The American Red Cross responds to an emergency every eight minutes. Behind that extraordinary reach is a story that begins with one woman on a Civil War battlefield.
The Angel of the Battlefield
Clara Barton was born on Christmas Day, 1821, in Oxford, Massachusetts. During the Civil War, she organized supply distribution for wounded soldiers and earned the nickname "Angel of the Battlefield" for her frontline nursing. After the war, she led efforts to identify missing soldiers, locating over 22,000 through her Missing Soldiers Office.
Discovering the Red Cross
While recovering in Switzerland in 1869, Barton learned about the International Red Cross and volunteered with the organization during the Franco-Prussian War. She became determined to bring the movement to America. For years, she lobbied presidents and congress, making a novel argument: an American Red Cross could serve during peacetime disasters, not just wartime.
On May 21, 1881, Barton formally established the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C. She served as its president for 23 years, personally directing relief operations for floods, hurricanes, and famines.
A Legacy of Service
Today, the Red Cross operates with more than 33,000 employees and 1.2 million volunteers. It assists victims of over 70,000 disasters per year and maintains one of the nation's largest blood bank systems. Barton's vision of a humanitarian organization ready for any crisis lives on in every deployment.
Learn more about the organization's current disaster response work on our American Red Cross page.
