Clara BartonClara Barton was born on December 25, 1821 in Massachusetts and is best known for founding the American Red Cross and supporting Union soldiers in the field during the Civil War American. Clara learned the art of nursing at a young age when she was assigned the task of caring for her brother after he fell and suffered a serious injury. At the age of 17 Clara Barton began teaching and was a teacher for many years in Canada and western Georgia before continuing her education. his education by pursuing writing and language studies at the Clinton Liberal Institute in New York and opening his own free school in New Jersey, the first free school to open in the state. After moving to Washington D.C., Barton began working as a clerk in the United States Patent Office and became the first woman to receive a government job and earn a salary equal to that of a man. However, his position was soon reduced to that of copyist and then eliminated entirely. Civil War After a riot broke out near his patent office, Barton immediately set out to treat the wounded and soon after wrote to his friends urging them to help by building a reserve of volunteers. network that would change the medical face of the Civil War. With her father's death, Barton became convinced that it was her duty as a Christian to help the soldiers and began bringing supplies to the men of the 6th Massachusetts Infantry. Like a few other women, Barton provided assorted clothing, foods, and supplies to the sick or injured. Most of the supplies were purchased through donations solicited by Barton herself or with her own funds. During the war, twice as many men died from disease and wound infections than died from a bullet on the battlefield; this was due to the unsanitary and crowded conditions at the campsites. Clara cared... at the center of the card... about protecting herself, fashioning a cross out of the red ribbon she wore. After his return to America, Barton pushed for the movement to gain International Committee of the Red Cross recognition from the United States government. President Rutherford B. Hayes initially expressed what most Americans believed, that they would never again face a problem like the Civil War. But Barton persisted and eventually succeeded in using the argument that the new American Red Cross could respond to crises other than war, such as earthquakes, forest fires, and hurricanes. In 1880 the American Red Cross was founded, Barton was the organization's first president until 1904 but still continuing as a volunteer in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. The American Red Cross, with Barton at its head, devoted itself largely to disaster relief for the first 20 years of its existence.