On August 3, 1862, Clara Barton made her first appearance on the battlefields of the Civil War after the Battle of Cedar Mountain in northern Virginia. She gained permission to provide aid and supplies on the front lines after a long campaign lobbying for permission from the Army. Barton brought with her medical supplies she purchased on her own and obtained through donations from supporters. Over the course of the war she brought aid to soldiers at many of the hardest fought battles including: Second Manassas, Va., Antietam, Md., and Fredericksburg, Va.
After the war, Barton started and ran the Bureau of Records of Missing Men of the Armies of the United States and published Rolls of Missing Men to be posted across the country in hopes of aiding the many families searching for their lost family members who served in the war. Later she founded and became president of the American Red Cross.
Want to find out more about this amazing woman’s life? Check out some of the items in Moraine Valley library’s collection. You can also read her book, A Story of the Red Cross, available through Project Gutenberg.