“Well behaved women seldom make history.” —Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
It may seem strange in the 21st century to think of Clara Barton as anything but well behaved. But Clara defied norms and accomplished feats unheard of among other women of her time. She held jobs women weren’t supposed to hold. She ran toward danger in service of her country and even took fire on the battlefield. She helped families find their missing soldiers. And, perhaps most notably, she founded the American Red Cross.
The road to Clara’s greatest accomplishments was forged in and around Northern Virginia. Let Clara be your inspiration and guide as you make Fairfax County your home base for exploring the local sites and stories that made her one of America’s most legendary historic figures, including:
- The Fairfax Station Railroad Museum, where Clara arrived to begin her career as a Civil War nurse
- Saint Mary of Sorrows church, where Clara nursed the wounded
- Manassas National Battlefield Park, where the soldiers Clara tended were wounded
- Ox Hill Battlefield Park, another local battlefield where Clara tended the wounded
- Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Museum, where Clara helped families find their missing soldiers
- Clara Barton National Historic Site, which served as Clara’s home and the HQ of the National Red Cross
Clara Barton’s journey to nursing began early.
Image courtesy National Park Service/Public Domain
Clara Barton was born in North Oxford, Massachusetts on Christmas Day in 1821. When she was 10, her brother fell off the roof of a barn and sustained a severe head injury. Clara nursed him back to health, learning to administer medication and perform bloodletting along the way.
At age 17, she become a schoolteacher. Over the 11 years she taught, she ruffled feathers by leading an effective redistricting campaign and opening the first free school in New Jersey.
Her accomplishments were already extraordinary for a woman of her time, but at the age of 34, she moved to Washington, DC , switched careers and became a clerk at the US Patent and Trademark Office. This was the first time a woman had received a substantial clerkship in the federal government and at a salary equal to a man's salary.
During her time there, she received a lot of harassment from her fellow male clerks over her support of civil rights and, frankly, her lack of a Y chromosome. Her job was downgraded, but Clara persisted, hoping to forge a pathway for more women to serve in government office.
Clara Barton’s career as a battlefield nurse begins.
Courtesy Wikimedia Commons User Nheyob
In a country bubbling up with conflict and Civil War, a riot broke out in Baltimore on April 19, 1861. The victims were transported to the unfinished Capitol Building in Washington, DC. Wanting to serve her country, Barton went to the railroad station when the victims arrived to aid upwards of 40 men. She then began collecting supplies and distributing them to battlefields throughout the war, despite opposition from the War Department and field surgeons concerned for her safety.
When the Second Battle of Bull Run (Second Manassas) commenced in 1862, Clara took the Orange and Alexandria Railroad out to Fairfax Station, near the battlefield. The wounded were laid out on the hill at Saint Mary of Sorrows church, across the street. Although just a self-taught nurse, she tended to soldiers for three days in the pouring rain. Then, when fighting moved to Ox Hill, she nursed soldiers there. Two Union Generals would lose their lives in that skirmish.
Clara’s start as a battlefield nurse anchors many colorful tales of Civil War in Fairfax County, including female spies, aerial reconnaissance and a lot of soldier graffiti. Because of all the local historic sites in the county (such as George Washington’s Mount Vernon) and its proximity to the nation’s capital, many find Fairfax County a good, central location for exploring battlefields from Fredericksburg to Gettysburg.
One important Clara Barton site for a day trip includes Antietam Battlefield, known as the single bloodiest day in American history with 23,000 casualties. By then, Clara had become known for her nursing and the wagons of supplies she’d bring to the battlefields. This earned her the nickname of “Angel of the Battlefield.”
In the midst of that horrific fight on September 17, 1862, Clara tended the wounded on the battlefield as bullets whizzed by. One bullet went right through her puffy sleeve and killed the man she was tending. As a side note, although Clara was sympathetic to the North, she nursed soldiers from both sides without hesitation, motivated by the humanitarian desire to alleviate suffering.
"In my feeble estimation, General McClellan, with all his laurels, sinks into insignificance beside the true heroine of the age, the Angel of the Battlefield."
—Dr. James Dunn, Surgeon at the Battle of Antietam
The war ends, but Clara Barton continues to serve.
After the war, Clara discovered that thousands of letters to the War Department from distraught relatives were going unanswered because the soldiers they were asking about were buried in unmarked graves. With permission from President Lincoln, Clara opened the Office of Missing Soldiers, which is now a small museum in Washington, DC.
Over the next four years, she and her staff researched and responded to over 63,000 letters. By the time the office closed in 1868, it had identified the fate of over 22,000 men. Among them were 13,000 Union soldiers who died in the infamous Andersonville Prison. Now their families could give them a proper burial.
Clara Barton founds the American Red Cross.
While on a trip to Switzerland in 1869, Clara learned about the European humanitarian movement called The Red Cross. The Red Cross provided neutral aid to those injured in combat. Inspired by that mission, Clara volunteered to deliver civilian relief with them during the Franco-Prussian War. This experience, along with her Civil War service, inspired Clara to bring the Red Cross movement to America.
In 1881, the American Red Cross was born. Clara’s vision expanded beyond wartime aid, bringing disaster relief to victims of floods, hurricanes, and epidemics. Clara Barton served as Red Cross president for 23 years, retiring in 1904. Today, the Red Cross continues Clara’s mission across the country.
Across her life, Clara nursed soldiers, gave families closure, helped in the floods on the Ohio river, provided Texas with food and supplies during the 1887 famine, took her team to Illinois in 1888 after a tornado, and went to Florida for the yellow fever epidemic. Barton's last field operation as President of the American Red Cross was helping victims of the Galveston hurricane in 1900.
After a lifetime of service, Clara died at her home in Glen Echo, Maryland, on April 12, 1912. In that space, Clara lived, ran the Red Cross and stored supplies. The site is now open to the public to explore.
Walk in the footsteps of a woman whose name is still known 200 years later.
In any era, across any gender, Clara Barton is a hero of impossible proportions. If this were a fictional story, critics would pan it as unbelievable. Clara’s is the story you tell when people say one person can’t make a difference. And she did it despite pushback, despite being underestimated, despite significant danger and despite “misbehaving.”
A tour of Fairfax County and the surrounding region puts Clara’s life and accomplishments in context. You can envision her arrival via train at Fairfax Station. You can stand on the hill where she nursed soldiers in the rain. And you can Metro out to the Missing Soldier’s Museum and her home in Glen Echo for further exploration. It all starts in Fairfax County!
