THE LIFE OF CLARA BARTON
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME I
[Illustration: _Clara Barton_]
THE LIFE OF
CLARA BARTON
FOUNDER OF
THE AMERICAN RED CROSS
BY
WILLIAM E. BARTON
AUTHOR OF “THE SOUL OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN”
“THE PATERNITY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN,” ETC.
_With Illustrations_
VOLUME I
[Illustration: Decorative Image]
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
1922
COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY WILLIAM E. BARTON
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE · MASSACHUSETTS
PRINTED IN THE U. S. A.
TO
STEPHEN E. BARTON
HER TRUSTED NEPHEW; MY KINSMAN AND FRIEND
CONTENTS
VOLUME I
INTRODUCTION xi
I. HER FIRST ATTEMPT AT AUTOBIOGRAPHY 1
II. THE BIRTH OF CLARA BARTON 6
III. HER ANCESTRY 9
IV. HER PARENTAGE AND INFANCY 16
V. HER SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS 22
VI. THE DAYS OF HER YOUTH 36
VII. HER FIRST EXPERIENCE AS A TEACHER 50
VIII. LEAVES FROM HER UNPUBLISHED AUTOBIOGRAPHY 56
IX. THE HEART OF CLARA BARTON 76
X. FROM SCHOOLROOM TO PATENT OFFICE 89
XI. THE BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM 107
XII. HOME AND COUNTRY 131
XIII. CLARA BARTON TO THE FRONT 172
XIV. HARPER’S FERRY TO ANTIETAM 191
XV. CLARA BARTON’S CHANGE OF BASE 225
XVI. THE ATTEMPT TO RECAPTURE SUMTER 238
XVII. FROM THE WILDERNESS TO THE JAMES 263
XVIII. TO THE END OF THE WAR 282
XIX. ANDERSONVILLE AND AFTER 304
XX. ON THE LECTURE PLATFORM 328
ILLUSTRATIONS
CLARA BARTON AT THE TIME OF THE CIVIL WAR
MOTHER AND FATHER OF CLARA BARTON
BIRTHPLACE OF CLARA BARTON
STONE SCHOOLHOUSE WHERE SHE FIRST TAUGHT
CLARA BARTON AT EIGHTEEN
MISS FANNIE CHILDS (MRS. BERNARD VASSALL)
THE SCHOOLHOUSE AT BORDENTOWN
FACSIMILE OF SENATOR HENRY WILSON’S LETTER TO PRESIDENT LINCOLN
FACSIMILE OF LETTER OF CLARA BARTON TO PRESIDENT JOHNSON WITH
INDORSEMENTS BY THE PRESIDENT, GENERAL GRANT, AND OTHERS
INTRODUCTION
The life of Clara Barton is a story of unique and permanent interest;
but it is more than an interesting story. It is an important chapter in
the history of our country, and in that of the progress of philanthropy
in this country and the world. Without that chapter, some events of
large importance can never be adequately understood.
Hers was a long life. She lived to enter her tenth decade, and when she
died was still so normal in the soundness of her bodily organs and in
the clarity of her mind and memory that it seemed she might easily have
lived to see her hundredth birthday. Hers was a life spent largely in
the Nation’s capital. She knew personally every president from Lincoln
to Roosevelt, and was acquainted with nearly every man of prominence in
our national life. When she went abroad, her associates were people of
high rank and wide influence in their respective countries. No American
woman received more honor while she lived, either at home or abroad,
and how worthily she bore these honors those know best who knew her
best.
The time has come for the publication of a definitive biography of
Clara Barton. Such a book could not earlier have been prepared. The
“Life of Clara Barton,” by Percy H. Epler, published in 1915, was
issued to meet the demand which rose immediately after her death for a
comprehensive biography, and it was published with the full approval
of Miss Barton’s relatives and of her literary executors, including
the author of the present work. But, by agreement, the two large
vaults containing some tons of manuscripts which Miss Barton left,
were not opened until after the publication of Mr. Epler’s book. It
was the judgment of her literary executors, concurred in by Mr. Epler,
that this mine of information could not be adequately explored within
any period consistent with the publication of a biography such as he
contemplated. For this reason, the two vaults remained unopened until
his book was on the market. The contents of these vaults, containing
more than forty closely packed boxes, is the chief source of the
present volume, and this abundant material has been supplemented by
letters and personal reminiscences from Clara Barton’s relatives and
intimate friends.
Clara Barton considered often the question of writing her own
biography. A friend urged this duty upon her in the spring of 1876, and
she promised to consider the matter. But the incessant demands made
upon her time by duties that grew more steadily imperative prevented
her doing this.
In 1906 the request came to her from a number of school-children that
she would tell about her childhood; and she wrote a little volume of
one hundred and twenty-five pages, published in 1907 by Baker and
Taylor, entitled, “The Story of my Childhood.” She was gratified by the
reception of this little book, and seriously considered using it as the
corner stone of her long contemplated autobiography. She wrote a second
section of about fifteen thousand words, covering her girlhood and her
experiences as a teacher at home and in Borden town, New Jersey. This
was never published, and has been utilized in this present biography.
Beside these two formal and valuable contributions toward her
biography, she left journals covering most of the years from her
girlhood until her death, besides vast quantities of letters received
by her and copies of her replies. Her personal letters to her intimate
friends were not copied, as a rule, but it has been possible to gather
some hundreds of these. Letter-books, scrap-books, newspaper clippings,
magazine articles, records of the American Red Cross, and papers,
official and personal, swell the volume of material for this book to
proportions not simply embarrassing, but almost overwhelming.
She appears never to have destroyed anything. Her temperament and the
habits of a lifetime impelled her to save every scrap of material
bearing upon her work and the subjects in which she was interested.
She gathered, and with her own hand labeled, and neatly tied up her
documents, and preserved them against the day when she should be able
to sift and classify them and prepare them for such use as might
ultimately be made of them. It troubled her that she was leaving these
in such great bulk, and she hoped vainly for the time when she could go
through them, box by box, and put them into shape. But they accumulated
far more rapidly than she could have assorted them, and so they were
left until her death, and still remained untouched, until December,
1915, when the vaults were opened and the heavy task began of examining
this material, selecting from it the papers that tell the whole story
of her life, and preparing the present volumes. If this book is large,
it is because the material compelled it to be so. It could easily have
been ten times as thick.
The will of Clara Barton named as her executor her beloved and trusted
nephew, Stephen E. Barton. It also named a committee of literary
executors, to whom she entrusted the use of her manuscripts for such
purpose, biographical or otherwise, as they should deem best. The
author of these volumes was named by her as a member of that committee.
The committee elected him as its chairman, and requested him to
undertake the preparation of the biography. This task was undertaken
gladly, for the writer knew and loved his kinswoman and held her in
honor and affection; but he knew too well the magnitude of the task
ahead of him to be altogether eager to accept it. The burden, however,
has been measurably lightened by the assistance of Miss Saidee F.
Riccius, a grand-niece of Miss Barton, who, under the instruction of
the literary executors, and the immediate direction of Stephen E.
Barton and the author, has rendered invaluable service, without which
the author could not have undertaken this work.
In her will, written a few days before her death, Miss Barton virtually
apologized to the committee and to her biographer for the heavy task
which she bequeathed to them. She said:
“I regret exceedingly that such a labor should devolve upon my friends
as the overlooking of the letters of a lifetime, which should properly
be done by me, and shall be, if I am so fortunate as to regain a
sufficient amount of strength to enable me to do it. I have never
destroyed my letters, regarding them as the surest chronological
testimony of my life, whenever I could find the time to attempt to
write it. That time has never come to me, and the letters still wait my
call.”
They still were there, undisturbed, thousands of them, when the
vaults were opened, and none of them have been destroyed or mutilated.
They are of every sort, personal and official; and they bear their
consistent and cumulative testimony to her indefatigability, her
patience, her heroic resolution, and most of all to her greatness of
heart and integrity of soul.
Interesting and valuable in their record of every period and almost
every day and hour of her long and eventful life, they are the
indisputable record of the birth and development of the organization
which almost single-handed she created, the American Red Cross.
Among those who suggested to Miss Barton the desirability of her
writing the story of her own life, was Mr. Houghton, senior partner in
the firm of Houghton, Mifflin and Company. He had one or more personal
conferences with her relating to this matter. Had she been able to
write the story of her own life, she would have expected it to be
published by that firm. It is to the author a gratifying circumstance
that this work, which must take the place of her autobiography, is
published by the firm with whose senior member she first discussed the
preparation of such a work.
The author of this biography was a relative and friend of Clara Barton,
and knew her intimately. By her request he conducted her funeral
services, and spoke the last words at her grave. His own knowledge
of her has been supplemented and greatly enlarged by the personal
reminiscences of her nearer relatives and of the friends who lived
under her roof, and those who accompanied her on her many missions of
mercy.
In a work where so much compression was inevitable, some incidents may
well have received scant mention which deserved fuller treatment. The
question of proportion is never an easy one to settle in a work of this
character. If she had given any direction, it would have been that
little be said about her, and much about the work she loved. That work,
the founding of the American Red Cross, must receive marked emphasis
in a Life of Clara Barton: for she was its mother. She conceived the
American Red Cross, carried it under her heart for years before it
could be brought forth, nurtured it in its cradle, and left it to her
country and the world, an organization whose record in the great World
War shines bright against that black cloud of horror, as the emblem of
mercy and of hope.
Wherever, in America or in lands beyond, the flag of the Red Cross
flies beside the Stars and Stripes, there the soul of Clara Barton
marches on.
FIRST CHURCH STUDY
OAK PARK, _July 16, 1921_
THE LIFE OF CLARA BARTON
CHAPTER I
HER FIRST ATTEMPT AT AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Though she had often been importuned to furnish to the public some
account of her life and work, Clara Barton’s first autobiographical
outline was not written until September, 1876, when Susan B. Anthony
requested her to prepare a sketch of her life for an encyclopædia of
noted women of America. Miss Barton labored long over her reply. She
knew that the story must be short, and that she must clip conjunctions
and prepositions and omit “all the sweetest and best things.” When she
had finished the sketch, she was appalled at its length, and still was
unwilling that any one else should make it shorter; so she sent it with
stamps for its return in case it should prove too long. “It has not an
adjective in it,” she said.
Her original draft is still preserved, and reads as follows:
FOR SUSAN B. ANTHONY
SKETCH FOR CYCLOPÆDIA
SEPTEMBER, 1876
BARTON, CLARA; her father, Capt. Stephen Barton, a
non-commissioned officer under “Mad Anthony Wayne,” was a farmer
in Oxford, Mass. Clara, youngest child, finished her education at
Clinton, N.Y. Teacher, popularized free schools in New Jersey.
First woman appointed to an independent clerkship by Government at
Washington.
On outbreak of Civil War, went to aid suffering soldiers. Labored in
advance and independent of commissions. Never in hospitals; selecting
as scene of operations the battle-field from its earliest moment,
’till the wounded and dead were removed or cared for; carrying her own
supplies by Government transportation.
At the battles of Cedar Mountain, Second Bull Run, Chantilly, South
Mountain, Falmouth and “Old Fredericksburg,” Siege of Charleston,
Morris Island, Wagner, Wilderness, Fredericksburg, The Mine, Deep
Bottom, through sieges of Petersburg and Richmond under Butler and
Grant.
At Annapolis on arrival of prisoners.
Established search for missing soldiers, and, aided by Dorence
Atwater, enclosed cemetery, identified and marked the graves of
Andersonville.
Lectured on Incidents of the War in 1866-67. In 1869 went to Europe
for health. In Switzerland on outbreak of Franco-Prussian War;
tendered services. Was invited by Grand Duchess of Baden, daughter
of Emperor William, to aid in establishing her hospitals. On fall of
Strassburg entered with German Army, remained eight months, instituted
work for women which held twelve hundred persons from beggary and
clothed thirty thousand.
Entered Metz on its fall. Entered Paris the day succeeding the fall of
Commune; remained two months, distributing money and clothing which
she carried. Met the poor of every besieged city of France, giving
help.
Is representative of the “Comité International of the Red Cross” of
Geneva. Honorary and only woman member of Comité de Strasbourgoes. Was
decorated with the Gold Cross of Remembrance by the Grand Duke and
Duchess of Baden and with the “Iron Cross” by the Emperor and Empress
of Germany.
Miss Anthony regarded the sketch with the horror of offended modesty.
“For Heaven’s sake, Clara,” she wrote, “put some flesh and clothes on
this skeleton!”
Thus admonished, Miss Barton set to work to drape the bones of her
first attempt, and was in need of some assistance from Miss Anthony and
others. The work as completed was not wholly her own. The adjectives,
which had been conspicuously absent from the first draft together with
some characterizations of Miss Barton and her work, were supplied by
Miss Anthony and her editors. It need not here be reprinted in its
final form; for it is accessible in Miss Anthony’s book. As it finally
appeared, it is several times as long as when Clara Barton wrote it,
and is more Miss Anthony’s than Miss Barton’s.
In the foregoing account, mention is made of her being an official
member of the International Committee of the Red Cross. In that
capacity she did not at that time represent any American organization
known as the Red Cross, for there was no such body. Although such an
organization had been in existence in Europe from the time of our Civil
War, and the Reverend Dr. Henry W. Bellows, late of the Christian
Commission, had most earnestly endeavored to organize a branch of it
in this country, and to secure official representation from America
in the international body, the proposal had been met not merely by
indifference, but by hostility.
Clara Barton wrote her autobiographical sketch from a sanitarium.
She had not yet recovered from the strain of her service in the
Franco-Prussian War. One reason why she did not recover more rapidly
was that she was bearing on her heart the burden of this as yet unborn
organization, and as yet had found no friends of sufficient influence
and faith to afford to America a share in the honor of belonging to the
sisterhood of nations that marched under that banner.
* * * * *
The outbreak of the World War found America unprepared save only in
her wealth of material resources, her high moral purpose, and her
ability to adapt her forms of organized life to changed and unwelcome
conditions. The rapidity with which she increased her army and her
navy to a strength that made it possible for her to turn the scale,
where the fate of the world hung trembling in the balance, was not more
remarkable than her skill in adapting her institutions of peace to the
exigencies of war. Most of the agencies, which, under the direction of
civilians, ministered to men in arms had either to be created out of
hand or adapted from institutions formed in time of peace and for other
objects. But the American Red Cross was already organized and in active
service. It was a factor in the fight from the first day of the world’s
agony, through the invasion of Belgium, and the three years of our
professed neutrality; and by the time of America’s own entrance into
the war it had assumed such proportions that everywhere the Red Cross
was seen floating beside the Stars and Stripes. Every one knew what it
stood for. It was the emblem of mercy, even as the flag of our Nation
was the symbol of liberty and the hope of the world.
The history of the American Red Cross cannot be written apart from the
story of its founder, Clara Barton. For years before it came into
being, her voice almost alone pleaded for it, and to her persistent and
almost sole endeavor it came at length to be established in America.
For other years she was its animating spirit, its voice, its soul.
Had she lived to see its work in the great World War, she would have
been humbly and unselfishly grateful for her part in its beginnings,
and overjoyed that it had outgrown them. The story of the founding and
of the early history of the American Red Cross is the story of Clara
Barton.