"God has indeed remembered us"

At a farmhouse and barn not far from here, Clara Barton labored without sleep for three days, comforting the wounded of the Battle of Antietam with water, food, and medical supplies. Founder of the American Red Cross, she began her lifetime of mercy work at the onset of the Civil War and spent the war's first year gathering medical supplies from Union citizens. After hearing gruesome reports from the front, she pleaded with the Army for permission to bring these supplies to the battlefield where the men needed them most. When she finally arrived at Antietam, she found surgeons using corn husks for dressings, and one surgeon, receiving her stimulants and bandages, threw up his hands and said, "God has indeed remembered us.... We ... have not a bandage, rag, lint, or string and ... wounded men bleeding to death."

Maryland · United States