In Washington D.C., 1861, Clarissa Harlowe Barton, who preferred to be called Clara, was working at the U.S. Patent Office as a recording clerk and federal troops had just come into the city. This was war and Clara knew her being behind the desk would prove to be of no benefit for what these soldiers would medically need. After letters were sent, collecting articles of provisions and relief and providing her personal support to the soldiers, it was the battlefield she sought and that is where she would go. According to redcross.org, “Barton prodded leaders in the government and the army until she was given passes to bring her voluntary services and medical supplies to the scenes of battle and field hospitals. Following the battle of Cedar Mountain in northern Virginia in August 1862, she appeared at a field hospital at midnight with a wagon-load of supplies drawn by a four-mule team. The surgeon on duty, overwhelmed by the human disaster surrounding him, wrote later, “I thought that night if heaven ever sent out a[n] … angel, she must be one - her assistance was so timely.” Thereafter, she was known as the “Angel of the Battlefield” as she served the troops at the battles of Fairfax Station, Chantilly, Harpers Ferry, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Charleston, Petersburg and Cold Harbor.”