Historically, nurses are known to be the primary caretakers of patients. This development is the result of many aspects, but especially on the battlefield of past wars. It was the battlefield where nurses found their purpose in advocating for their patients. In the early days of battlefield hospitals, conditions were often completely unsanitary, due to poor general hygiene among both patients and professionals. Often this led to further illness of patients, thus making hospitals almost as deadly as the battlefield: “disease was still the main enemy to be faced, and epidemics of typhoid, malaria, measles, diphtheria, scarlet fever and dysentery were much more serious". as effective as any human enemy in putting entire regiments out of action. Two-thirds of the 600,000 deaths during the Civil War died of disease” (Grant 2002). As a result of these deplorable conditions, battlefield nurses have stepped up in attempts to mitigate these factors. Clara Barton, just before the American Civil War, believed it was “her duty as a Christian.” To help the soldiers in any way possible. Therefore, with the help of several aid societies, he began to collect basic supplies for the soldiers and later became responsible for the field hospital for James's Army (Oates 1994). If not for Barton's support, many thousands of soldiers would have died without her