“Follow the cannon!” called a woman's voice, and with that order a supply wagon drawn by mules jolted and jounced over the rough Virginia road and swung into a corn field. A rather slight young woman climbed out of the wagon, filled her arms with bandages, dressings and stimulants, and waded through the corn in a deafening roar of artillery.

To the four surgeons working at fever pitch in the nearby farmhouse, these hospital supplies seemed like the answer to prayer. And to the three hundred wounded men who lay in the farmyard, Clara Barton seemed like an angel of mercy.

The time was 1861, during the War Between the States. The place was the battle scarred countryside near the village of Antietam. In those days there was not one trained nurse in the whole United States. Women worked heroically in base hospitals, but a battlefield was not considered a suitable place for a woman. Clara Barton thought differently, and made a magnificent contribution in bringing up supplies, organizing first aid stations, and assisting in field hospitals.

In Clara Barton, Founder of the American Red Cross, Helen Dore Boylston tells the amazing story of the shy young school teacher whose wartime nursing service grew into a peacetime service that resulted in a worldwide organization to help all who suffer.

From the dust jacket