Battle of Solferino (1859): Bloodshed That Led to the Red Cross

The Battle of Solferino, fought on 24 June 1859 south of Lake Garda in northern Italy, was the decisive clash of the Second Italian War of Independence. French and Sardinian armies defeated the Austrian Empire in a day of fighting that involved some 300,000 soldiers and left tens of thousands dead or wounded. The suffering that followed moved a Swiss witness, Henri Dunant, to begin the movement that became the Red Cross.

Background: Piedmont, France and Austria

In the 1850s much of northern Italy was ruled by Austria, which held Lombardy and Venetia directly. The Kingdom of Sardinia, based in Piedmont and led by King Victor Emmanuel II and his prime minister Count Cavour, wanted to expel Austria and lead the unification of Italy.

Cavour knew Piedmont could not win alone. In July 1858 he met Napoleon III secretly at Plombières and secured French support for a war against Austria, in return for the cession of Savoy and Nice to France. Piedmont then provoked Austria by mobilising and welcoming volunteers. On 23 April 1859 Austria issued an ultimatum demanding demobilisation; when it was rejected, Austrian troops crossed into Piedmont and France entered the war.

The campaign before Solferino

The Austrian advance was slow, giving French troops time to arrive by rail and sea. The allies won at Montebello on 20 May and Palestro on 30-31 May, then defeated the Austrians at Magenta on 4 June. Napoleon III and Victor Emmanuel entered Milan on 8 June.

The Austrians withdrew east towards the Quadrilateral, a group of four fortresses guarding Venetia. Emperor Franz Joseph took personal command and decided to turn and fight west of the Mincio river. Neither side had good reconnaissance, and on the morning of 24 June the two armies, each on the move, blundered into each other across a line of low hills.

The battle

The fighting spread along a front of roughly 15-20 kilometres. At the centre the French attacked the village and heights of Solferino, crowned by a medieval tower known as the Spia d’Italia (“spy of Italy”). After hours of costly assaults, French troops took the heights in the early afternoon, splitting the Austrian line.

In the north the Sardinian army fought a separate and bloody battle around San Martino against Austrian forces under General Ludwig von Benedek, with positions changing hands several times. In the south, on the open plain near Medole and Guidizzolo, French corps held off Austrian attacks.

In the late afternoon a violent thunderstorm swept across the battlefield. Franz Joseph ordered a general retreat, and the Austrians withdrew across the Mincio during the evening. Benedek, the last to leave, pulled back from San Martino after dark. French rifled artillery and the aggressive use of infantry columns had played a large part in the allied success.

Why the battle was so costly

Several factors made Solferino unusually bloody. The armies were very large and fought at close range for most of a hot summer day, roughly from dawn until the storm in the late afternoon. Because the clash was unplanned, commanders fed units into the fight piecemeal, and repeated frontal attacks on fortified villages, farmhouses and cemeteries produced heavy losses on both sides.

Weapons were also changing. The French had new rifled field guns, which could fire accurately at longer ranges than older smoothbore cannon, while infantry on both sides carried rifled muskets. Tactics, however, still relied heavily on columns and bayonet charges, a combination that exposed soldiers to deadly fire.

Medical arrangements were poor. The French army had only a small number of doctors for each regiment, and many of its ambulance wagons and supplies were still in the rear. The Austrians, retreating, had to leave many of their wounded behind. Heat, thirst and infection killed many men in the days after the battle who might have survived with prompt treatment.

Myths and facts

It is sometimes said that Henri Dunant personally saw the fighting. In fact he arrived in the area on the evening of 24 June, after the battle, and his famous descriptions of the combat were built from witness accounts. His direct experience was of the aftermath at Castiglione.

Another common belief is that Solferino ended the war in a clear Austrian collapse. The Austrian army withdrew in good order and still held strong fortresses; it was political calculation, more than military defeat, that brought the quick armistice.

Key people

• Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, commanded the allied forces; the carnage reportedly shocked him.
• Victor Emmanuel II, King of Sardinia, led the Piedmontese army at San Martino.
• Franz Joseph I, the 28-year-old Austrian emperor, commanded in person after removing his previous commander.
• Ludwig von Benedek, the Austrian general who held San Martino against repeated Sardinian attacks.
• Henri Dunant, a Swiss businessman, arrived in the area on the evening of the battle seeking to meet Napoleon III about a business venture.

The wounded and Henri Dunant

Army medical services were overwhelmed. Thousands of wounded men lay on the field or were carried to nearby towns, where there were far too few doctors, supplies or transport. At Castiglione delle Stiviere, wounded men filled the churches and streets, many without care for days.

Dunant helped organise local women and volunteers to bring water, food and dressings, insisting that Austrian prisoners be treated as well as French and Italian soldiers. The local phrase “tutti fratelli” (“all are brothers”) became associated with this effort. In 1862 he published A Memory of Solferino, describing the battle and its aftermath and proposing permanent relief societies and an international agreement to protect the wounded. This led directly to the founding of the Red Cross in 1863.

By the numbers

Figures vary between sources; these are commonly cited approximations.

Consequences

Solferino did not destroy the Austrian army, which remained strong behind its fortresses. But Napoleon III, alarmed by the losses, by Prussian mobilisation on the Rhine and by the growing revolutionary movement in central Italy, sought a quick peace. On 11 July 1859 he and Franz Joseph agreed the armistice of Villafranca without consulting Cavour.

Austria ceded most of Lombardy to France, which passed it to Sardinia; Venetia remained Austrian. Cavour resigned in protest, though he returned to office in 1860. The peace was confirmed by the Treaty of Zurich in November 1859. Over the following months the central Italian duchies and the Papal Romagna voted to join Piedmont, France took Savoy and Nice in 1860, and Garibaldi’s Expedition of the Thousand brought the south into the new Kingdom of Italy.

Legacy

The battlefield is today marked by ossuaries at Solferino and San Martino containing the bones of thousands of soldiers, and by a tall commemorative tower at San Martino completed in the 1890s. Castiglione delle Stiviere houses an International Red Cross Museum.

Timeline

• 1858, July: Napoleon III and Cavour reach a secret agreement at Plombières.
• 1859, 23 April: Austria sends an ultimatum to Piedmont-Sardinia.
• 1859, 4 June: Allied victory at Magenta.
• 1859, 8 June: Napoleon III and Victor Emmanuel II enter Milan.
• 1859, 24 June: Battle of Solferino and San Martino.
• 1859, 11 July: Armistice of Villafranca.
• 1859, 10 November: Treaty of Zurich confirms the peace.
• 1862, November: Henri Dunant publishes A Memory of Solferino.

Why it matters

Solferino was a turning point in Italian unification, removing Austria from Lombardy and opening the way for a united Italy. Its human cost also had an influence far beyond Italy, inspiring the Red Cross and the first Geneva Convention, the foundations of modern international humanitarian law.