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mrPanerai +1http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/57JNVPOn 24 June 1859, during the War of Italian Unification, Franco-Sardinian forces clashed with Austrian troops near the small town of Solferino in northern Italy. On that day, a citizen of Geneva, Switzerland, Henry Dunant, was travelling to the area to meet Napoleon III on personal matters. On the evening of the battle, Dunant arrived in the village of Castiglione, where more than 9,000 wounded had taken refuge. In the main church, the Chiesa Maggiore, where thousands were lying unattended, Dunant and the local women strove for several days and nights to give them water, wash and dress their wounds and hand out tobacco, tea and fruit.
Dunant remained in Castiglione until 27 June and then set out again, returning to Geneva on 11 July. He was beset by financial difficulties, but could not forget what he had seen, and in 1862 he published a work entitled A Memory of Solferino. In it he described the battle and the wounded of the Chiesa Maggiore, concluding with a question:
"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?" It was this question that led to the founding of the Red Cross. He also asked the military authorities of various countries whether they could formulate "(...) some international principle, sanctioned by a convention and inviolate in character, which, once agreed upon and ratified, might constitute the basis for societies for the relief of the wounded in the different European countries?". This second question was the basis for the The Geneva Conventions.