A stunning biography of Clara Barton—a woman who determined to serve her country during the Civil War—from acclaimed author Stephen B. Oates. When the Civil War broke out, Clara Barton wanted more than anything to be a Union soldier, an impossible dream for a thirty-nine-year-old woman, who stood a slender five feet tall. Determined to serve, she became a veritable soldier, a nurse, and a one-woman relief agency operating in the heart of the conflict. Now, award-winning author Stephen B. Oates, drawing on archival materials not used by her previous biographers, has written the first complete account of Clara Barton’s active engagement in the Civil War. By the summer of 1862, with no institutional affiliation or official government appointment, but impelled by a sense of duty and a need to heal, she made her way to the front lines and the heat of battle. Oates tells the dramatic story of this woman who gave the world a new definition of courage, supplying medical relief to the wounded at some of the most famous battles of the war—including Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Battery Wagner, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Petersburg. Under fire with only her will as a shield, she worked while ankle deep in gore, in hellish makeshift battlefield hospitals—a bullet-riddled farmhouse, a crumbling mansion, a windblown tent. Committed to healing soldiers’ spirits as well as their bodies, she served not only as nurse and relief worker, but as surrogate mother, sister, wife, or sweetheart to thousands of sick, wounded, and dying men. Her contribution to the Union was incalculable and unique. It also became the defining event in Barton’s life, giving her the opportunity as a woman to reach out for a new role and to define a new profession. Nursing, regarded as a menial service before the war, became a trained, paid occupation after the conflict. Although Barton went on to become the founder and first president of the Red Cross, the accomplishment for which she is best known, A Woman of Valor convinces us that her experience on the killing fields of the Civil War was her most extraordinary achievement.

Highlights the life and accomplishments of the teacher who organized efforts to bring nursing care to wounded soldiers during the Civil War and who went on to become the founder of the American Red Cross.

Most of Clara Barton's biographers have accepted her statements at face value, but they stand on shaky ground, for Barton was a relentless self-promoter and often embellished her stories in an effort to enhance her accomplishments. Donal Pfanz revisits her claims, comparing the information in her speeches with contemporary documents, including Barton's own wartime diary and letters. In doing so, he provides the first balanced and accurate account of her wartime service--a service that in the end needed no exaggeration.

Called the angel of the battlefield, Clara Barton's compassion for others led her to caring for wounded soldiers during the Civil War. Barton's role as founder of the American Red Cross and her leadership as its first president, earned her a place in history.

In the eighteenth century, a woman had few choices. If she was lucky, she received a decent education. Then she got married. In an era when women didnt work, Clara Barton was one of the nations first career women. Not only did she work, she did a mans job and demanded a mans wage. Some said she was scandalous, but friends and family thought she was generous and charming. The wounded from the battles of the Civil War called her the angel of the battlefield.Clara Barton is remembered not only as a nurse, but also as a woman who threw convention aside and went to the battlefields to care for the wounded and dying. Her courageous heart, personal sacrifice, and demands for better medical care for the wounded during the Civil War earned her the respect and love of the entire nation. After the war, she applied the same attributes to the founding of the American Red Cross. She is still loved today.

A look at the life and times of the nurse who served on the battlefields of the Civil War and later founded the American Red Cross.

The iconic relief organization’s activities over a half century of history, through wars, epidemics, and other disasters: “Well-researched . . . fascinating.” —Julia F. Irwin, Bulletin of the History of Medicine In dark skirts and bloodied boots, Clara Barton fearlessly ventured onto Civil War battlefields to tend to wounded soldiers. She later worked with civilians in Europe during the Franco-Prussian War, lobbied legislators to ratify the Geneva conventions, and founded and ran the American Red Cross. The American Red Cross from Clara Barton to the New Deal tells the story of the charitable organization from its start in 1881, through its humanitarian aid during wars, natural disasters, and the Depression, to its relief efforts of the 1930s. Marian Moser Jones illustrates the tension between the organization’s founding principles of humanity and neutrality and the political, economic, and moral pressures that sometimes caused it to favor one group at the expense of another. This book tells the stories of: • U.S. natural disasters such as the Jacksonville yellow fever epidemic of 1888, the Sea Islands hurricane of 1893, and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake • crises abroad, including the 1892 Russian famine and the Armenian massacres of 1895–96 • efforts to help civilians affected by the civil war in Cuba • power struggles within the American Red Cross leadership and subsequent alliances with the American government • the organization’s expansion during World War I • race riots and massacres in East St. Louis, Chicago, and Tulsa between 1917 and 1921 • help for African American and white Southerners after the Mississippi flood of 1927 • relief projects during the Dust Bowl and after the New Deal An epilogue relates the history of the American Red Cross since the beginning of World War II and illuminates the organization’s current practices and international reputation.

Through Battle Dispatches, Letters, and Other Records, Discovering the Wartime Service of America's Most Famous Nurse "I always tried to succor the wounded until medical aid and supplies could come up--I could run the risk; it made no difference to anyone if I were shot or taken prisoner." So recorded Clara Barton, the most famous woman to emerge from the American Civil War. In an age when few women worked in hospitals, much less at the front, Barton served in at least four Union armies, providing food and assistance to wounded soldiers on battlefields stretching from Maryland to South Carolina. Thousands of soldiers benefit­ed from her actions, and she is unquestionably an American heroine. But how much do we really know about her actual wartime service? Most information about Barton's activities comes from Barton herself. After the war, she toured the country recounting her wartime experiences to overflowing audiences. In vivid language, she described crossing the Rappahannock River under fire to succor wounded Union soldiers at Fredericksburg, transporting critical supplies to field hospitals at Antietam, and enduring searing heat and brackish water on the sun­scorched beach­es of South Carolina. She willingly braved hardship and danger in order to help the young men under her care, receiving in return their love and respect. Most of Barton's biographers have accepted her statements at face value, but in doing so, they stand on shaky ground, for Barton was a relentless self­promoter and often embellished her stories in an effort to enhance her accomplishments. In Clara Barton's Civil War: Between Bullet and Hospital, distinguished historian Donald Pfanz revisits Barton's claims, comparing the information in her speeches with contemporary documents, including Barton's own wartime diary and letters. In doing so, he provides the first balanced and accurate account of her wartime service--a service that in the end needed no exaggeration.

This book is a concise, interpretive account of the life of Clara Barton from her childhood in Massachusetts through her feats of heroism during the Civil War, her founding of the American Red Cross, which she led for 20 years, and her bitterly contested ejection from office which clouded her last decade. Clara Barton (1821-1912) led a life in the service of humanity. Undoubtedly heroic and undoubtedly generous in her impulse to aid others, she nonetheless remained a self-centered individual who could brook neither criticism nor ingratitude. Her life story is told here with sympathy and understanding without sacrificing candor or honesty.

This powerful tribute to Civil War nurse Clara Barton and her heroic efforts during the Battle of Antietam reveals how she earned the name "The Angel of the Battlefield," and shows the beginnings of her journey as one of our country's greatest humanitarians and the founder of the American Red Cross. During the Civil War, Clara Barton—one of the first women to receive permission to serve on a battlefield—snuck her supply wagon to the head of a ten-mile wagon train to deliver provisions to the Antietam Battlefield. On the bloodiest day in American history, Clara and her team of helpers sprang into action as they nursed the wounded and dying, cooked meals for soldiers, and provided doctors with desperately needed medical supplies and lanterns so they could operate through the night. Author Claudia Friddell blends her words with Clara Barton’s firsthand account to capture the nurse’s brave actions, while Christopher Cyr’s dramatically accurate illustrations portray one of the most heroic women in history.