III.

The Civil War Years

Barton resigned from the Patent Office at the start of the Civil War to work as a volunteer, rounding up and distributing supplies to wounded soldiers. During the war, Barton helped army surgeons, bandaged the wounded, and fed and nursed dying men, but she viewed herself more as a provider than a nurse. Soldiers welcomed the soup she cooked in an iron kettle. Her sense of humor and practical methods endeared her to the soldiers. On two occasions she nearly lost her life, when fragments of shell ripped through her clothing.

After the war United States president Abraham Lincoln commissioned Barton to put into action an idea she had: a systematic search for missing soldiers and prisoners of war. Barton eventually received a Congressional appropriation to run what was known as the Missing Soldiers Office and became the first woman to head a government bureau. Barton tracked down information on nearly 22,000 soldiers before the office was closed in 1868.