By Dennis Keating
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2025, All Rights Reserved
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in March 2025.
In my book Cleveland and the Civil War, I mention the relationship formed in 1863 between Clara Barton and Clevelander John J. Elwell (pp. 43-44). Born in Massachusetts, Barton moved to Washington City and was employed in the U.S. Patent Office. When the Civil War broke out, she volunteered with the Union Army, first bringing medical supplies after battles beginning with First Bull Run and then also nursing wounded soldiers at Second Bull Run, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. She became known as “The Angel of the Battlefield,” but she did not join the official Union nurses corps headed by Dorothea Dix.
In 1863, Barton went to Hilton Head, South Carolina, where she joined her brother David, a quartermaster. There she met John J. Elwell, another Union quartermaster. Born in Warren, Ohio in 1820, Elwell was first a doctor and then a lawyer (and medical law professor) and served in the Ohio Legislature. When the Civil War began, he became the quartermaster for the 2nd Ohio Volunteer Cavalry (OVC) from Cleveland and the 3rd OVC from Huron County. He then went to South Carolina, where he became the Chief Quartermaster of the Department of the South. Elwell had broken a leg in an accident, and when Barton arrived, she helped to care for him during his recovery. Living next to Elwell’s quarters in a Union camp, Barton nursed him back to health after Elwell contracted yellow fever.
According to historian Stephen B. Oates: “‘He [Elwell] is my friend’, she [Barton] wrote…’I could not tell you in a day all the good noble manly Christian qualities he possesses; the rare combination of intellect, scholarship, business talent, spirit and gentleness, firm like a man and tender like a girl.’ If anything, Elwell cared even more deeply for Clara. Yes, he was married and had children [in Cleveland]. And yes he mentioned how devoted his wife [Nancy] was to him. But alone, far away from her on this tropical island, he fell in love with Clara Barton” (p. 148).
According to Oates, their friendship became a love affair: “At some point that spring, they began expressing their passion physically…So much the proper lady in other respects, she refused to be a prude about sexual matters, as long as they were handled discreetly” (pp. 148-149). Oates further says: “He and Clara wrote one another intimate notes, and he called her ‘Birdie’ and ‘My Pet’ and asked if he might visit her ‘nest.’ The notes suggest that they would spend part of the night together, whether in Clara’s ‘nest’ or his. Since his room was next door to hers, they had no trouble being discreet” (p. 149).
In his new book A Day in September: The Battle of Antietam and the World It Left Behind, author Stephen Budiansky writes: “In South Carolina that spring she [Barton] had the first and only true romance of her life, a passionate affair with a married officer [Elwell] that she knew would not last but swept her off her feet” (p. 205).
While these two Civil War historians believe that Clara and John did have this love affair there, not all agree.
In July 1863, they went to Charleston harbor in advance of a coming Union army attempt by the command of Ohioan General Quincy A. Gillmore (on whose staff Elwell then served) to capture the city. On July 18, Gillmore’s force, including the Black Massachusetts 54th Volunteer Infantry Regiment, assaulted Battery Wagner. Seeing the Union troops in trouble, Elwell rode to them, only to have his horse shot and him wounded. Clara then came to his rescue (Oates, p. 173).
Returning to Hilton Head and a hospitalized Elwell in August, Barton herself became seriously ill but recovered. She continued to work with friends for freed Blacks on the sea islands, but when she returned to the Charleston islands, General Gillmore informed her that her services were no longer needed there and she returned to Hilton Head. By December, Barton decided to return to Washington City: “Elwell…was brave and gracious about her decision to leave, even though it hurt him. Clara Barton was the great love of his life, and he would always cherish his memories of her and their time together, their carriage and horseback rides, their conversations and laughter, and their lovemaking” (Oates, p. 207).
According to the website Life Stories of Civil War Heroes: “Albeit unconventional in her thought and demeanor, as a realist Clara knew that their relationship could not last and did not wish to break up Elwell’s marriage, so neither pursued the other once their work was terminated, although they would always remain fond of each other.”
Clara was appointed the head of hospitals for the Army of the James by its commander Ben Butler. A major contribution that Clara made came after the war when she participated in an expedition to the site of the notorious Andersonville prison camp to try to identify as many as possible Union soldiers who had died there (as well as other missing dead Union soldiers). She went on to found and head the American Red Cross.
Elwell was breveted four times for gallantry in battle during the war. He returned to Cleveland and practiced law. He died in 1900 and is buried in Cleveland’s Woodland Cemetery (Section 7, Lot 2).
After their parting, Clara and John continued to exchange letters, and some may be found in the Western Reserve Historical Society and the Library of Congress.
References (Click on the book titles on this page to purchase from Amazon. Part of the proceeds from any book purchased from Amazon through the CCWRT website is returned to the CCWRT to support its education and preservation programs.)
Clara Barton, “The True Heroine of the Age”: Life Stories of Civil War Heroes
Clara Barton Papers (John J. Elwell, 1876-1900): Library of Congress
Budiansky, Stephen; A Day in September: The Battle of Antietam and the World It Left Behind (2024)
Encyclopedia of Cleveland History; Elwell, John Johnson
John J. Elwell Papers (MS 2285): Western Reserve Historical Society
Oates, Stephen B; A Woman of Valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War (1994)