ABSTRACT
As discussed in the introduction, the ICRC has its origins in the Battle of Solferino in 1859. This battle, which occurred in present-day northern Italy, was part of the Franco-Austrian War. It was after witnessing the bloodshed at the Battle of Solferino, and the lack of medical attention for those wounded, that Henry Dunant felt compelled to work toward a remedy for this lack of care. Dunant, writing his account of the battle in A Memory of Solferino (1862), described the battlefield as “a disaster from the point of view of humanity.”1 On the battleground lay corpses amid pools of blood and over 23,000 wounded.2 Dunant was appalled to learn that there were few doctors or medical services available for badly wounded soldiers.
