![]() ![]() This marked the start of her career as a Civil War nurse and relief worker, but she never formally affiliated with any agency or group. The response to her request for supplies for the troops was overwhelming, and she quickly learned how to store and distribute them. She gathered food, medicine and other supplies from her own household to distribute to the soldiers, then solicited friends from Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey to send needed items. In the midst of all this chaos Barton saw the need for personal assistance to the men in uniform, some of whom were wounded or hungry, others without bedding or any clothing except what was on their backs. Capitol building in nearby Washington, DC, and Barton rushed from the Patent Office to the makeshift hospital to tend the wounded. On Apsoldiers of the 6th Massachusetts Infantry were attacked by Southern sympathizers in Baltimore, Maryland. Patent Office in Washington, DC when the Civil War began on April 12, 1861. When Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, Barton returned to her former position as a copyist at the Patent Office.Ĭlara Barton was working as a recording clerk in the U.S. She then returned to Massachusetts, where she lived with family and friends for several years. Her position was eliminated when Democratic President James Buchanan was elected in 1856. Secretary of the Interior Robert McClelland did not like women working in government offices and reduced Barton to a copyist with a pay rate of 10 cents for each 100 words. Her $1,400 annual salary was the same as that of the male clerks. Patent Office from 1854 to 1857, the first woman to receive a substantial clerkship in the federal government. The significance of the work she performed during and immediately after the war cannot be overstated.īorn in Massachusetts in 1821, Clara Barton moved to Washington, DC in 1854. During the war she maintained a home in Washington, DC, but traveled with the Union Army, providing care and relief services to the wounded on many battlefields. Most people remember Clara Barton as the founder of the American Red Cross and an independent Civil War nurse. ![]() (Originally published on the Civil War Women blog at. ![]()
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