She quit when a male principal was hired. She moved to Washington, DC, to work as a clerk for the U.S. Patent Office. This is when the civil war broke out. Clara distributed supplies to help the Union Army. Later, she became a nurse to help wounded Union soldiers in Fredericksburg, Virginia. When the war ended, Barton helped many people find missing soldiers. While visiting Europe, she worked with an organization called the Red Cross during the Franco-Prussian war. Clara Barton was the first American woman to receive the iron cross of merit from Germany.Clara brought the red cross to America too. She founded the American Red Cross Society in 1881.She realized where people needed help like the Johnstown Flood in 1889 and the Galveston flood in 1900.Clara also treated people who were on the U.S.S. Maine when there was an explosion in