Red Cross founder Clara Barton had a surprising and illicit love affair with a married colonel during the Civil War.

Clara Barton, the calm, cool and collected lady who, in the thick of Civil War battles ministering to 'her boys', was involved in a passionate love affair with Colonel John Elwell, a married soldier stationed with her at Hilton Head, South Carolina.

North Oxford, Massachusetts

Clarissa Harlowe Barton was born in North Oxford, Massachusetts, on December 25,1821. Being the youngest of five children, the older ones took responsibility for her early education. She was a very shy little girl, but learned quickly.

At the age of 17 she began teaching school in Massachusetts, District 9, Worcester County. Six years later she decided to start a school of her own in North Oxford. There followed a year in advanced training from which she moved to Bordentown, New Jersey, and founded a free school there. However, she was refused the position of head of the school, which was given to a man instead.

Washington, D.C.

Facing disappointed in Bordentown, Barton left for a position in the Patent Office in Washington, D.C. But when the Civil War started she asked for a leave from the Patent Office to go to the battle sites to help with the wounded and ill.

Scrounging as much as she could in the way of blankets, bedding, small creature comforts and medical supplies she left for Hilton Head where she would meet a man who would become very dear to her...Colonel John Elwell.

Colonel John Elwell

In 1862 Barton was given permission to take supplies and bedding to the men at the front. She met Elwell here and they immediately started a companionship that would soon ripen into a love affair. He had graduated from medical School in Cleveland and had practised for several years. He also spent time in the Ohio State legislature and later became a professor of medical jurisprudence at Ohio and Union Law College and Western Reserve College. He had a wife and family back home in Cleveland.

Clara was taken by this 'kind, manly man' and enjoyed his stories and conversation. They spent many hours together and at one point she wrote in her diary , "What a life, and I am fearful that I ought to be in some other quarter although 'whatever is, is right ,' I know." They recited poetry to one another and took care of each other when sickness arose.

One evening, after she had left his quarters, he wrote to her , "This has been so beautiful an evening. I expect to dream about it (again) tonight.." But however much they were in love they never spoke of a future together. Elwell had his wife and family, and Clara had 'her boys.' They parted in December, 1863, when Clara took the steamer Fulton and sailed away from her lover. They would not meet again.

Clara Barton died, probably from pneumonia, at her home in Glen Echo, Maryland, on April 12,1912. The home is open to visitors year round.

Sources:

"A Woman of Valor," Stephen B.Oates, The Free Press, A Division of MacMillan, Inc., 1994

Various brochures from Clara Barton homes and museums.

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