The Battle of Solferino: Combat and Care for the Wounded

On June 24, 1859, the allied armies of France and the Kingdom of Sardinia fought Austrian forces along a line through Solferino, San Martino, and Medole in northern Italy. Napoleon III commanded the French, Victor Emmanuel II led the Sardinians, and Franz Joseph I had come to the Austrian front. South of Lake Garda, villages, hills, and rivers together constrained troop movements.

After the Battle of Magenta, Austrian forces withdrew from the Milan and Brescia area, concentrated near the Mincio River, and then advanced west again. The allies were moving east. According to Henry Dunant’s later account, both sides expected a major battle but misjudged the other’s position, leaving them unprepared to meet the opposing main force early on the 24th.

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The French First Corps under Baraguey d’Hilliers advanced toward Solferino, and MacMahon’s Second Corps toward Cavriana, while Niel’s and Canrobert’s troops operated on the southern wing. The Austrians were divided into Wimpffen’s First Army and Schlick’s Second Army, the latter holding key positions including Solferino, Cavriana, and San Martino.

A chain of heights was crucial in the center. French troops attacked slopes, villages, and cemeteries and later committed the Imperial Guard. Austrian defenders received successive reinforcements but failed to establish stable, coordinated support. In the south, Niel resisted the Austrians on the Medole plain, enabling MacMahon to advance toward Cavriana. In the north, Benedek’s Austrian troops contested the San Martino heights with the Sardinians until evening.

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After the French captured positions around Solferino and Cavriana, the Austrian center fell back, while the southern wing failed to break through the allies. Afternoon thunderstorms, hail, and strong winds interrupted some fighting. The Austrians decided on a general retreat, with Benedek and other forces covering the withdrawal while the allies occupied their gains.

Once the outcome was decided, wounded soldiers still lay scattered among fields, ditches, and cottages. Dunant recorded that burials and searches for wounded people continued for several days after the fighting stopped. Heat, lack of water, congested roads, and insufficient transport turned care after a tactical victory into a crisis for local society.

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Wounded soldiers continually arrived in Castiglione before onward transport to Brescia, filling churches, hospitals, and private homes. Dunant helped organize volunteers around the main church. Local women fetched water, fed casualties, and cleaned wounds; children traveled to water sources; visitors and soldiers staying in the area also assisted. Their work supplemented insufficient military surgeons and nursing staff.

Care was not restricted to the victors. Dunant recalled that women gradually tended Austrian wounded on the same terms. French administrators also permitted fit prisoners of war to assist hospitals, and Austrian doctors joined the relief effort. Many families temporarily sheltered casualties, their daily lives reshaped by sickbeds, water supplies, and transport arrangements. The burden of injury and illness extended from the battlefield into towns behind the front.

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The preliminary peace of Villafranca on July 11 established a framework for transferring Lombardy, formalized in the Franco-Austrian Treaty of Zurich on November 10. Austria ceded its rights over Lombardy to France while retaining Mantua, Peschiera, and specified areas. France declared that it would transfer the acquired territory to the king of Sardinia. Venetia remained under the Austrian emperor.

Political change also involved debt, transport, and residents’ status. The treaty required the new government to recognize existing railway concessions and associated rights and obligations, and arranged cross-border rail services. Lombardy’s residents could choose within a specified period to move to Austria and retain their allegiance. Locals serving in the Austrian army were in principle allowed discharge and return home, while those choosing to remain were protected. Administrative archives and property documents also required transfer.

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In 1862, Dunant published A Memory of Solferino, turning his postbattle experiences into two proposals: prepared voluntary relief organizations established in peacetime, and international principles agreed in advance to protect relief work. Problems repeatedly discussed in the book, including untrained volunteers, waning enthusiasm, and late-arriving aid, led him to seek durable organizational arrangements.

The Geneva Convention signed on August 22, 1864, established international rules for such relief. Articles 1 and 2 provided neutral protection for hospitals, field medical units, and their personnel under specified conditions. Article 5 addressed inhabitants assisting the wounded; Article 6 required care for sick and wounded soldiers regardless of nationality; and Article 7 established the red cross on a white background. Temporary mutual assistance on the battlefield thus acquired a more explicit institutional form.

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