The Beginning of the American Red Cross…

…and the role of the pocket knife.

Man’s oldest tool has been everywhere that we as a species have been. It’s odd to think about in those terms, but the knife was just as indispensable for astronauts exploring outer space as it was for Spanish Conquistadors or the Mongol conquest of Asia. Thus, one would think that “Great Knife Stories in History” would be an easy thing to uncover. But the knife is so familiar that it is often overlooked as the ultimate valuable tool. Occasionally, the simple role of the knife dramatically changes history, and its impact is indisputable. The following story should fascinate people across a wide array of interests, including medicine, military history, knife enthusiasts, and women’s interest. The following is a letter, written by an American who eventually became famous. At the conclusion we will reveal the impact of the story. Enjoy

“A man lying upon the ground asked for a drink.  I stooped to give it, and having raised him with my right hand, was holding the cup to his lips with my left, when I felt a sudden twitch of the loose sleeve of my dress. The poor fella sprang from my hands and felt back quivering in the agonies of death. A ball had passed between my body and the right arm which supported him, cutting through the sleeve and passing through his chest from shoulder to shoulder.

The patient endurance of those men was most astonishing. As many as could be were carried into the barn as a slight protection against random shot. Just outside the door, lay a man wounded in the face. The ball having entered the lower jaw on the left side, and lodged among the bones of the right cheek. His imploring look drew me to him. When placing his fingers upon the sharp protrusion he said, “lady will you tell me what this is that burns so?”

I replied that it must be the ball which had been too far spent to cut its way entirely through. “It is terribly painful”, he said. “Won’t you take it out?” I said I would go for a surgeon. “No, no” he said, catching my dress. “They cannot come to me. I must wait my turn for this is a little wound. You can get the ball. Please take the ball out for me.”

This was a new call. I had never severed the nerves and fibers of human flesh, and I said I could not hurt him so much. He looked up with as nearly a smile as his mangled face could assume, saying, “you cannot hurt me dear lady. I can endure any pain that your hands can create. Please do it. It will relieve me so much.” I could not withstand his entreaty, and opening the best blade of my pocket knife, I prepared for the operation. Just at his head lay a stalwart sergeant from Illinois, with a face beaming with intelligence and kindness, who had a bullet directly through the fleshy part of both thighs. He had been watching the scene with great interest, and when he saw me commence to raise the poor fellows head and no one to support it, with a desperate effort he succeeded in raising himself to a sitting position and exclaiming as he did so, “I will help do that”, and took the wounded head in his hands and held it while I extracted the ball and washed and bandaged the face. I do not think a surgeon would pronounce it a scientific operation, but that it was successful, I dared to hope from the gratitude of the patient.

Clara Barton Union Nurse

This is the story of Clara’s experience at the Battle of Antietam in the American Civil War.  The battle took place on September 17, 1862, which was early in the Civil War. Though Clara Barton had been present at the few previous major engagements, the methodologies of her nursing endeavors were far from mature. Clara was just learning what to do and how best to render assistance in these types of emergencies.

It may surprise modern Americans to realize that so much of what we take for granted today as part of standard military practice and general medical procedure, were not accepted practices at the outbreak of the Civil War. For example, there wasn’t even a formal method for gathering the wounded and dead on the battlefield, and field manuals barely addressed the topic. Medical practices were shockingly under-prepared for the volume of human suffering that immediately overwhelmed both armies.

The human emotion described in Clara’s words seem to penetrate through time. It is an amazingly vivid image that she paints for the reader. What she doesn’t describe though is what this experience led her to do. The concept of “Triage” was not established at this point in history. That being; the assessment of patients into categories whereby certain priority is given to urgent procedure, which would diminish the likelihood of a treatable injury being fatal, or the reduction of the severity of the disability by preforming certain treatment. Prior to this concept being developed, the injured were treated in a hodgepodge manner with different standards and practices. Clara realized that certain procedures could be applied and lives saved or a debilitating permanent injury diminished.

Though Clara Barton was not a surgeon and did not perform many procedures like the one described, she learned this incredibly important lesson from the event; that relatively minor procedures could be performed immediately, making tremendous positive impact; and that these decisions should be standardized and applied with uniform consistency so nurses could be trained for maximum effectiveness.

Clara Barton went on to become one of the most important actors in the larger Civil War drama, and from that, made a lifelong commitment in establishing the American Red Cross. It was her pocket knife that propelled her thoughts that terrible September day. The indispensable tool played its part beautifully.   We don’t know what type of knife it was. Likely is was made in Sheffield England, as most pocket cutlery in America at that time was imported from Britain.

We can only speculate what the pattern was, but it would probably be familiar to us today. Traditional pocket knives are as popular as ever, and the manufacturers in the States and Europe continue to produce phenomenal products. Every American should have at least one; if for no other reason than to pay homage to a national hero like Clara Barton.