Clara Barton: One of the Most Respected Figures of the American Civil War

Called the “Angel of the Battlefields”, Clara Barton has become one of the most well known and respected figures of the American Civil War and the nursing profession. Clara Barton made her place in history by becoming an unwavering monument to the improvement of women’s role in society and the importance of medical professions. From her contributions during the Civil War, possibly millions of lives have been saved inside and outside the military.
Clara was born December 25, 1821 in Oxford, Massachusetts to Captain Stephen, a respected war veteran, farmer, and politician, and Sarah Stone Barton, a caring mother who taught her how to manage a home and the importance of cleanliness. Being the youngest of the five Barton children, her older siblings took charge of Clara’s education, in areas such as arithmetic, geography and spelling. When she actually started a formal education Clara took classes in philosophy, chemistry and Latin.
Despite her love for nursing and medical care, Clara became a teacher at the age of 17, and taught at a local schoolhouse for almost twelve years. When she was 29 Clara entered the Liberal Institute in Clinton, New York, a school for advanced studies for teachers. Alongside her school work, Clara also studied furthered into writing and started taking private French lessons.
After one year in Clinton Clara took a teaching position in New Jersey and this later led to the opening of a public school in Bordentown, which grew to an attendance of over six hundred students. Controversy between her and the education board about Clara becoming the head of the school effectively ended Clara career in teaching for a while. After leaving the school and New Jersey, Clara moved to Washington D.C. to work as a clerk in the U.S. Patent Office.
At the end of the Civil War in 1865, Clara received permission from President Abraham Lincoln to start a letter-writing campaign to find the soldiers that had been listed as missing in action and inform...