National History Day Project

Fondly referred to as the "angel of the battlefield" (The Encyclopedia Britannica Online), Clara Barton served as one of the greatest humanitarians this country has ever known. Persistent beyond belief, Clara employed her remarkable interpersonal skills to teach unruly school children, to collect supplies to send to the battlefront, and to struggle to form the American Red Cross. An equal rights advocate, her most memorable successes consisted of improvements in education, foreign aid, and blacks' and women's rights. This American heroine, whose efforts and bravery have become legendary, worked diligently to reach her ideal: "creating the vigilant social conscience which alone can safeguard individual

Clara Barton, born Clarissa Harlowe Barton, is one of the most significant figures in US history. Barton is well known for being a female pioneer in the field of teaching, as well as for her work in the US patent office during the Civil war. These feats alone make her a historical figure; however, she is also known for something which far surpasses these accomplishments. Clara Barton is recognized and remembered today for her extraordinary work as a nurse during the American Civil War, and for going on to establish the American Red Cross. (Clara Barton; Clara Barton)

I’ve spent weeks upon weeks learning about the Revolutionary War, but I was not expecting to learn as many interesting facts as I did. For example, I knew about the legend of Betsy Ross sewing the first American flag I just didn’t realize how many women historical figures there were. The young lady that stood out to me the most was 16 year old Sybil Ludington. On April 26th, 1777 she rode 40 miles to alert her father’s militia company that Danbury, Connecticut was under attack and to have everyone meet at the Ludington house. Knowing that women and men weren’t treated equally back then, I think that was a very heroic thing for Sybil to do. She most likely saved many lives that could have been lost. Imagine how grateful the people in Danbury were for her heroic actions. I also found some of the methods the soldiers used incredibly interesting. One of these clever methods was used with lanterns. One or two lanterns were placed in the spire of Boston’s Old North Church to alert

aiding the wounded soldiers, Clara Barton did work from where she could. She started to

From a young age, Clara helped heal her brother for two years after an accident had occurred (“Clara Barton”. When she was working as the first woman in the US Patent office in Washington D.C., she saw men injured walking around and decided that she needed to do something. She started taking supplies to the Sixth Massachusetts Infantry who was attacked by southern sympathizers (“Founder Clara Barton”). She was one of the first nurses to volunteer at the Washington Infirmary to aid soldiers after the Battle of Bull Run (“Clara Barton”). Though, for the first few times she volunteered her time to help them, she was not allowed to be on the battlefield aiding the wounded. On August 3, 1862, she was granted permission to go into the hospitals on the field. During a time on the field when she was bandaging a shot soldier, she felt her sleeve move. When she looked down, she saw that a bullet had gone through her sleeve and killed the man that she was aiding (“Clara Barton”). While she was working at a hospital in Chatham, she was tending to wounded from the Confederacy and Union. Since the physicians were too busy at that time to keep records of the soldiers that died, she decided that she would start taking the records of the living and the dead (“Clara Barton”). This was just the start of the record keeping she would do in her

She later got caught and was later put into prison in 1864 by confederate troops and taken into prison. Along with Mary Edward walker, Clara Barton, was an Army nurse. Clara was to serve help in curing injured men. She had a bad experience when she went to go cure a man, a bullet that killed the man she was helping was peireced threw her sleeve. She had been assisting him and tried to save him, but it was too late and he had died. Also these women made a legacy in life, Underground Railroad, being the first US army women surgeon, and the foundation of the American Red Cross. Mary Todd Lincoln, who was married to Abraham Lincoln. Although she was a lot different then the other important women in the civil war, she was just as important. She was the wife of the president during the war. Although she did not exactly fight or become a nurse of the war, she still had to take care of her family and all of Abraham’s stressful days. She had to mend to her children’s needs while Abraham was out making sure the troops in the war were in the right standings. When 1865 came around it was a terrible year for her, her family and her heart were crushed. Her loved one was assassinated, and her family and herself had no idea how to handle it. Being that she was the presidents wife, she was still important to make a legacy. Showed that women are strong enough to handle stress, children, and deaths in their family to be strong for

The History Guy’s article explains in depth about exactly what events and situations that Clara Barton was involved in during the Civil war. It explains her life before and after the war, and why it is important to history. This article also includes dates and miscelanious facts about what made Barton so important.

In “Letters of a Civil War Nurse”, written in 1863, Cornelia Hancock’s account of the Civil War gives readers an account of the suffering and hardship of soldiers through the point of view of an Union nurse. This document written by Cornelia Hancock is an account as a nurse who went through the Battle of Gettysburg and the after effects. Through a series of letters written to her loved ones, Cornelia wrote what nurses went through during the times of war. At the time women were expected to be good wives; with Cornelia Hancock’s effort she was able to help soldiers and contribute to the idea that women are capable of much more than being good wives; women can be apart of war. With her background as a Quaker and her family history, Cornelia Hancock was able to contribute greatly to the war effort even though she was originally denied to becoming an union nurse.

After the Civil War Clara Barton supported families impacted by the Civil War by establishing the of the Office of Missing Soldiers in Washington, DC. Her office worked dilligently to identify missing and killed soldiers in order to contact the distraught familes. ​

It is 1868, and you are the wife of a soldier at war. You have suddenly stopped receiving letters from your husband. You panic after not hearing from him. After about a year, you get a call from your husband’s platoon leader personally saying that your husband has been identified as a national war hero, giving his life to save many. You can thank Clara Barton for getting your husband the respect that he deserves. By 1869, her obliging assistants and she had identified over 22,000 soldiers who were unaccounted for or deceased (Edison 17). Barton is the first teacher to open a school in New Jersey, one of the first women to be employed by the federal government, a nurse who went to the front line of the battlefield to deliver food and supplies,

She commonly wrote home to families that reported their men missing. The number of letters she was writing continued to increase towards the end of the war and she realized another human need that she could fulfill. She established the Office of Correspondence with Friends of the Missing Men of the United States Army in order to structurally uncover missing men from the troops and to inform their families. Barton was given rooms in Washington, D.C. to operate out of with her volunteers. President Abraham Lincoln wrote: “To the Friends of Missing Persons: Miss Clara Barton has kindly offered to search for the missing prisoners of war. Please address her . . . giving her the name, regiment, and company of any missing prisoner” (The American Red Cross). She went on to run this operation for four years and in total answered over 63,000 letters and identified over 22,000 missing men. Barton played another honorable role in the Civil War when she helped a team of military men identify the graves of around13,000 men who had died in the notorious Andersonville Prison in Georgia and established a national cemetery around them (The American Red Cross). She personally helped raise the United Sates flag over the grounds in 1865 during the official dedication. A defining aspect of Clara Barton’s life that led her to accomplish numerous acts of pure kindness was her inability to remain satisfied when she knew there was more that could be done. She continued to perform various volunteer jobs but decided to vacation to Europe in 1869 for personal time. Instead of rest, she found new, improved ways to make a difference in people’s lives. Barton was exposed to the Red Cross that was in place in Switzerland and was very interested in the work that they did. She became educated about Henry Dunant, the Red Cross founder and his mission for the

For my National History Day project, I worked with a partner on a website about the discovery of insulin. Before teaming up with a friend, I had trouble deciding on a topic and I was thinking about doing my paper on the Trail of Tears since I already knew a lot about it, but it was not a topic I was really interested and invested in. Then my friend came and asked me if I wanted to work with her on her project. Her topic idea was the discovery and history of insulin. My partner decided on this topic because she has type one diabetes and I joined her because I just thought it would be interesting to find out more about what insulin is and it’s history. It was an important medical advancement that saved many lives and prevented the harmful treatments that were used before its discovery.

Looking at pictures and videos from past Eyewitness to History Days made me excited and eagerly waiting for Friday. At the opening ceremonies, I expected a great sense of grandeur: music from the orchestra and band playing due to the fact that I saw live music being played in the video. I also expected there to be a sense of respect at these ceremonies there will be veterans who sacrificed so much to keep civilians safe, so the least we could do is show respect and give them a grand welcome. During the interviews, I wished to have a sense of comfort, as inside the rooms in the video, I saw desks and chairs set up. It should almost be a conversation between the veterans and the interviewers. There should also be minimal distractions. Content wise, I wished to learn not only about the additional historical facts and figures related to the wars, but also about the experiences of the veterans and why everything occurred. In the videos and pictures, I noticed that countless people were quite cheerful after the experience, and I will also be overjoyed when I learn why specific incidents happened. To paraphrase Mrs. Brown, it will be some people’s last interviews, so again, I longed to learn as much as I could during the day. I wished to gain knowledge so that we can pass down our newfound knowledge to the future generations. Overall, I have heard from friends that Eyewitness to History Day will be a day which I will never forget, and I hoped

Use the three links provided below to answer the following questions. If one of the links does not work, search for another source and include it in the list.

Oh, have I caught your attention? Obviously, I did, with such an eye-catching blog post title like that. Apparently Marc Gamayo beat me to a blog post of National History Day District competition (I should have done it early, aaaaa) that took place at Ewa Makai Middle School where participants would be interviewed for their projects and to know who are going to state competition.