The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1893-11-01
Origin of the Red Cross Society.

Minnesota Heavy Artillery.
Origin of the Red Cross society.
Miss Clara Barton, SO famous as the
head of the Red Cross society in this
country, began her career almost by
chance. At the outbreak of the civil
war Miss Barton was copying clerk
in the patent office at Washington.
She did not anticipate any serious diff
icuIty between the North and South,
however. and even after Fort Sumpter
imagined that q compromise would be
effected. But on the 18th of April,
1861, a regiment from her own state,
Massachusetts,, was passing through
Baltimore and was assailed bv mob
of disaffected persons and a number
killed. Miss Barton, in speaking re-
Gently to writer for the New York
Sun of these old days, said:
81 was greatly moved, and, going
into the street. found everywhere
forebodings of ILL., Washington was
full of the partisans of the South, and
there were many exclamations of joy
over the incident at baltimore Ex-
cited. alarmed and scarcely knowing
where went, fell into the current
and was swept away along to the
Baltimore and Ohio depot. There /
saw forty men covered with blood,
many of them faint and helpless,
landed from the cars and borne away
for shelter and treatment They
found a resting place at what was
then the infrmary on Judiciary
square, and 1 followed them. L did
what could for their relief, and was
so deeply interested that went again
the next day and the next, and on
many subsequent days. On Sunday
~, to- r
the regiment was quartered. l took
with me five negroes, carrying baskets
of provisions which | distributed
among the<solGiers. Some of the men
were from my cwn town and greeted
me with the feeling that they had
fqnnd friend. Before left the men,
- gathered around and / stood on
the steps that led to thsf Vice presi-
dents chair and read them the news
paper accounts of their journey and
the assault at Baltimore =
{ was IN this spontaneous way that
Clara Barton's work began. She had
no special training for the hospital.
bat her heart was full of pity and the
need was great. Washington was
soon surrounded by camps and the sick
and wounded were brought there fro.r
the front. Before long Miss Barton
flee and gave herself up entirely TO the
work. She soon reai!zeG that the
great necessity was for imu ediatG at
tention to the wounded, and. full of
thought, she procured Il pass from Sur
Seon General Hammond ana. loading
- railroad car with supplies. vent to
Cuipeper courthouse, which was
crowded with Union soldiers from the
battle of Cedar Mountain, August 9.
1862. Next she loaded an army wagon
with supplies and joined McClellans
army in Maryland. She arrived on
the eve of the battle Of Antietam and
early the next morning she took her
wagon to the shelter of barn and
there remained all day caring for
the wounded and dying. BY night
her face was so blaciened by gun
powder that she could scarcely be
recognized from one of her own con-
trabands. after the close of the war
Miss Barton was so exhausted that
she finally in 1869, sailed for Europe.
Then came the Franco-Prussian war,
and Miss Barton became a minister
ing angel in Germany and France as
she had been in America. The pin
she wears, the red cross of Geneva in
a gold circle, was given her by the
grand duchess of Baden. The Ger
man emperor also conferred on her
several decorations. Later came the
Johnstown flood, where Miss Barton
led the work of rescue, and, last of
all, she has turned her plying
thoughts toward Siberia. She is often
compared to Florence Nightingale,
but. unlike her, Miss Barton's sympa-
thes do not turn in one direction only.
She is full of sympathy for all who
suffer.