Clara Barton

 

• She was born on December 25, 1821 in North Oxford, Massachusetts to Capt. Stephen and Sarah Barton.
• She became a teacher in 1838.
• When the Civil War broke out she wanted to go to the front lines to help the wounded. In August of 1862, she was given permission to go to the front lines.
• In 1864 she was appointed by Union General Benjamin Butler as the "lady in charge" of the hospitals at the front of the Army of the James.
• She ran the Office of Missing Soldiers after the war in Northwest, Washington, D.C.
• She was introduced to the Red Cross in Switzerland while she was there and wanted to bring it to America. And she did on August 22, 1882. She was the first president of the American Red Cross.
• She never got married.
• She died on April 12, 1912 in Glen Echo, Maryland.