Why clara barton died

Tillinghast, who accompanied her to Russia, and Admiral N. By , Barton retired from the Red Cross. She lived out the rest of her life at her Glenn Echo, MD home and died there on April 12, , at the age of She is buried in the family cemetery in North Oxford, MA. Clara Barton was working in the U.

Like many women, she helped collect bandages and other much-needed supplies, but she soon realized that she could best support the troops by going in person to the battlefields. When her service to the Union soldiers was complete, Barton traveled to Europe. There, she became aware of the Geneva, Switzerland-based Red Cross, which called for international agreements to protect the sick and wounded during wartime and for the formation of national societies to give aid voluntarily on a neutral basis.

Upon her return home, Barton was determined that the United States should participate in the global Red Cross network. Working with influential friends and contacts such as Frederick Douglass, she founded the American Red Cross in Barton served as president of the organization until , when she resigned at age Her legacy to the nation— service to humanity —is reflected in the services provided daily by the employees and volunteers of the American Red Cross.

Red Cross History Overview. Explore Our Timeline. Our Federal Charter. The Global Red Cross Network. Contributions of People of Color. Contributions of Young Americans. Red Cross Nursing. Tiffany Windows. Please enter a valid 5 digit zip code. Whenever possible, Barton recorded the personal information of the soldiers she cared for. As the war progressed, she was often called upon to correspond with family members of missing, wounded or dead soldiers.

After returning to Washington, D. Her job was to find missing soldiers and, if possible, inform their families of their fate. She formed the Bureau of Records of Missing Men of the Armies of the United States and — along with twelve clerks — researched the status of tens of thousands of soldiers and answered over 63, letters. By the time Barton left her post and presented her final report to Congress in , she and her assistants had identified 22, missing soldiers, but she believed at least 40, were still unaccounted for.

In , Barton traveled to Europe for rest and learned about the International Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland, which had established an international agreement known as the Geneva Treaty now part of the Geneva Convention , which laid out rules for the care of the sick and wounded in wartime. When the Franco-Prussian War broke out in , Barton — never one to sit on the sidelines — wore a red cross made of red ribbon and helped deliver supplies to needy war-zone citizens.

President Chester A. Arthur finally signed the treaty in and the American Association of the Red Cross later called the American Red Cross was born, with Barton at its helm. As head of the American Red Cross, Barton focused mainly on disaster relief, including helping victims of the deadly Johnstown Flood in Pennsylvania , and devastating hurricanes and tidal waves in South Carolina and Galveston, Texas.

She also sent relief supplies overseas to victims of war and famine. She was reportedly an independent workaholic who fiercely protected her vision of what the Red Cross should be. She also suffered from depression, although nothing rallied her more than an urgent call for help. Her authoritarian leadership approach and supposed mismanagement of funds eventually forced her to resign her post in In , Barton established the National First Aid Association of America which made first aid kits and worked closely with local fire and police departments to create ambulance brigades.

Barton served on sixteen battlefields during the Civil War. Whether working tirelessly behind the scenes to procure supplies, prepare meals and arrange makeshift hospitals or tending the wounded during some of the goriest battles in American history, she earned the respect of countless soldiers, officers, surgeons and politicians.

She almost singlehandedly changed the widely-held viewpoint that women were too weak to help on battlefields. She believed in equal rights and helped everyone regardless of race, gender or economic station. She brought attention to the great need of disaster victims and streamlined many first aid, emergency preparedness and emergency response procedures still used by the American Red Cross.

A monument in her honor stands at Antietam National Battlefield. American Red Cross. Biography: Clara Barton. Civil War Trust. Clara Barton and the American Red Cross. Clara Barton Birthplace Museum. Her job was to respond to anxious inquiries from the friends and relatives of missing soldiers by locating them among the prison rolls, parole rolls, or casualty lists at the camps in Annapolis, Maryland. It was at her insistence that the anonymous graves at Andersonville prison were identified and marked.

In the American Red Cross was established, the culmination of a decade of work by Barton. Civil War Biography. Clara Barton. Date of Birth - Death December 25, — April 12, Clara Barton died in at the age of ninety-one. Topic s :. Women in War. Related Biographies.