At the end of June 1859, the armies of France and Sardinia, led by Napoleon III, confronted the Austrians at Solferino in northern Italy.
Henri Dunant, a Geneva businessman, happened to be passing, and witnessed the battle.
Horrified by what he saw, he documented the slaughter in his book, A Memory of Solferino.
At the end of the battle, the Austrians were defeated and 40,000 men lay dead or dying.
As Dunant discovered, and later recounted, little was done to care for the wounded.
What he saw at Solferino shocked Dunant, and inspired him to develop an organisation dedicated to helping war wounded.
But the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had modest beginnings; Dunant and four friends met in an apartment in Geneva's old town to discuss possible rules for war, aimed at alleviating suffering.
(Imogen Foulkes, Red Cross Marks Battle Anniversary, BBC News)
