The Angel of the Battlefield

The war began and nurses were needed,

So I decided to volunteer.

I have never seen so much blood and wounds in one place,

The soldiers called me, The Angel of the Battlefield.

Helping anyone that I could,

The Union and Confederate alike.

Changing bandages to decrease the risk of infection,

I had to do more, so I became the first women on the front line.

The strong smell of iron,

Overwhelms every sense.

The loud explosions overhead,

Raises every hair on my body.

The war was an unforgiving place,

Bodies covering the ground like a living blanket.

I had to help them,

My heart was beating hard like a drum.

Every drop of blood was warm and sticky,

My hands as cold as ice with fear.

Each heart still beating,

Pounding with the shots above.

What is my purpose?

Why am I here?

What do I do?

My breathing shaky and unsteady,

With old crusty blood in my hair.

This was my purpose,

To save their lives.

My name is Clarissa Harlowe Barton,

I am the Angel of the Battlefield.

Facts:

• Clara was a teacher at just fifteen years old and opened a free public school in New Jersey.
• She was the founder of the America Red Cross in 1881.
• She was one of the first women on the front line as a nurse.
• Clarissa was born in Oxford, Massachusetts.
• She was later known as the “Angel of the Battlefield.”
• When Clara was thirteen she helped nurse her brother back to health when he fell off the roof.
• She helped both Union and Confederate soldiers when they were wounded during the war.
• She was one of the first people the suggestion that we need to start changing the bandages and not reuse them to reduce the risk of infection in the wounded soldiers.
• She helped create the Bureau of Records of Missing Men of the Armies of the United States.
• She wrote several books: History of the Red Cross, The Red Cross in Peace and War, and The Story of My Childhood.