You do not wonder that they called her “The Angel of the Battlefield,” do you?
After the war was over she was so tired and worn out that the doctors said she would have to take a long rest. So she went across the ocean to Switzerland.
VI. Miss Barton Hears of the Red Cross
The story of Miss Barton’s great work had reached Switzerland before she left home.
While she was there in Geneva some gentlemen who had heard the story went to call upon her.
They talked with her about Henri Dunant and Florence Nightingale and about the relief work done in our own Civil War.
They told her that they had formed a society called the Red Cross. The work of the people of the Red Cross was to care for the wounded soldiers.
They said that the people of the Red Cross wore a certain badge, a red cross on a white ground. On the battlefield persons wearing this badge were allowed to give help to the wounded soldiers.
They said that twenty-two different countries in Europe had joined in this work, and they asked Miss Barton if she would try to get the United States to form a Red Cross Society in America.
Miss Barton was very thankful to learn about the Red Cross and promised to do all that she could, for she could understand better than many other people how great a good could come from such work.