The Story of an Idea

 

The Battle

 

Friday the 24th June 1859 saw over 300,000 men engaged in the bloodiest battle in Europe since Waterloo, a battle which was to cost some 6000 lives and leave another 42,000 wounded. It was fought near Solferino in Lombardy, northern Italy by the combined forces of the French army under the Emperor Napoleon III and the Sardinian army under King Victor-Emmanuel, fighting for the cause of Italian independence, against the Austrian army led by the Emperor Franz-Josef.

 

By nightfall, when the defeated Austrians retreated from the scene of carnage, the plain was strewn with many thousands of wounded, dying and dead soldiers, with thirst and hunger adding to the torments of the injured. Many died abandoned on the battlefield, but over nine thousand wounded found their way to the nearby town of Castiglione della Stiviere, which was transformed into a vast improvised dressing station.

 

There a horrified Swiss businessman, Henri Dunant, laboured to organise some relief where it was most lacking. He collected volunteers to care for over five hundred wounded piled into a church, the Chiesa Maggiore, distributing food and water, dressing their

wounds, and even taking messages for the victims'

families. He was shaken to the core to find that only six

French army doctors were available for the whole nine

thousand, and that this was the normal state of affairs after a battle.

 

In Memory of Soiferino

 

Back in Geneva, haunted by his memories, Dunant was

inspired to write a book, "Un souvenir de Solferino',

which was published in 1862 (1). He depicted the battle in poignant detail, sharing with his readers his depth of

feeling on discovering the hitherto suppressed human

consequences of war. Dunant's heartfelt appeal - '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?" - struck a chord in hearts all over Europe. One particularly dynamic Geneva lawyer, Gustave Moynier, was galvanised into action and by February 1863 had helped Dunant set up an "International Committee for Relief to Wounded

Soldiers", with the aim of setting up these national relief

societies.

 

This Committee (which later became the "International

Committee of the Red Cross") was composed of five

citizens of Geneva: General Guillaume-Henri Dufour

(Commander-in-Chief of the Swiss Army, and renowned

as the creator in 1831 of the Swiss flag), Gustave Moynier (later to become president of the Committee for half a century), Henri Dunant, Doctor Louis Appia (deeply interested in military surgery, and author of the book "The Ambulance Doctor or Practical Studies of the Wounds Inflicted by Firearms") and Doctor Theodore Maunoir (2-3).