[Illustration: JEAN HENRI DUNANT] _The_ ORIGIN _of_ _the_ RED CROSS "_Un Souvenir de Solferino_" BY HENRI DUNANT Translated from the French by MRS. DAVID H. WRIGHT, of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Red Cross, Independence Hall. Philadelphia, Pa. 1911 THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO. PHILADELPHIA, PA. Copyright, 1911, By MRS. DAVID H. WRIGHT. AMERICAN RED CROSS. WASHINGTON, D. C., November 9, 1910. Mrs. David H. Wright, Philadelphia, Pa. DEAR MRS. WRIGHT: I appreciate and thank you for your courtesy in dedicating to me, as President of the American Red Cross, this recent translation of Henri Dunant's "Un Souvenir de Solferino." Whoever calls attention of the people to the sufferings and misery caused by war so that men realizing its results become loath to undertake it, performs a public service. [Illustration: handwritten signature of William Howard Taft] _President American Red Cross._ _EDITOR'S NOTE_ _So far as is known, this book of such far-reaching influence has never before been translated or published in English._ PREFACE _Henri Dunant, the famous author of "A Souvenir of Solferino," was born in Geneva in 1828._ _The instruction and philanthropic principles received by him in his youth, together with his natural energy and power of organization, were a good foundation for the unfolding of the ideas and inclinations which led to his fertile acts._ _In 1859 occurred the event which definitely impelled him to a course of action which did not discontinue during his whole life. A course of action for the mitigation of the sufferings caused by war, or from a broader point of view, for the commencement of the reign of peace._ _This event was the battle of Solferino, when he first organized, in Castiglione, corps of volunteers to search for and nurse the wounded._ _Having thus started the idea of a permanent organization of these voluntary bands of compassionate workers, and also of an international treaty agreement in regard to the wounded, he presented himself to Marshal MacMahon and afterwards to Napoleon III, who became interested in the project of Dunant and immediately ordered his army no longer to make prisoners of the physicians and nurses of the enemy._ _Soon Dunant organized an Aid Committee in Geneva, and shortly afterwards he published his "Souvenir of Solferino," which was enthusiastically received and greatly applauded._ _He met, however, opposition and obstacles, principally from the French Minister of War._