Clara Barton, Angel of Missing Soldiers

This Civil War nurse devoted her life to taking care of injured soldiers, disaster victims, and those left behind in tragedy.

Clara Barton and her Red Cross colleagues have a picnic in 1898 in Tampa, Fla. Public Doman

The office was quiet except for the scratch of a pen and the shuffle of paper. On Washington’s 7th Street, the Civil War was long over, but Clara Barton still lived in its shadow.

The North recorded about 360,000 deaths during the war, but only 315,000 burials. Of these, just 172,000 names were identified.