Solferino: The battle that inspired the Red Cross

Jun 24, 2009, 11:20 GMT

Geneva - A decisive and bloody battle for the unification of the Italian Peninsula was fought on June 24, 1859 and also served as the catalyst for the creation of the Red Cross, entirely by accident.

Swiss businessman Henri Dunant had travelled to the battlefield to meet with Napoleon III, as he needed assistance to close a deal in Algeria, then under France. His urgent mission to meet the French ruler was, historians say, purely a financial one.

However, upon reaching the battlefield where the armies of France and Sardinia-Piedmont had fought Austrian forces near Solferino in northern Italy, Dunant was shocked by what he saw.

Thousands of soldiers, from both sides, were laying wounded on the fields. Others made it to nearby villages were they took up refuge in houses, barns and churches.

It is estimated that in 10 hours of fighting, more than 6,000 soldiers were killed and more than 30,000 wounded.

The medical services were overwhelmed and unable to cope with the massive influx of wounded soldiers in need of care. Dunant began to help out, aiding locals who were also trying to treat wounds and offer comfort.

He left the area several days later and returned to Geneva, where he set out to write his recollections of the war. While the first part of the book, A Memory of Solferino, was a typical military history, the second part contained graphic details of the aftermath.

Dunant highlighted the lack of medical treatment and an appealed for a system to ameliorate suffering. He sent the book that had been published at his own expense it to dignitaries throughout Europe.

'Would it not be possible, in time of peace and quiet, to form relief societies for the purpose of having care given to the wounded in wartime by zealous, devoted and thoroughly qualified volunteers,' he wrote.

He also proposed institutionalizing the existence of the societies in a charter, essentially proposing what was to become the first Geneva Convention dictating the most basic rules of war in relation to aiding the wounded.

Dunant gathered a following of prominent medics, politicians and military men and in 1863, convened the committee that would become known as the International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC.

Combined with the 186 national societies, the movement now present in nearly every corner of the globe.