Clarissa Harlowe Barton (December 25, 1821 - April 12, 1912), better known as Clara Barton, was an American pioneer, teacher, nurse and humanitarian. She has been described as an untamable spirit and is especially remembered for organizing the American Red Cross.
In April 1861, after the First Battle of Bull Run, Barton created an agency to obtain and distribute supplies to wounded soldiers. General William Hammond gave him a pass to travel in the army ambulances to give comfort to the soldiers and cure them. He pressured the US Army bureaucracy, first unsuccessfully, to bring their own medical supplies to the battlefield. Finally, in July 1862, he obtained permission to travel behind the battle line, reaching the darkest battlefields and serving during the sieges of Petersburg, Virginia, and Richmond, Virginia. In 1864, Union General Benjamin Butler named her "lady manager" of the hospitals in charge of James's Army.
In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln commissioned him to search for missing persons of the Union army. While he was engaged in this work, he found out about the whereabouts of 30,000 men. When the war was over, she was sent to Andersonville, Georgia to install and mark the tombs of Union soldiers who were buried there. This experience motivated her to start a national campaign to identify the missing soldiers during the American Civil War. He published lists of names in the newspapers and corresponded with the families of the soldiers.
Barton gave talks about his experiences of war. He met Susan B. Anthony and began a long association with the suffrage movement. He also met Frederick Douglass and became an activist for the civil rights of blacks.
