Clara Barton Second Draft Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Clara Barton Second Draft - Essay Example Barton became involved with dealing with wounded soldiers behind the lines during the American Civil War, firstly distributing supplies and later searching for the fallen of the Union army. In 1864, thanks to her tireless efforts on the battlefield, Barton was promoted to superintendent of nurses. Her role in assisting casualties was of extreme importance, as Tooker underlines. He underlines that ‘volunteers, such as Barton, provided an invaluable service early in the war until larger charitable organizations, such as the U.S. Sanitary Commission, were able to assist the Union Army on providing basic necessities, sanitation and medical support for the troops’. (Tooker, 2007 p.220) After the war ended, as a result of her work and her determination to see the official list of the dead (copied in secret by a soldier – Dorence Atwater – and known as the ‘Atwater list’) published, she became known as the Angel of the Battle field. To recover from her exertions during the war, Barton travelled to Switzerland in 1869 for a peaceful break in Europe. However, when the Franco-Prussian war broke out in 1870, Barton once again took to the battlefield to help the injured, working with the International Committee of the Red Cross. Egglestone (2003: p.172) describes Barton’s activities in this period; ‘she followed German troops into Strasbourg after [a] 30-day siege and remained there for six months whilst setting up relief programs for the sick and wounded’. Upon returning to the US in 1973, Barton was determined to establish a similar organisation in her own country. However it took seven long years for her to persuade the American establishment that such an organisation was needed. Many Americans believed that their country would never again face a war as bloody as the Civil War, but Barton managed to gain recognition for the organisation by arguing that it could be useful not just in war time, but also in