When and how did the American Red Cross get started in the United States?
After serving on one of the first humanitarian missions of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Clara Barton founded the American Association of the Red Cross on May 21, 1881. A volunteer who cared for soldiers during the Civil War, she became deeply committed to ensuring that the U.S. government ratified the Geneva Convention of 1864 and to establishing an organization in the United States that would help alleviate human suffering.
