"Clara Barton" By; Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benét

(December 25, 1821 – April 12, 1912)

Clara Barton was a Civil War patriot. She became known as the Angel of the Battlefield because she nursed the wounded soldiers. Later she established the American red Cross.

Brave Clara Barton
Stood beside her door,

And watched young soldiers

March away to war.

"The flags are very fine,"she said,

"The drums and trumpets thrilling.
But what about the wounds
When the guns start killing?"

Clara Barton went to work

To help keep men alive,

And never got a moment's rest

Till eighteen-sixty-five.

She washed and she bandaged,

She shooed away the flies,

She hurried in nurses,

She begged for supplies.

She cared for the wounded

And comforted the dying,

With no time for sleep

And still less for crying.

Clara Barton went abroad

When the war was ended.

Hoping for a little peace

Now that things had mended.

Clara found, as soon,

As her foot touched shore,

that she'd come just in time

For the Franco-Prussians War.

After that, her life, for her,

Held but little rest,

With famine in the East

And earthquakes in the West.

Floods, Drowning Johnstown,

Hurricanes in Texas,

Fires out in Michigan,

Things that fright and vex us.

In between the hurry calls,

Never at a loss,

She founded and established

The merciful Red Cross.

Battle, murder, sudden death,

Called for Clara Barton.

No one ever called in vain.

Clara was a Spartan.