Andersonville

Clara Barton(1812-1912)
[Dedication of Andersonville Cemetery]
Holograph journal,
August 17, 1865
Manuscript Division
Gift of Saidée and Hermann
Riccius, 1940-1954 (46B.4)

Grounds at Andersonville, Georgia, where are buried 14,000 Union soldiers...
Wood engraving
Harper's Weekly, 1865
Prints & Photographs Division (46a.10)
Digital ID# ppmsca-05602

Twenty years before founding the American Red Cross, Clara Barton distributed supplies and tended to the wounded and dying on Civil War battlefields. Although not the only woman engaged in such work, Barton became one of the most famous because of her efforts to identify dead and missing soldiers, especially those who perished in the Confederate prison located in Andersonville, Georgia. Due to Barton's perseverance, 12,000 graves were officially marked and Andersonville became a national cemetery on August 17, 1865. Barton, who raised the U.S. flag on that day, was overcome by emotion. She writes in her diary "Up and there it drooped as if in grief and sadness, till at length the sunlight streamed out and its beautiful folds filled--the men stuck up the Star Spangled Banner, and I covered my face and wept."