Clara Barton: She Was Too Shy to Speak… Then Took Bandages to the Battlefield

As a girl, she was so shy that she could hardly speak to strangers.

Years later, she took a wagon full of bandages toward the sound of the guns.

This is the story of Clara Barton.

Welcome to brightlivesenglish.com, where we teach real English using real-life stories.

Volunteer. A volunteer works without pay because they want to help.

She was a volunteer, not a paid nurse.

Wounded. Wounded people are hurt, often by weapons in a war.

The surgeons had no bandages for the wounded.

Battlefield. A battlefield is the place where a battle is fought.

Near noon, she arrived on the battlefield.

Angel. An angel is a spirit from heaven.

We also call a very kind person an angel.

A doctor called her the angel of the battlefield.

Found. To found something means to start a new organisation.

The past is founded.

She founded the American Red Cross.

Now, one pattern: in order to.

We use in order to plus a verb to say why someone does something.

She went there.

She wanted to help.

She went there in order to help.

Ready? Let's begin.

Clara Barton was born on Christmas Day, 1821, in Massachusetts, the youngest of five children.

She was very shy.

Later she wrote, "I remember nothing but fear."

When she was eleven, her brother David fell from high up in the barn.

For two years, Clara stayed by his side and gave him all his medicine.

She discovered her gift: caring for others.

She became a teacher, and later opened a free school in New Jersey.

It grew to about 600 pupils.

But then the town hired a man to lead it, at twice her pay. She left.

In 1861, the Civil War began.

Wounded soldiers arrived in Washington, and Clara collected food and supplies in order to help them.

But the worst suffering was far away, on the battlefields.

For months, she asked the army to let her go to the front.

In 1862, it said yes.

She was a volunteer, not a paid nurse.

Would the shy girl be brave enough?

In September 1862, a huge battle began at Antietam, in Maryland.

She went there in order to help.

Her wagon drivers drove all night.

Near noon, she arrived on the battlefield.

The surgeons had no bandages for the wounded.

They were using dry corn leaves.

Clara opened her wagon.

It was full of bandages!

She gave the men water and food, and at night she brought lanterns.

While she was giving a soldier a drink, a bullet passed through her sleeve.

The young man did not survive.

She never mended the hole.

A doctor called her the angel of the battlefield.

At the end of the war, she opened an office in order to find missing soldiers.

She answered thousands of letters, and about 22,000 missing men were identified.

In Europe, she learned about the Red Cross.

In 1881, at the age of fifty-nine, she founded the American Red Cross.

She led it for twenty-three years and died in 1912, aged ninety.

Let's review. She was a volunteer, not a paid nurse.

The surgeons had no bandages for the wounded.

Near noon, she arrived on the battlefield.

A doctor called her the angel of the battlefield.

She founded the American Red Cross.

And remember: she went there in order to help.

Clara Barton's story teaches us: you can be afraid and still be brave.

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