[A] This statement is not exact; indeed, it does some injustice as well to Miss Barton as to the American Congress, and was doubtless derived from misstatements promulgated in the United States, the result of a general misunderstanding of the facts, and an error, of course, unknown to a foreign writer.

Precisely what the Thirty-seventh Congress did was to pass the following joint resolution of both houses, and in accordance with the same to pay over to Miss Barton the sum mentioned in it for the uses and purposes therein set forth:

March 10, 1866.

A resolution providing for expenses incurred in searching for missing soldiers of the Army of the United States, and for further prosecution of the same.

Whereas, Miss Clara Barton has, during the late war of the rebellion, expended from her own resources large sums of money in endeavoring to discover missing soldiers of the armies of the United States, and in communicating intelligence to their relatives; therefore,

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the sum of fifteen thousand dollars be, and the same is hereby appropriated out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to reimburse Miss Clara Barton for the amount so expended by her, and to aid in the further prosecution of the search for missing soldiers, and the printing necessary to the furtherance of the said object shall hereafter be done by the Public Printer.

Approved March 10, 1866.

[14 Vol. U.S. Statutes at Large, p. 350.]

This, therefore, was not recompense for services; it was reimbursement for money expended; it was money expended by a private citizen for public uses, and this, mainly, after the close of the war. The government recognized its value to the people, and refunded the money, and that without solicitation on Miss Barton’s part.

This work was a fitting, even necessary, result of her four years’ voluntary and unpaid services on the field, not as an ordinary nurse, but as a sort of independent sanitary commission, whom the government, the soldiers, and the people came at last to implicitly trust, for they never found their trust betrayed nor themselves disappointed by any want of discretion, sagacity, or energy on her part. It cannot be set forth here, it can only be alluded to most briefly. In its details it must form a chapter in the story of a life singularly original, successful, and beneficent.

—[Report of the American (National) Association of the Red Cross of 1883.]

[B] Ltq. 2,223.78 of this sum was Special Red Cross Funds drawn from Brown Brothers & Company. Ltq.—Turkish Lira about $4.40. Ltq. 26,437.73 $116,326.01.

[C] Article I. The persons designated in Article II of the convention shall, after the occupation by the enemy, continue to fulfill their duties, according to their wants, to the sick and wounded in the ambulance or the hospital which they serve. When they request to withdraw, the commander of the occupying troops shall fix the time of departure, which he shall only be allowed to delay for a short time in case of military necessity.

[D] Art. II. Arrangements will have to be made by the belligerent powers to insure to the neutralized person fallen into the hands of the army of the enemy, the entire enjoyment of his salary.

[E] Art. V. In addition to Article VI of the convention, it is stipulated that, with the reservation of officers whose detention might be important to the fate of arms and within the limits fixed by the second paragraph of that article, the wounded fallen into the hands of the enemy shall be sent back to their country after they are cured, or sooner if possible, on condition, nevertheless, of not again bearing arms during the continuance of the war.

[F] The insignia and arm-band of the Red Cross worn on the field.

[G] Now Baroness von Schelle of Belgium.

[H]Since, then, however, the international conferences have numbered six and the relief fields twenty.