures by noteworthy persons were a popular form of entertainment. When she was first invited to give public lectures about her wartime experiences, Clara was overwhelmed at the thought and focused on what she perceived to be her deficiencies. In her childhood, she was thought to be painfully shy and sensitive. But motivated by her need for personal income, she signed a contract with a lecture bureau that charged from $75 to $100 per lecture. She traveled around the country, speaking to thousands of people. Clara Barton emerged as a gifted speaker with a soft and mellow voice, who captivated audiences with her descriptions of her wartime exploits. Newspaper accounts described her presentations as “animated, instructive, and enjoyable” (Oates, 1994). Barton distinguished herself from other persons on the lecture circuit through her use of stories to remind her listeners about the human costs of war (Jones, 2013). She proved to be one of the most highly paid lecturers of that time and was able to save $25,000 to use for her later work (Harper, 1912). Through her experiences on the lecture circuit, Barton was able to overcome the shyness that had haunted her during her earlier life. Further, she was able to develop persuasive skills that would benefit her in her later activities.

Clara Barton found the lecture circuit to be tiring. In 1869, she was scheduled to give a lecture but found herself before an audience, unable to speak. Throughout her life, Clara had experienced recurrent episodes of depression. It seems that the exhaustion of the travel involved in her work, coupled with the depressing effects of the constant repetition of her war memories, contributed to her physical and mental exhaustion. She consulted several physicians who advised her to spend some time in Switzerland to recover her strength. Her sojourn to Europe lasted until 1873 and introduced her to new ways of channeling her energies for her humanitarian efforts.

ROLE MODELS FOR INSPIRING A SHARED VISION—CLARA BARTON IN EUROPE

During her visit to Switzerland, Clara Barton was able to stay with friends. Charles Upton and his wife, whom she had known in both Massachusetts and Washington, were now engaged in diplomatic service for the United States in the Swiss city of Geneva. Clara was also invited to spend part of her visit with the family of Jules Golay, a Swiss citizen who had served in the Union Army and for whom Barton had provided care.

Soon after her arrival in Geneva, an event occurred that would influence the remainder of her life’s work. Because news of Clara Barton’s record of charitable activities had spread abroad, she was visited by members of the International Convention of Geneva, more commonly known as the Red Cross, a group with whom she was only vaguely familiar. The group, led by Dr. Louis Appia, inquired why the government of the United States had refused to give its consent to the Geneva Convention, also called the Treaty of Geneva, an international agreement of which she had no prior knowledge. These questions left Barton so surprised and perplexed that she asked her visitors for more information (Pryor, 1987). She was fascinated with the story that unfolded.

In 1859, Red Cross founder Henri Dunant was a Swiss businessman en route from his home in Geneva to the town of Soferino, who came upon a ferocious battle involving troops from France, Sardinia, and Austria. The battle, which would prove to be significant in the Wars of Italian Independence, had left 40,000 wounded soldiers to languish unattended on the field of battle. Dunant mobilized local residents to provide food, water, and bandages to aid the casualties of the battle and assembled makeshift hospitals in nearby villages. Over the succeeding years, Dunant was haunted by the memory of the men in agony, dying because they lacked the most basic care. He became convinced that similar tragedies should not be allowed to occur in the future. In 1862, he published, Un Souvenir de Solferino (A Memory of Solferino), which offered vivid accounts of the battle and its human costs. The book was so well received across the European continent that it garnered the attention of leading physicians and generals who agreed that some action must be taken. In 1863, the Convention of Geneva, a conference attended by representatives from 16 nations, was called to discuss the treatment of those wounded in battle. The following year, the Treaty of Geneva was written and signed by 11 countries. By the time Clara Barton first learned about the treaty, 32 countries had agreed to its terms. The Treaty of Geneva contained several key points: (a) In time of battle, ambulances and field hospitals, as well as the personnel staffing them, both volunteers and professionals, should be treated as neutral parties; (b) authorized workers should be able to enter the field of battle to distribute supplies and provide care; (c) casualties are entitled to care whether they were wounded in their own or in hostile territory; (d) seriously wounded soldiers should not be taken as prisoners of war but instead should be sent back to their own army for care; and (e) neutral workers caring for the wounded would be distinguished by a badge of a red cross on a white background (Pryor, 1987).

Clara Barton was both surprised and disheartened to learn that the U.S. government had been requested three times to sign the treaty but had refused on each occasion. In truth, there are a number of possible reasons for the government’s refusal. At the time the Geneva Convention was called, the United States was embroiled in the Civil War and had little interest in international events. During the years that immediately followed, the United States was concerned with the process of reconstruction and recovery from the lasting effects of the war. Finally, the proceedings of the Geneva Convention were sent to the United States in French, and, thus without translation, could not be published in local newspapers. In 1866, Dr. Henry Bellows, the head of the Sanitary Commission during the Civil War, tried to interest government officials in the Treaty of Geneva but received the response that there probably would never be another war, and, if one occurred, a society such as the Sanitary Commission could be established to coordinate relief efforts (Harper, 1912).

Clara Barton was in Berne in 1870 when France declared war on Prussia (presently a part of Germany), launching the Franco–Prussian War. Although she was ostensibly in Switzerland for rest, Barton nevertheless convinced leaders of the Swiss Red Cross to travel to the battlefields of France to aid in the relief efforts. Antoinette Margot, a young Swiss woman who was fluent in English and French and who also aspired to be a battlefield nurse, was assigned to accompany her. At this time Princess Louise, Grand Duchess of Baden, only daughter of Kaiser Wilhelm of Prussia, visited Clara. She had read about Clara Barton’s work during the Civil War and now came to ask for her guidance and assistance in the relief efforts. They eventually became lifelong friends. The city of Strasbourg in France had been defeated by troops led by Louise’s husband, the Grand Duke, and the Duchess now asked Clara Barton to aid the citizens who had been harmed in the battle. Barton and her companion left for Strasbourg on August 6, 1870, stopping en route to observe field hospitals that had been set up to care for wounded soldiers who had been evacuated from the front lines. Clara longed to again provide nursing care on the battlefields as she had done during the Civil War. She repeatedly found, however, that her colleagues in the International Red Cross were unwilling to allow this.

When the women reached Strasbourg, they encountered members of the Swiss Red Cross who were providing aid to citizens of the city who had the greatest needs. The Swiss assigned Clara Barton to work with those persons who had been evacuated from the city during the battle and who had lost their homes and possessions. Barton developed a model of care that deviated markedly from the Red Cross members’ traditional provision of care only to wounded combatants. She advocated for citizens who had been affected by the war to now be participants in the relief efforts aimed at helping in their recovery. Thus, she began a small business that involved the citizens of Strasbourg in sewing clothing. The garments produced aided those who had lost all of their possessions and also aided those without work. The relief efforts in Strasbourg were among the first attempts to involve citizens who had been affected by a disaster, a population whose needs had not been considered in the Treaty of Geneva (Jones, 2013). Barton continued to use this model when she organized relief efforts in the French cities of Metz, Montbéliard, Belfort, and later, in Paris. From that time forward, the main focus of her work would be provision of aid to citizens affected by war and other disasters (Bacon-Foster, 1918). Clara Barton also came to understand the effectiveness of Red Cross workers in their care of combatants and resolved to secure U.S. support for the Treaty of Geneva. She observed that the Red Cross workers were more efficient and better prepared than had been the Sanitary Commission workers during the American Civil War. After her 2 years of work with the French, Swiss, Prussian, and British Red Cross Societies, Barton promised her colleagues that she would devote the rest of her life, if necessary, to the introduction of the Red Cross movement in the United States (W. E. Barton, 1922). In turn, Clara Barton was praised by European dignitaries for the aid she had provided during the Franco–Prussian War. Kaiser Wilhelm presented her with the Iron Cross, the German government’s highest honor, which had never before and has never since been awarded to a woman (Jones, 2013).

Unfortunately, Clara Barton’s early attempts to inspire a shared vision, although effective, ultimately came at a cost to her credibility. Although her diary and accounts from her companion, Antoinette Margot, clearly indicate that both women never served on an actual field of battle in France, Barton nevertheless related that they had been personally involved in combat. It seems she embellished her accounts both to entertain her admirers and to enlist their financial support for her cause. She believed that necessary support could best be engendered through the use of strong words and the presentation of the events as both dreadful and in need of immediate attention (Pryor, 1987).

Unfortunately, Clara’s work in Europe had taken a toll on her health. In 1873, she suffered another bout of exhaustion and depression, which caused her to return to the United States and to seek treatment in a sanatorium in Danville, New York. As she recovered her strength, she began to write newspaper articles about the work of the Red Cross in an attempt to gain public support. In 1887, when she had fully recovered her strength, she renewed her correspondence with Gustave Moynier, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Dr. Louis Appia, a colleague of Moynier who had visited Barton when she first arrived in Switzerland. Both proved to be wise mentors to Clara Barton as she began her new endeavor. First, they cautioned her that under the rules of the ICRC, a country’s national Red Cross would not be recognized until its government had signed the Treaty of Geneva. Barton’s first action, therefore, should be to convince the U.S. government to agree to the terms of the Treaty of Geneva. Further, they warned that because the United States did not consider itself a military power and because the danger of war did not seem imminent, the government would be unlikely to see this action as a high priority. Historically, the United States had adhered to the warning of George Washington as he left office and avoided “entanglements” with foreign powers and had signed treaties with foreign governments only to bring an end to wars.

Dr. Appia sent Clara Barton a detailed plan for the establishment of a Red Cross Society in the United States: (a) seek publicity, (b) achieve government approval of the Treaty of Geneva, (c) found a national Red Cross Society, and (d) collect funds to support the national Red Cross. He further advised her to “surround yourself with a little body of persons full of good-will and capacity, docile to your directions” (W. E. Barton, 1922, p. 128). Moynier appointed Clara Barton the agent of the ICRC and sent her a letter of introduction to present to Rutherford B. Hayes, the president of the United States, strongly encouraging him to accept the Articles of the Convention of Geneva. Unfortunately, during the years that Clara Barton was abroad, she had lost many of her prior contacts with persons of influence in the nation’s capital. Those who remained had little power in the Hayes administration. Barton visited President Hayes at the White House and was warmly received. However, the letter of introduction was referred to the Assistant to the Secretary of State Frederick Seward, who had no interest in the proposal. During the 1860s, Henry Bellows and members of the Sanitary Commission had proposed the idea of a Red Cross Society to Seward, who remembered his refusal of their request, referred her to the record of this refusal, and regarded the matter as decided. Clara Barton later wrote,

Clara Barton had learned much from her colleagues and mentors in Europe. She now needed to develop strategies that would appeal to the sentiments of the people of the United States, as well as to U.S. elected officials. To win acceptance, the idea of a Red Cross had to speak to the hearts of Americans.

INSPIRING A SHARED VISION—DEVELOPING NEW STRATEGIES

Because Clara Barton realized that she was unlikely to have any success in further appeals to members of the Hayes administration, she decided to wait until the election of a different president before making further attempts to secure approval of the treaty. As she waited, Barton embarked on a strategy to educate the American public about the value of a Red Cross Society. She gathered a group of friends, including the Swiss counsel-general, Switzerland’s official representative to the United States, to form a “Society of the Red Cross.” This committee aimed to bring public attention to the work of the Red Cross and to arouse public sentiment in favor of approval of the Treaty of Geneva. In 1878, the committee members published and circulated a pamphlet, The Red Cross of the Geneva Convention: What It Is, authored by Barton. In this publication, she presented the Red Cross as a national relief organization that would function during times of peace to “afford ready succor and assistance to sufferers in times of national widespread calamities, such as plague, yellow fever, and the like, devastating fires or floods, rail disasters, [or] mining catastrophes” (C. Barton, 1878, pp. 5–6).

Clara Barton expanded the idea of a Red Cross Society beyond that envisioned by Dunant. European Red Cross Societies had been formed to provide rapid relief to those injured in battle and actually had been cautioned by Moynier to limit resources expended in national relief efforts. But Clara Barton realized that in the United States, memory of the Civil War was fading and that the idea of provision of relief during “national calamities” would better speak to the concerns of the American public. She wrote,

Thus, Clara Barton and her committee members became the first in the international Red Cross movement to make disaster relief the central focus of its mission (Jones, 2013). Efforts to educate the American public and to win the support of persons of influence continued throughout the remainder of the Hayes administration.

Soon after the inauguration of President James Garfield in 1881, Barton renewed her efforts to secure government approval of the Treaty of Geneva. The new president was receptive to the idea. He urged its approval to Secretary of State James Blaine, who began correspondence with the ICRC and began arrangements to organize a branch of the Red Cross in the United States. In 1881, the original small committee was reorganized and incorporated as the Society of the Red Cross. President Garfield nominated Clara Barton to be its president, a position she held for the next 22 years. That summer, President Garfield was assassinated, a blow to the nation, but especially to the members of the newly formed Red Cross Society. However, his successor, Chester A. Arthur, proved to be equally supportive and recommended approval of the treaty in his inaugural address. The Treaty of Geneva was accepted by Congress and was signed by President Arthur on March 1, 1882.

President Moynier of the ICRC wrote to Clara Barton, “You must feel happy and proud at last to have attained your object, thanks to a perseverance and zeal which surmounted every obstacle” (Harper, 1912, p. 708). Bonfires were lit in Geneva in celebration of the acceptance of the treaty by the United States. In a proclamation of its mission, the stationery of the society read, “The American Society of the Red Cross organized under the Treaty of Geneva for the Relief of Sufferings of War, Pestilence, Famine, Fires, Floods, and other National Calamities” (Bacon-Foster, 1918, p. 307). The primary mission of the ICRC, however, was the provision of relief to casualties of battle, and the charter of the American Society required ratification by the nations of the ICRC. Using her well-honed skills in diplomacy, Clara Barton presented the case that because many disasters of various forms occur annually in the United States, for the American Society to be able to justify its existence, it should have the power to offer its aid in any national calamity. The nations of the ICRC accepted Barton’s proposal, calling it the “American Amendment” (Harper, 1912).

For the first 10 years of its existence, the American Society of the Red Cross operated under the charter it had been granted by the District of Columbia. Barton and her colleagues realized, however, that for the Society to have the power and standing it required, a federal charter would be necessary. This could only be secured through congressional legislation. Although this would seem to have been a simple matter, Clara Barton spent several years lobbying members of Congress who were quite indifferent to her cause. During this time, Clara learned the important skill of political action, which is necessary for the inspiration of a shared vision.

In 1893, when Clara Barton’s lobbying efforts were successful and a federal charter was granted, the Society was reincorporated as the American National Red Cross. Full recognition from Congress would not be attained until 1900. Congress failed, however, to allocate financial support for maintenance of the Red Cross, although the government of every other country in the Red Cross movement had established a mechanism to fund its national society. Thus, for 23 years, the cost of the Red Cross headquarters in Washington, DC, was borne entirely by Clara Barton. No salaries were paid to her staff except for a few temporary employees who provided fieldwork or secretarial services.

INSPIRING A SHARED VISION ON A LOCAL LEVEL

In August 1881, the first local branch of the American Red Cross, called a Red Cross Auxiliary Society, was established in Dansville, New York, Clara Barton’s home during the years of her illness. In only a few weeks, other local branches were established in Syracuse and Rochester, New York. The value of the Society was soon proven in its rapid response to forest fires that swept across Michigan, leaving many families homeless and destitute. The local branches collected money and supplies, which were distributed by Dr. J. B. Hubbell, the chief field agent for the Red Cross and Clara Barton’s personal assistant (Bacon-Foster, 1918).

Dr. Hubbell served as Clara Barton’s assistant from 1881 until 1904. He took charge when she was away from headquarters and was sent to direct aid missions when she was unable to be away from the office. Barton met Hubbell when he served as a professor of science and principal of the Dansville Hygienic Seminary. He became interested in Barton’s work and pledged to help her in the establishment of the American Red Cross. When he asked how he could best help the fledgling Society, Clara Barton asked him to attend medical school, in the belief that the presence of an educated medical doctor on her staff would add to the organization’s credibility. Hubbell studied at the University of Michigan and received his medical degree in 1883. At many points in his education, however, he was called away to aid in various Red Cross relief efforts.

The first real test of the effectiveness of the Red Cross was its response to flooding in the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys in 1882, 1883, and 1884. The American Red Cross collected $175,000 in money and donations for the relief effort. Clara Barton rented a steamship, loaded it with supplies, and journeyed along the Ohio River, distributing supplies to those in need. When the flooding spread to the lower Mississippi River valley, the American Red Cross chartered another ship in St. Louis, stocked the ship with provisions, and traveled as far as the Mississippi Delta, bringing aid to many afflicted persons in areas too remote to have been reached through the government’s relief efforts. The relief efforts of the American Red Cross were unique in that Barton collected and distributed clothing, seeds to replace lost crops, coal for heating homes, and feed for animals—all items needed for survival, which were not considered in government-sponsored relief efforts. Following the approach she had used during the Civil War, Barton traveled to the site of a disaster and personally comforted those in need.

Through her personal contact with disaster victims, Clara Barton strove to inspire a shared vision through collecting and sharing with the press personal stories of those who had been afflicted by the disaster. For example, a family of six children in Pennsylvania who had heard about the devastation caused by the flood staged a variety show to aid the victims and sent Clara Barton the $51.25 they collected. As Barton traveled along the flooded Ohio River, in Shawneetown, Illinois, she encountered a widow with six children who had been driven from their home by the flood. Clara used the funds from Pennsylvania to aid the family and notified the donors about the recipients of their generosity. The children in Pennsylvania responded, “Some time again when you want money to help you in your good work, call upon the ‘Little Six’” (Jones, 2013, p. 41). Clara Barton sent the story to be published in the Erie Dispatch, the local newspaper of Erie, Pennsylvania. She then ordered 1,000 copies of the article, which she sent to other newspapers and included in the notes of thanks she sent to many of her donors. Thus, she was able to inspire a shared vision through astute use of the media, coupled with the establishment of a personal connection to her donors.

Later, in 1884, soon after Clara Barton returned from her flood relief efforts, the secretary of state appointed her to represent the United States at the International Conference of the Red Cross, which would be held in Geneva in September. At this conference, she was the only woman among the representatives from 32 nations. Her work was applauded through a resolution introduced by the representative from Italy, “This conference declares that in obtaining the accession of the United States of America to the Convention of Geneva Miss Clara Barton has well merited the gratitude of the world” (Bacon-Foster, 1918, p. 310).

In 1888, the American Red Cross aided victims of a yellow fever epidemic in Jacksonville, Florida. In addition to the Red Cross, many other agencies provided aid, including the U.S. Public Health Service and the U.S. Marine Hospital Service. When Clara Barton appealed to local Red Cross units around the country, the onetime leader of the New Orleans Red Cross responded by sending nurses to aid in the relief effort. Unfortunately, some of the nurses recruited for this effort proved to be less than professional and were accused of drinking to excess, theft, and general incompetence. In contrast, a group of educated nurses from Bellevue Hospital in New York City who joined the relief effort demonstrated the application of scientific principles such as attention to nutrition, hydration, environmental regulation, and treatment protocols in the care of the victims of yellow fever (D’Antonio & Whelan, 2004). Fortunately, a small group of the New Orleans Red Cross nurses performed valiantly through their establishment of a hospital and maintenance of quarantine in the severely afflicted town of McClenny, a short distance from Jacksonville. From this experience, Barton realized the importance of close supervision and guidance of local Red Cross chapters as well as the persons sent as nurses to disaster areas.

On the afternoon of May 31, 1889, a dam built by the exclusive South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club gave way, flooding the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, which lay in the valley below. In the wake of the disaster, 2,209 people were killed. Debris littered the town, thousands of residents were homeless, and parts of the city were covered with up to 30 feet of water. The club’s members, who included industrialists such as Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, had given little attention to either the maintenance of the dam or the threat it posed to the residents of Johnstown. The Philadelphia local Red Cross Auxiliary sent doctors and educated nurses who went door to door to locate sick and injured persons in need of medical attention. The medical and nursing staff further implemented sanitation mechanisms to prevent the outbreak and spread of waterborne diseases, such as typhoid fever. Clara Barton took charge of the distribution of food, clothing, and supplies to the flood victims. The Red Cross used donated lumber to construct temporary hotels that housed nearly one hundred families. Her goal was to provide care and comfort to those who were psychologically distraught as a result of the disaster. When the Red Cross’s relief efforts ended in late October, Clara Barton was recognized in an editorial in the Johnstown Daily Tribune with the words, “The first to come and the last to go, she has indeed been an elder sister to us—nursing, soothing, and tending for the stricken ones” (C. Barton, 1898, p. 168).

In August 1893, a hurricane ravaged the South Carolina coast. Most affected were the Sea Islands along the coast, which were pounded by a 20-foot tidal wave. One of the greatest achievements of the American Red Cross was the aid it provided to the 30,000 residents who were affected by the storm and its aftermath. In 1890, 92% of the residents in the area most affected were African Americans. Many of these were descendants of former slaves who had labored in the rice plantations along the coast and retained many African traditions. Little media attention was given to this disaster, and because the nation was in the throes of an economic depression, little help was offered. Thus, the American Red Cross acted independently in its provision of relief and often was subjected to intense criticism. Complaints included that the African American victims of the storm were unworthy of aid and that any assistance provided would make them lazy and discouraged. Further, the argument was put forth that a disproportionate amount of aid was provided to the African American island residents, with little aid offered to the predominantly white residents along the coast. Thus, Clara Barton maintained the moral imperative of treating all victims of disaster equitably, regardless of race or ethnicity.

INSPIRING A SHARED VISION ABROAD—INTERNATIONAL RELIEF EFFORTS

During the 1890s, Clara Barton sought to expand the influence of the American Red Cross beyond the borders of the United States through involvement in crises abroad that demanded humanitarian aid. During the decade that followed its founding, the efforts of the American Red Cross had been confined to the United States. As the 19th century drew to a close, however, the spread of colonialism, improved communications and travel among nations, and an increase in missionary activities gave rise to the belief that more advanced nations had a responsibility to aid developing nations. Actually, international involvement seems to have been Clara Barton’s vision as early as 1878, because in her pamphlet, The Red Cross of the Geneva Convention, she referred to “the misfortunes of other nations” (C. Barton, 1878, pp. 7–8).

Throughout this decade, opportunities for overseas involvement arose, the most significant of which were a famine in Russia from 1889 until 1892, a massacre of Christian Armenians in Ottoman Turkey, in 1895; and a Cuban struggle for independence from Spain from 1895 until 1898. Through these international relief efforts that were necessary to deliver aid to those in need, Clara Barton learned to balance her involvement with foreign governments with the need for the American Red Cross to maintain its neutrality.

Clara Barton was only partially successful in efforts to send corn, grain, and potatoes to Russia. Midwestern farmers quickly identified with the plight of starving peasants and willingly sent produce for shipment abroad. Barton had great difficulty, however, in raising the funds needed to ship the donations abroad. Further, she had difficulty coordinating the efforts of the American Red Cross with a rival, the Russian Famine Committee of the United States, which had been organized by American farmers who were weary of the delays Barton encountered in her attempts to ship contributions abroad. By the time the shipments reached the Russian peasants, they had endured the famine for nearly a year, and relief programs from their own government were beginning to show positive results. Americans, however, believed the relief effort mounted by Clara Barton had been a success. The Christian Herald proclaimed enthusiastically, “We have saved the lives of 125,000 Russians” (Jones, 2013, p. 68).

During the summer of 1895, reports were sent by missionaries and travelers abroad that Muslim Turks and Kurds had committed atrocities against the predominantly Christian Armenians. The ire of Americans was further raised by reports that schools and buildings that had been erected by American missionaries to bring “civilization” to the Armenians had been burned and razed. Because the nation of Turkey had ratified the Treaty of Geneva, Clara Barton, the president and representative of the American Red Cross, seemed the logical person to intervene in the crisis. Although she was 74 years old, Barton felt it was her responsibility to undertake this project, despite the knowledge that she would, once again, be venturing into potentially dangerous situations. When she was introduced to Tewfik Pasha, the prime minister of Turkey, by A. W. Terrell the U.S. ambassador to the country, both Clara Barton and Terrell presented their goals in strict humanitarian terms, stressing their concern for the welfare of both the survivors of the massacres and the missionaries attempting to provide aid. When asked to state her plans for the proposed relief effort, Barton later recalled saying,

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