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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #50968 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50968)
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Origin of the Red Cross, by Henry Dunant
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: The Origin of the Red Cross
-       "Un souvenir de Solferino"
-
-Author: Henry Dunant
-
-Translator: Mrs. David H. Wright
-
-Release Date: January 19, 2016 [EBook #50968]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ORIGIN OF THE RED CROSS ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Bryan Ness, Moti Ben-Ari and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
-
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-
-[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._
-
-_The philanthropic ideas of this book were received with interest
-by many European sovereigns with whom Dunant had intercourse,
-either by correspondence or by conversation; he always propagated
-persistently his ideas in regard to the organization of a national
-permanent committee for the wounded, his International Treaty, and the
-neutralization of those injured in war (he developed in separate works
-his ideas which were outlined only in the "Souvenir")._
-
-_The Geneva Society of Public Utility created a commission for the
-purpose of studying the question. Meanwhile Dunant had the opportunity
-to speak with the King of Saxony, and to persuade representatives of
-some other countries to take up the question with their respective
-sovereigns._
-
-_Dunant interested the governments so much in his project that various
-nations sent delegates to the International Conference, which was
-held in Geneva, in 1863, when it was decided to establish a National
-Committee, and when the desire was expressed that the neutralization
-of the physicians, nurses and injured should be provided by treaty,
-and for the adoption of a distinctive and uniform international emblem
-and flag for the hospital corps, and the unanimous thanks of this
-Conference were extended to Dunant._
-
-_To consider this subject, a diplomatic International Congress was held
-in 1864, at Geneva, by invitation of the Swiss Federate Counsel. The
-treaty there drafted accepted the projects of Dunant and the formation
-of Volunteer Aid Societies, later called Red Cross Societies, was
-recommended by the Convention to the signatory powers._
-
-_In the further development of the ideas of Dunant The Hague
-Conference, in 1899, extended the provisions of the Treaty of Geneva to
-naval warfare._
-
-_Thus, a single individual, inspired with the sentiment of kindness
-and compassion for his fellow-creatures, by his own untiring energy
-attained the realization of his ideas, and aided in the progress of
-mankind toward peace._
-
-_Thus, truly all men, and above all, the workers for peace, owe to this
-laborer merited and everlasting gratitude and remembrance._
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-_The recompense, however, arrived late._
-
-_In the zealous propaganda, for which, during four years, he edited
-pamphlets and articles in all languages, and traveled continuously
-through the whole of Europe, Dunant spent everything that he possessed,
-and, for many years, nothing more was heard of the modest and good man,
-to whom the approval of his conscience was all sufficient._
-
-_At last, in 1897, he was discovered in the Swiss village of Heiden,
-where he was living in misery, in a "Home" for old men, with almost no
-means other than a small pension received from the Empress of Russia._
-
-_The Baroness von Suttner sent at that time to the press of the whole
-world, and especially to those interested in International Peace,
-an appeal to raise a contribution of money to ease his last years.
-In 1901, when the Nobel-Peace-Prize, valued at 208,000 francs, was
-awarded for the first time, it was divided between Henri Dunant and
-Frederick Passy._
-
-_It is true that many peace workers did not approve of this decision
-of the Nobel Committee. They said in opposition, that the projects of
-Dunant not only were not pacific, but could even have the contrary
-effect. To lessen the terrors of war is really, according to them,
-to destroy the most effective means of turning men from it, and
-consequently tended to prolong the duration of its reign. One of the
-chief representatives of this idea, Signor H. H. Fried, said that the
-Geneva Convention was only a small concession by the governments to the
-new idea that is fighting against war._
-
-_Without doubt, they do not approve of the humane plan of Dunant, on
-the contrary, they think that it is not essentially peace-making; that
-it should not be recompensed by the first peace prize, and that it is
-dangerous to confuse pacification with simple humanitarianism._
-
-_The contrary opinion is shown by the following words, written by
-Signor Ruyssin, in the review "Peace by Right," at the time when Dunant
-received his prize:_
-
-_"His glory has grown each year in proportion to all the lessening of
-suffering which his work has accomplished, to all the lives which it
-saves, and to all the self-devotion to which it gives birth._
-
-_"Henri Dunant has decreased the abomination of war; Frederick Passy
-fought to make it impossible. One has accomplished more; the other has
-created more remote, but brighter hopes. One has harvested already;
-the other sows for the future harvest; and so it would be arbitrary
-and unjust to compare such dissimilar lines of work, both equally
-meritorious. The accomplishment of the wishes of Nobel rightly placed
-identical crowns on the heads of two old men who employed their lives
-in fighting against war."_
-
-_This disagreement is interesting in that it shows the contrary
-judgment to which different zealous peace workers were led in regard to
-the project of Dunant._
-
-_Whatever may be the conclusion of the reader, about the relation
-between it and the peace propaganda, he will certainly be of the
-opinion that "A Souvenir of Solferino," showing the abominations of
-war, is a useful instrument of the propaganda, and that the name of
-Dunant should be blessed, as that of one of the most self-devoted
-benefactors of mankind._
-
-_Henri Dunant died at Heiden, Switzerland, on October the thirty-first,
-1910._
-
-
-
-
-THE ORIGIN OF THE RED CROSS
-
-
-The bloody victory of Magenta opened the gates of Milan to the
-French Army, which the towns of Pavia, Lodi and Cremona welcomed
-enthusiastically.
-
-The Austrians, abandoning the lines of the Adda, the Oglio, and the
-Chiese, gathered their forces on the bank of the River Mincio, at whose
-head the young and courageous Emperor Joseph placed himself.
-
-The King of Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel, arrived on the seventeenth
-of June, 1859, at Brescia, where, with great joy, the inhabitants
-welcomed him, seeing in the son of Charles Albert a saviour and a hero.
-During the next day the French Emperor entered the same town amid the
-enthusiastic cries of the people, happy to show their gratitude to the
-monarch who came to help them gain their independence.
-
-On the twenty-first of June, Napoleon III and Victor Emmanuel II
-left Brescia, from which place their armies had departed during the
-previous day. On the twenty-second they occupied Lonato, Castenedolo
-and Montechiaro. On the evening of the twenty-third Napoleon, who was
-commander-in-chief, published strict orders for the army of the King
-of Sardinia, encamped at Desenzano, and forming the left flank of the
-allied armies, to proceed early the following day to Pozzelengo.
-
-Marshal Baraguey d'Hilliers was ordered to march on Solferino; Marshal
-MacMahon, Duke de Magenta, on Cavriana; General Neil was to proceed to
-Guidizzolo; Marshal Canrobert to Medole; Marshal Regnaud de Saint-Jean
-d'Angley, with the Imperial Guard, to Castiglione.
-
-These united forces amounted to 150,000 men, with 400 cannon.
-
-The Austrian Emperor had at his disposition, in the Lombardo-Venetian
-kingdom, nine army corps, amounting in all to 250,000 men, comprising
-the garrison of Verona and Mantua. The effective force prepared to
-enter the line of battle consisted of seven corps, some 170,000 men,
-supported by 500 cannon.
-
-The headquarters of the Emperor Francis Joseph had been moved from
-Verona to Villafranca, then to Valeggio. On the evening of the
-twenty-third the Austrian troops received the order to recross the
-River Mincio during the night to Peschiera, Salionze, Valeggio, Ferri,
-Goito and Mantua. The main part of the army took up its position from
-Pozzolengo to Guidizzolo, in order to attack the enemy between the
-Rivers Mincio and Chiese.
-
-The Austrian forces formed two armies. The first having as
-Commander-in-chief Count Wimpffen, under whose orders were the corps
-commanded by Field Marshals Prince Edmund Schwarzenberg, Count
-Schaffgotsche and Baron Veigl, also the cavalry division of Count
-Zeidewitz. This composed the left flank. It was stationed in the
-neighborhood of Volta, Guidizzolo, Medole and Castel-Gioffredo.
-
-The second army was commanded by Count Schlick, having under his orders
-the Field Marshals Count Clam-Gallas, Count Stadion, Baron Zobel and
-Cavalier Benedek, as well as the cavalry division of Count Mensdorf.
-This composed the right flank. It occupied Cavriana, Pozzolengo and San
-Martino.
-
-Thus, on the morning of the twenty-fourth, the Austrians occupied all
-the heights between Pozzolengo, Solferino, Cavriana and Guidizzolo.
-They ranged their artillery in series of breastworks, forming the
-center of the attacking line, which permitted their right and left
-flanks to fall back upon these fortified heights which they believed to
-be unconquerable.
-
-The two belligerent armies, although marching one against the other,
-did not expect such a sudden meeting. Austria, misinformed, supposed
-that only a part of the allied army had crossed the Chiese River. On
-their side the confederates did not expect this attack in return, and
-did not believe that they would find themselves so soon before the army
-of the Austrian Emperor. The reconnoitering, the observations and the
-reports of the scouts, and those made from the fire balloons during the
-day of the twenty-third showed no signs of such an imminent encounter.
-
-The collision of the armies of Austria and Franco-Sardinia on Friday,
-the twenty-fourth of June, 1859, was, therefore, unexpected, although
-the combatants on both sides conjectured that a great battle was near.
-
-The Austrian army, already fatigued by the difficult march during the
-night of the twenty-third and twenty-fourth, had to support from the
-earliest dawn the attack of the enemies' armies and to suffer from the
-intensely hot weather as well as from hunger and thirst, for, except
-a double ration of brandy, the greater number of the Austrians were
-unable to take any food.
-
-The French troops already in movement before daybreak had had nothing
-but coffee. Therefore, this exhaustion of the soldiers, and above all,
-of the unfortunate wounded, was extreme at the end of this very bloody
-battle, which lasted more than fifteen hours.
-
-Both armies are awake.
-
-Three hundred thousand men are standing face to face. The line of
-battle is ten miles long.
-
-Already at three o'clock in the morning, corps commanded by Marshals
-Baraguey d'Hilliers and MacMahon are commencing to move on Solferino
-and Cavriana.
-
-Hardly have the advance columns passed Castiglione when they themselves
-are in the presence of the first posts of the Austrians, who dispute
-the ground.
-
-On all sides bugles are playing the charges and the drums are sounding.
-
-The Emperor Napoleon who passed the night at Montechiaro hastens
-rapidly to Castiglione.
-
-By six o'clock a furious fire has commenced.
-
-The Austrians march in a compact mass in perfect order along the open
-roads. In the air are flying their black and yellow standards, on which
-are embroidered the ancient Imperial arms.
-
-The day is very clear. The Italian sun makes the brilliant equipments
-of the dragoons, the lancers and the cuirassiers of the French army
-glitter brightly.
-
-At the commencement of the engagement the Emperor Francis Joseph,
-together with his entire staff, leaves headquarters in order to go to
-Volta. He is accompanied by the Archdukes of the House of Lorraine,
-among whom are the Grand Duke of Tuscany and the Duke of Modena.
-
-In the midst of the difficulties of a field unknown to the French
-army the first meeting takes place. It has to make its way through
-plantations of mulberry trees, interlaced by climbing vines, which form
-almost impassable barriers.
-
-The earth is cut by great dried up trenches which the horses have to
-leap, and by long walls with broad foundations which they have to climb.
-
-From the hills the Austrians pour on the enemy a constant hail of shot
-and shell. With the smoke of the cannon's continual discharge the
-rain of bullets is ploughing up the earth and dust into thousands of
-missiles.
-
-The French hurl themselves upon these strongly fortified places in
-spite of the firing of the batteries which falls upon the earth with
-redoubled force.
-
-During the burning heat of noon the battle everywhere becomes more and
-more furious.
-
-Column after column throw themselves one against the other with the
-force of a devastating torrent.
-
-A number of French regiments surround masses of Austrian troops, but,
-like iron walls, these resist and at first remain unshaken.
-
-Entire divisions throw their knapsacks to the earth in order to rush at
-the enemy with fixed bayonets.
-
-If a battalion is driven away another replaces it; each hill, each
-height, each rocky eminence becomes a theatre for an obstinate struggle.
-
-On the heights, as well as in the ravines, the dead lie piled up. The
-Austrians and the allied armies march one against the other, killing
-each other above the blood-covered corpses, butchering with gunshots,
-crushing each other's skulls or disemboweling with the sword or
-bayonet. No cessation in the conflict, no quarter given. The wounded
-are defending themselves to the last. It is butchery by madmen drunk
-with blood.
-
-Sometimes the fighting becomes more terrible on account of the arrival
-of rushing, galloping cavalry. The horses, more compassionate than
-their riders, seek in vain to step over the victims of this butchery,
-but their iron hoofs crush the dead and dying. With the neighing of
-the horses are mingled blasphemies, cries of rage, shrieks of pain and
-despair.
-
-The artillery, at full speed, follows the cavalry which has cut a way
-through the corpses and the wounded lying in confusion on the ground.
-A jaw-bone of one of these last is torn away; the head of another is
-battered in; the breast of a third is crushed. Limbs are broken and
-bruised; the field is covered with human remains; the earth is soaked
-with blood.
-
-The French troops, with fiery ardor, scale the steep hills and rocky
-declivities in spite of shot and shell.
-
-Hardly does some harassed and profusely perspiring company capture
-a hill and reach its summit, when it falls like an avalanche on the
-Austrians, overthrows, repulses and pursues them to the depths of the
-hollows.
-
-But the Austrians regain the advantage. Ambuscaded behind the houses,
-the churches and the walls of Medole, Solferino and Cavriana, they
-heroically fight on and very nearly win the victory.
-
-The unending combat rages incessantly and in every place with fury.
-Nothing stops, nothing interrupts the butchery. They are killing
-one another by the hundreds. Every foot of ground is carried at the
-bayonet's point, every post disputed foot by foot. From the hands of
-the enemy are taken villages, house after house, farm after farm, each
-is the theatre of a siege. Doors, windows and courts are abattoirs.
-
-A rain of cannon balls is sending death to the distant reserves of
-Austria. If these desert the field they yield it only step by step, and
-soon recommence action. Their ranks are ceaselessly reforming. On the
-plains the wind raises the dust, which flies over the roads like dense
-clouds, darkening the day and blinding the fighters.
-
-The French cavalry flings itself on the Austrian cavalry; uhlans and
-hussars slash furiously at each other with their swords.
-
-The rage is so great that in some places, after the exhaustion of the
-cartridges and the breaking of the muskets, they fight with fists and
-beat one another with stones.
-
-The strongest positions are captured, lost, and recaptured, to be lost
-again. Everywhere men are falling mutilated, riddled with bullets,
-covered with wounds.
-
-In the midst of these endless combats, these massacres, blasphemies
-arise in different tongues, telling of the diverse nationalities of the
-men, many of whom are obliged to become homicides in their twentieth
-year.
-
-The soldiers of the Sardinian King, defending and attacking with
-fervor, continue their skirmishes from early morning. The hills of San
-Martino, Roccolo, Madonno della Scoperta are captured and recaptured
-five or six times. Their Generals Mollard, La Marmora, Della Rocca,
-Durando, Fanti, Cialdini, Cucchiari, de Sonnoz, with all kinds and all
-grades of officers help the king before whose eyes lie the wounded
-Generals Cedale, Perrier and Arnoldi.
-
-The French Emperor orders that the corps of Baraguey d'Hilliers and
-MacMahon, together with the Imperial Guard, attack at the same time the
-fortress of San Cassiano and occupy Solferino.
-
-But the brave Austrians make the allied army pay dearly for its
-success.... One of its heroes, Prince Aleksandro de Hessen, after
-fighting with great courage at San Cassiano defends against repeated
-attacks, the three heights of Mount Fontana.... At Guidizzolo, Prince
-Charles of Windischraetz, braves certain death in seeking to recapture
-under a hail of balls Casa Nova. Mortally wounded, he still commands,
-supported and carried by his brave soldiers, who vainly make for him a
-rampart of their own bodies.
-
-Marshal Baraguey d'Hilliers finally enters the town of Solferino,
-courageously defended by Baron Stadion.
-
-The sky is darkened, dense clouds cover the horizon. A furious wind
-is rising. It carries away the broken branches of the trees. A cold
-rain, driven by the tempest, a veritable cloud-burst, drenches the
-combatants, exhausted from hunger and fatigue, while dust, hail and
-smoke are blinding the soldiers forced to fight also the elements.
-
-The army of the Emperor Francis Joseph retreats. Throughout the entire
-action the chief of the House of Hapsburg shows admirable tranquillity
-and self-control.
-
-During the capture of Cavriana the Austrian Emperor finds himself,
-together with Baron Schlick and the Prince of Nassau, on the adjacent
-heights, Madonna della Pieve, opposite a church surrounded by cypress
-trees. Towards evening, the Austrian center having yielded and the
-left flank not daring to hope to force the position of the allies,
-the general retreat is decided. In this grave moment, Emperor Francis
-Joseph, around whom rained balls and bullets during the whole day,
-goes with a part of his staff to Volta, while the Archdukes and the
-hereditary Grand Duke of Tuscany returned to Valeggio.
-
-The Austrian officers fought like lions. Some, through despair, let
-themselves die, but sold their lives dearly. The greater number rejoin
-their regiments covered with the blood of their own wounds or with that
-of the enemy. To their bravery should be rendered merited praise.
-
-... Guidizzolo remains occupied by the Austrians until ten o'clock
-in the evening.... The roads are covered with army wagons, carts
-and reserve artillery. The transport vans are saved by the rapid
-construction of improvised bridges. The first Austrian wounded
-consisting of men slightly injured, commence to enter Villafranca.
-The more seriously wounded follow them. Austrian physicians and their
-assistants rapidly bandage the wounds, give some nourishment to
-the wounded and send them by railroad trains to Verona, where the
-embarrassment is becoming terrible.
-
-Although during its retreat the Austrian army tries to carry away all
-the wounded which it could transport (and with what great suffering!),
-nevertheless, thousands remain lying on the ground moistened with their
-blood.
-
-The allied army is in possession of the conquered field.
-
-Near the close of the day when the evening shadows creep over this vast
-field of carnage, more than one officer, more than one French soldier,
-seek here and there a comrade, a compatriot, or a friend, when he
-finds the wounded friend, he kneels beside, trying to restore him to
-consciousness, wiping away the blood, bandaging the wounds as well as
-he can, wrapping a handkerchief around the broken limb, but rarely can
-he secure water for the suffering man.
-
-How many silent tears were shed during this sad night, when all false
-pride, all human regard were set aside.
-
-During the battle, hospitals for the wounded established in nearby
-farmhouses, churches, monasteries, in the open air, under the shade
-of trees receive the wounded officers and non-commissioned officers,
-who are hastily given treatment. After these comes the turn of the
-soldiers, when that is possible. Those of the latter who are still
-able to walk find their way to the field hospitals. The others are
-carried on litters and stretchers, weakened as they are by loss of
-blood, by pain, by continued lack of food, and by the mental and moral
-shock they have experienced. During the battle a pennant fixed on an
-elevation marks the station for the wounded and the field hospitals of
-the fighting regiments. Unfortunately, only a few of the soldiers know
-the color of the hospital pennant or that of the hospital flag of the
-enemy, for the colors differ with the different nations. The bombs fall
-upon them, sparing neither physicians, nor wounded, nor wagons loaded
-with bread, wine, meat or lint.
-
-The heights which extend from Castiglione to Volta, sparkle with
-thousands of fires, which are fed by pieces of Austrian gun-wagons and
-by huge branches of trees, broken by the tempest or by cannon balls.
-The soldiers dry their dripping clothes; then, overcome by fatigue and
-exhaustion, they fall asleep on the stones or on the ground.
-
-What terrible episodes! What touching scenes! What disillusionments!
-
-There are battalions without food, companies lacking almost every
-necessity, because of the loss of the knapsacks. Water also is lacking,
-but their thirst is so intense that officers and soldiers resort to
-slimy and even bloody pools. Everywhere the wounded are begging for
-water.
-
-Through the silence of the night are heard groans, stifled cries of
-anguish and pain, and heartrending voices calling for help.
-
-Who will ever be able to paint the agonies of this horrible night!
-
-The sun on the twenty-fifth of June, 1859, shines above one of the most
-frightful sights imaginable. The battle-field is everywhere covered
-with corpses of men and horses. They appear as if sown along the roads,
-in the hollows, the thickets and the fields, above all, near the
-village of Solferino.
-
-The fields ready for the harvest are ruined, the grain trodden down,
-the fences overturned, the orchards destroyed.
-
-Here and there one finds pools of blood.
-
-The villages are deserted. They bear traces of bullets, of bombs and
-shells and grenades.
-
-The houses whose walls have been pierced with bullets and are gaping
-widely, are shaken and ruined.
-
-The inhabitants, of whom the greater number have passed almost twenty
-hours in the refuge of their cellars, without light or food, are
-commencing to come out. The look of stupor of these poor peasants bears
-testimony to the long terror they have endured.
-
-The ground is covered with all kinds of debris, broken pieces of arms,
-articles of equipments and blood-stained clothing.
-
-The miserable wounded gathered up during the day are pale, livid and
-inert.
-
-Some, principally those seriously injured, have a vacant look, they
-seem not to understand what is said to them. They turn their staring
-eyes toward those who bring them help.
-
-Others, in a dangerous state of nervous shock, are shaking with
-convulsive tremblings.
-
-Still others, with uncovered wounds, where inflammation has already
-appeared, seem frenzied with pain; they beg that someone may end their
-sufferings, and, with drawn faces, writhe in the last torments of agony.
-
-Elsewhere, poor fellows are prostrated on the ground by bullets and
-bursting shells. Their arms and legs have been fractured by the cannon
-wheels that have passed over them.
-
-The shock of the cylindrical ball shatters the bones, so that the wound
-it causes is always very dangerous. The bursting of shells and the
-conical balls make extremely painful fractures, the internal injury
-being terrible. Every kind of pieces of bone, of earth, of lead, of
-clothing, of equipments, of shoes, aggravate and irritate the wounds of
-the patients and increase their sufferings.
-
-Those who cross this vast field of yesterday's battle meet at every
-step, in the midst of a confusion without parallel, inexpressible
-despair and suffering of every kind.
-
-Some of the battalions which had taken off their knapsacks during the
-battle, at last find them again, but they have been robbed of all their
-contents. During the night, vagabonds have stolen everything. A grave
-loss to the poor men whose linen and uniforms are stained and torn. Not
-only do they find themselves deprived of their clothing, but even their
-smallest savings, all their fortune as well as of the treasures dear to
-them; small family mementoes given by mothers, sisters and sweethearts.
-
-In several places the dead are stripped of their clothing by the
-thieves, who do not always spare the wounded who are still living.
-
-Besides these painful sights are others still more dramatic.
-
-Here the old, retired General Le Breton wanders, seeking his
-son-in-law, the wounded General Douay, who has left his daughter,
-Madame Douay, in the midst of the tumult of war, in a state of the
-most cruel uneasiness. There, Colonel de Maleville, shot at Casa
-Nova, expires. Here, it is Colonel de Genlis, whose dangerous wound
-causes a burning fever. There, Lieutenant de Selve of the artillery,
-only a few weeks out of Saint Cyr, has his right arm amputated on the
-battle-field, where he was wounded.
-
-I help care for a poor sergeant-major of the Vincennes Chasseurs, both
-of whose legs are pierced through with balls. I meet him again in the
-Brescia Hospital; but he will die crossing Mount Cenis.
-
-Lieutenant de Guiseul, who was believed dead, is picked up on the
-spot, where, having fallen with his standard, he was lying in a swoon.
-The courageous sub-lieutenant Fournier, of the flying-guard, gravely
-wounded, finishes in his twentieth year a military career commenced in
-his tenth year by voluntarily enlisting in the foreign legion. They
-bury the Commander de Pontgibaud, who died during the night, and the
-young Count de Saint Paer, who had attained the rank of major hardly
-seven days before. General Auger, of the artillery, is carried to the
-field hospital of Casa Morino. His left shoulder has been shattered by
-a six-inch shell, part of which remained imbedded for twenty-four hours
-in the interior of the muscles of the armpit. Carried to Castiglione he
-is attacked with gangrene, and dies as a result of the disarticulation
-of the arm. General de Ladmirault and General Dieu, both gravely
-wounded, also arrived at Castiglione.
-
-The lack of water becomes greater and greater. The sun is burning, the
-ditches are dried up. The soldiers have only brackish and unwholesome
-water to appease their thirst. Where even the least little stream or
-spring trickling drop by drop is found, guards with loaded guns have
-great difficulty in preserving this water for the most urgent needs.
-
-Wounded horses, who have lost their riders, and have wandered during
-the whole night, drag themselves to their comrades, from whom they seem
-to beg for help. They are put out of their agony by a bullet. One of
-these noble chargers comes alone into the midst of a French company.
-The rich saddle-bag, fastened to the saddle, shows that it belongs to
-Prince von Isenberg. Afterwards, the wounded Prince himself is found;
-but careful nursing during a serious illness will allow him to return
-to Germany, where his family, in ignorance of the truth, have believed
-him dead and have mourned for him.
-
-Among the dead some have peaceful faces; these are the men who were
-struck suddenly and died at once. But those who did not perish
-immediately have their limbs rigid and twisted in agony, their bodies
-are covered with dirt; their hands clutch the earth, their eyes are
-open and staring, a convulsive contraction has uncovered their clenched
-teeth.
-
-Three days and three nights are passed in burying the dead who are left
-on the battle-field.
-
-On so large a field, many of the corpses hidden in the ditches, covered
-by the thickets or by some uneveness of the ground are discovered very
-late. They, as well as the dead horses, emit a fetid stench.
-
-In the French army a number of soldiers from each company are detailed
-to recognize and bury the dead. As far as possible soldiers of the
-same corps must pick up their fellow-members. They write down the
-number stamped on the clothing of the dead. Then, aided in this painful
-duty by paid Lombardy peasants, they put the corpses in a common grave.
-Unfortunately, it is possible that, because of the unavoidable rapidity
-in this labor, and because of the carelessness and inattention of the
-paid workmen, more than one living man is buried with the dead.
-
-The letters, papers, orders, money, watches found on the officers are
-sent to their families, but the great number of the interred bodies
-make the faithful accomplishment of this task impossible.
-
-A son, the idol of his parents, educated and cared for during many
-years by a loving mother who was uneasy at the very slightest
-indisposition. A brilliant officer, beloved by his family, having left
-at home his wife and children. A young soldier who has just left his
-betrothed and his mother, sisters and old father; there he lies in the
-mud and in the dust, soaked in his own blood. Because of the wound in
-his head his face has become unrecognizable. He is in agony, he expires
-in cruel suffering, and his body, black, swollen, hideous, thrown in
-a shallow grave, is covered with a little lime and earth. The birds
-of prey will not respect his feet and hands protruding from the muddy
-ground of the slope which serves him as a tomb. Someone will come back,
-will carry more earth there and, perhaps, will put up a wooden cross
-above the place where his body rests, and that will be all.
-
-The corpses of the Austrians, clothed in mud-stained cloaks, torn linen
-jackets, white tunics stained with blood are strewn by thousands on
-the hills and plains of Medole. Clouds of crows fly over the bodies in
-hopes of having them for prey.
-
-By hundreds they are crowded into a great common grave.
-
-Once out of the line of fire, Austrian soldiers, slightly wounded,
-young first-year recruits, throw themselves on the ground from fatigue
-and inanition, then weakened by loss of blood, they die miserably from
-exhaustion and hunger.
-
-Unhappy mothers in Austria, Hungary and Bohemia, your sorrow will be
-great when you learn that your children died in the enemy's country,
-without care, without help, and without consolation!
-
-The lot of the Austrian prisoners-of-war is very sad. Led like simple
-cattle, they are sent in a crowd, with a strong guard, to Brescia,
-where they at last find repose, if not a kind welcome.
-
-Some French soldiers wish to do violence to the Hungarian
-captives whom they take for Croates, adding furiously that those
-"Glued-pantalooners," as they called them, always killed the wounded.
-I succeeded in tearing from their hands these unfortunate, trembling
-captives.
-
-On the battle-field many Austrians are permitted to keep their swords.
-They have the same food as the French officers. Some troops of the
-allied army fraternally divide their biscuits with the famished
-prisoners. Some even take the wounded on their backs and carry them to
-the ambulances. Near me the lieutenant of the guard bandages with his
-white handkerchief the head of a Tyrolese which was scarcely covered
-with old, torn, and dirty linen.
-
-During the previous day at the height of the battle, Commandant de la
-Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, the fearless African hunter, threw himself
-upon a squad of Hungarians; but his horse having been pierced through
-with balls, he himself was struck by two shots and made prisoner by the
-Hungarians. Learning that wounded La Rochefoucauld had been captured
-by the soldiers, the Austrian Emperor ordered that he be treated with
-great kindness and given the best care.
-
-The commissary continue to pick up the wounded. These, bandaged or not,
-are carried by mules or wheelbarrows and litters to the field hospitals
-in the villages and towns near the place where they fell.
-
-In these towns, churches, monasteries, houses, parks, courts, streets
-and promenades are transformed into improvised hospitals.
-
-In Carpenedolo, Castel-Goffredo, Medole, Guidizzolo, Volta and
-neighboring places are arriving many of the wounded. But the greater
-number are carried to Castiglione, where the least mutilated have
-already succeeded in dragging themselves.
-
-Behold the long procession of vehicles of the Commissary Department,
-loaded with soldiers, non-commissioned officers and officers of all
-grades mixed together; cavalry-men, infantry, artillerymen, bleeding,
-fatigued, lacerated, covered with dust. Each jolt of the wagons which
-carry them imposing on them new suffering.
-
-Then the mules come trotting in, their gait drawing, each instant,
-bitter cries from the throats of the unfortunate wounded whom they are
-bearing.
-
-Many die during the transportation.
-
-Their corpses are put on the sides of the roads. To others is left the
-duty of burying them. These dead are enscribed, "Disappeared."
-
-The wounded are sent to Castiglione. From there they are carried on to
-the hospitals in Brescia, Cremona, Bergama, Milan, and other cities
-of Lombardy, where they will receive the regular care and will submit
-to the necessary amputations. But as the means of transportation are
-very scarce, they are obliged to wait several days in Castiglione. This
-city, where the confusion surpasses all imagination, soon becomes for
-the French and Austrians a vast temporary hospital.
-
-On the day of battle the field-hospital of headquarters is established
-there. Chests of lint are unpacked, dressings for wounds and medicate
-necessities are prepared. The inhabitants give everything that they can
-get ready--coverings, linens, mattresses and straw.
-
-The Hospital of Castiglione, the monastery, the Barracks of San Luigi,
-the Church of the Capucines, the stations of the police, the churches
-of Maggiore, San Giuseppe, Santa Rosalie, are filled with the wounded
-lying crowded on the straw.
-
-Straw is also arranged for them in the courts and in the public parks.
-Plank roofs are quickly put up and linen is stretched to protect them
-from the hot sun.
-
-The private dwellings are soon converted into hospitals. Officers and
-soldiers are there received by the inhabitants.
-
-Some of these last run through the streets anxiously searching for a
-physician for their guests. Later, others, in consternation, go and
-come through the city, insistently begging that someone take away from
-their houses the corpses with which they do not know what to do.
-
-A number of French surgeons, having remained in Castiglione, aided by
-young Italian physicians and by hospital orderlies, dress and bandage
-the wounds.
-
-But all this is very insufficient.
-
-The number of convoys of wounded becomes so great during Saturday
-that the administration, the citizens and the few soldiers left in
-Castiglione are incapable of caring for so much misery.
-
-Then, melancholy scenes occur. There is water; there is food; and
-nevertheless the wounded are dying of hunger and thirst. There is much
-lint, but not enough hands to put it on the wounds! The greater number
-of the army of physicians must go to Cavriana; the hospital orderlies
-make mistakes, and hands are lacking at this critical moment.
-
-A voluntary service, good or bad, must be organized. But this is
-difficult in the midst of such disorder, to which is added a panic of
-the Castiglionians, which results in aggravating the misery of the
-wounded. This panic is caused by a very insignificant circumstance.
-
-As each corps of the French army had recovered itself, after taking up
-its position, on the day after the battle, convoys of prisoners were
-formed who were sent to Brescia, through Castiglione and Montechiaro.
-The inhabitants took one band of captives coming from Cavriana escorted
-by hussars, for the Austrian army returning in force. Alarm was given
-by the frightened peasants, by the assistant conductors of the baggage,
-by itinerant merchants who follow the troops in a campaign.
-
-Immediately all the houses are closed, the inhabitants barricading
-themselves in their homes, burning the tri-color flags which had
-adorned their windows, hiding themselves in the cellars or the attics.
-Some run into the fields with their wives and children carrying with
-them their most valuable possessions. Others, less frightened and more
-sagacious, remain at home, but take in the first Austrian wounded upon
-whom they lay their hands and overwhelm them with kindness and care.
-
-In the streets, on the roads, blocked by wagonloads of wounded, by
-convoys of supplies, are rapid transport wagons, horses flying in all
-directions, amid cries of fear, of anger and of pain. Baggage wagons
-are overturned, bread and biscuits fall into the gutter. The drivers
-detach the horses, dashing away with hanging bridles on the road to
-Brescia, spreading the alarm as they go. They collide with carts of
-provisions and convoys of wounded. These latter, trodden under foot and
-frenzied with terror, beg to be taken with them. In the city some of
-them deaf to all orders tear away their bandages, go staggering out of
-the churches, into the streets where they are jostled and bruised and
-finally fall from exhaustion and pain.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-What agonies! What suffering during the days of June twenty-fifth,
-twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh!
-
-Wounds poisoned by heat, by dust and by lack of water and care, have
-become intensely painful.
-
-Suffocating stenches pollute the air in spite of efforts to keep in
-good condition these local hospitals.
-
-Every quarter of an hour the convoys sent to Castiglione are bringing
-new loads of wounded. The insufficiency in the number of assistants, of
-hospital orderlies, of servants is cruelly felt.
-
-In spite of the activity of the Commissary Department, which is
-organizing transportation to Brescia by means of ox-carts; in spite of
-the spontaneous care of the inhabitants of Castiglione, who transport
-the sick, the departures are much less numerous than the arrivals, and
-the crowding grows unceasingly greater.
-
-On the stone floors of the churches of Castiglione are placed, side
-by side, men of every nation. French, Germans, Slavs and Arabs are
-temporarily crowded to the most remote part of the chapels. Many have
-no longer the strength to move themselves and cannot move or stir in
-the narrow space where they are lying. Oaths, blasphemies and cries
-which can be interpreted by no expression, are sounding beneath the
-arches of the sanctuaries.
-
-"Ah, sir, how I suffer!" say to me some of these poor fellows. "We are
-abandoned, left to die miserably, and yet we fought bravely!" They can
-get no rest, in spite of the nights they have passed in sleeplessness
-and long-endured fatigue. In their distress they beg for help which
-is not given. Some, in despair, roll in convulsions which will end in
-tetanus and death. Others, believing that the cold water poured on
-their festered wounds produce worms, which appear in great numbers,
-refuse to have the bandages moistened. Others still, whose wounds
-were dressed at the improvised hospitals on the battle-fields, are
-given no further attention during the halt they are obliged to make
-in Castiglione, and as these bandages are very tight, in view of the
-roughness of the transportation and have not been changed, they are
-suffering veritable tortures.
-
-These, whose faces are black with flies, with which the air is infested
-and which cling to their wounds, cast on all sides distracted glances.
-But no one notices. On these, the cloaks, shirts, flesh and blood form
-a compact mass that cannot be removed.
-
-Here, lies a soldier totally disfigured; his tongue hanging far out
-of his broken jaws. He stirs and wishes to rise. I moisten his dried
-palate and hardened tongue. Seizing a handful of lint I soak it in
-a bucket and squeeze the water from this improvised sponge in the
-formless opening which is in the place of his mouth.
-
-There, is an unfortunate man a part of whose face, the nose, lips and
-chin have been cut away by the stroke of a sword. Incapable of speech,
-half blind, he makes signs with his hands, and by that heartrending
-pantomime, accompanied by guttural sounds, draws attention to himself.
-I give him a drink by dropping gently on his blood-covered face a
-little pure water.
-
-A third, with a cleft head, expires, his blood spreading over the stone
-floor of the church. He presents a horrible sight. His companions in
-misfortune push him with their feet, for he incommodes the passage. I
-protect his last moments and cover with a handkerchief his poor head
-which he still feebly moves.
-
-Although every house has become an infirmary, and every family has
-dedicated itself to nursing the wounded officers, that it has gathered
-in, nevertheless I succeed by Sunday morning in collecting a certain
-number of women of the people, who assist, as best they can, in the
-efforts made to help so many thousands of wounded men who are without
-succor. Food must be given, and above all, drink, to the men who
-literally are dying from hunger and thirst. Wounds must be bandaged,
-blood-stained bodies, covered all over with dirt and vermin, must be
-washed, and all this must be done in the extremely hot weather, in the
-midst of the suffocating, nauseating stench, and of groans and cries of
-pain.
-
-Nevertheless, a little group of volunteers is formed. I organize, well
-as I can, aid in the section which seems to be the most without care,
-and I choose one of the churches of Castiglione, called Chiesa Maggiore.
-
-Nearly five hundred soldiers are crowded together on the straw, about
-one hundred others, suffering and groaning, are lying in the public
-park before the church.
-
-In the church the women of Lombardy go from one to the other with
-jars and pitchers full of clear water, which serves to appease the
-thirst and to bathe the wounds. Some of these improvised nurses
-are good-hearted old women, others are charming young girls. Their
-gentleness, goodness, compassion, and their attentive care restores a
-little courage to the wounded.
-
-The boys of the neighborhood come and go between the church and the
-nearby springs with buckets, pitchers and jars.
-
-The distribution of water is followed by that of bouillon and soup, of
-which the servants of the Commissary Department are obliged to cook a
-marvelous quantity.
-
-Thick bundles of lint are placed here and there. Everyone can use it
-freely; but bandages, linen and shirts are lacking, and one can hardly
-procure the most necessary articles. I purchase, however, some new
-shirts by the aid of those kind-hearted women who have already given
-all their old linen; and, on Monday, early in the morning, I send my
-coachman to Brescia to bring back supplies. He returns after some hours
-with his cabriolet loaded with sponges, linen, pins, cigars, tobacco,
-camomile, mallow, sambuca, oranges, sugar and lemons.
-
-This makes it possible to give refreshing lemonade, wash the wounds
-with mallow-water, put on warm compresses and renew the material of the
-bandages.
-
-In the meantime we have gained some recruits, who help us. The first
-is an old naval officer, then some English tourists, who, desiring to
-see everything, have entered the church, and whom we keep almost by
-force. Two other Englishmen, on the contrary, show themselves desirous
-to help. They distribute cigars to the Austrians. An Italian priest,
-three or four travelers, a Swiss merchant from Neuchatel, a Parisian
-journalist, who afterwards takes charge of the relief in the adjacent
-church, and some officers whose company has received orders to remain
-in Castiglione, also aid us.
-
-But soon some of those voluntary nurses go away, not being able to bear
-the sight of this suffering. The priest follows their example, but he
-reappears, however, with delicate kindness to make us smell aromatic
-herbs and bottles of salts. A tourist, oppressed at the sight of these
-living debris, swooned from emotion. The merchant from Neuchatel
-perseveres for two days, bandaging wounds and writing for the dying
-letters of farewell to their families. We are obliged to quiet the
-compassionate excitement of a Belgian, fearing that he will have an
-attack of burning fever.
-
-Some men of the detachment, left to garrison the city, try to help
-their comrades, but cannot endure the sight which breaks down their
-courage, striking too keenly upon their imagination. Nevertheless, a
-corporal of the engineer corps, wounded at Magenta, almost restored to
-health and about to return to his battalion, but whose orders leave him
-a few days of liberty, aids us with courage and perseverance.
-
-The French Commissary, remaining in Castiglione, finally grants, on my
-insistence, authority to utilize for service in the hospitals, some
-healthy prisoners, and three or four Austrian physicians who aid the
-efforts of the few surgeons left in Castiglione.
-
-A German physician remaining voluntarily on the battle-field to care
-for the soldiers, dedicates himself to the injured of both armies.
-After three days the Commissary sends him back to Mantua to rejoin his
-compatriots.
-
-"Do not leave me to die," exclaim some of these agonized men seizing my
-hand in despair, but their death is not long delayed.
-
-"Ah, sir, if you would write to my father, that he might console my
-poor mother!" said to me, with tears in his eyes, a corporal named
-Mazuet, scarcely twenty years old. I noted down the address of his
-parents and a few minutes later he had ceased to live. The parents, who
-dwelt on rue d'Alger, in Lyons, and of whom this young man, enlisted
-as a volunteer, was the only son, received no other information about
-their child than that which I sent to them. He very probably, like so
-many others, has been enscribed, "disappeared."
-
-An old sergeant, decorated with many chevrons, repeated with profound
-melancholy and an air of conviction full of bitterness: "If someone had
-cared for me sooner, I should have lived, whereas, this evening I will
-die." That evening he died.
-
-"I do not want to die! I do not want to die!" cries, with savage
-energy, a grenadier of the guard, full of strength and health three
-days before, but who, mortally wounded, and feeling sure that his
-minutes are irrevocably numbered, fights against this dark certainty. I
-talk to him, he listens to me, and this man, calmed, soothed, consoled,
-finally resigns himself to die with the simplicity of a child.
-
-In the back of the church, on the steps of an altar, a Chasseur
-d'Afrique lies on straw. Three balls have struck him, one on the right
-side, one on the left shoulder, the third remained in the right leg. It
-is Sunday, and he asserts that he has eaten nothing since Friday. He is
-covered with dried mud flecked with blood, his clothing is torn; his
-shirt is in tatters. After I had washed his wounds, given him a little
-bouillon and wrapped him in covers, he put my hand to his lips with an
-expression of unspeakable gratitude. Later we were able to send him to
-a better hospital.
-
-At the entrance of the church is a Hungarian who cries unceasingly,
-calling in heartrending tones for a physician. His back and his
-shoulders, ploughed with grapeshot, appear as if torn by iron hooks and
-are one mass of quivering, raw flesh. The rest of his body is swollen,
-green and black--horrible. He can neither lie down nor sit up. I dip
-some packages of lint in cool water and try to make a cushion for him,
-but gangrene soon carries him off.
-
-A little further on lies a dying Zouave who is weeping bitter tears,
-and we console him as if he were a little child. The preceding fatigue,
-the lack of food and repose, the intensity of the pain, the fear of
-dying without help, excites even in these brave soldiers a nervous
-sensibility which betrays itself by sobs. One of their chief thoughts,
-when they are not suffering too cruelly, is the memory of their mother,
-and the fear of the grief she will experience on learning of their
-fate. On the corpse of a soldier we found, hanging from his neck, a
-medallion containing the portrait of an aged woman, without doubt his
-mother, which with his left hand he was pressing on his heart.
-
-In the part nearest the great door of the church Maggiore lie, now, on
-straw, enveloped in covers, about a hundred French non-commissioned
-officers and soldiers. They are ranged in two nearly parallel ranks,
-between which one can pass. Their wounds have been dressed. The
-distribution of soup has taken place. They are quiet. They follow me
-with their eyes; all heads turn to the left if I go to the left, to
-the right when I go to the right. Sincere thanks are visible on their
-astonished faces. "One can easily see that he is a Parisian," say some.
-"No," retort others, "he seems to be a Southerner." "Truly, sir, are
-you not from Bordeaux?" asks a third, and each wishes that I might
-be from his city or province. I met afterwards some of these wounded
-men, who had become crippled invalids. Recognizing me, they stopped
-to express their gratitude because I had nursed them in Castiglione.
-"We called you 'the gentleman in white,'" said one, in his picturesque
-language, "for you were always dressed entirely in white. It is true
-the weather did not fail to be hot."
-
-The resignation of the poor soldiers was often touching; they suffered
-without complaint, they died humbly and silently.
-
-On the other side of the church, some wounded Austrian prisoners
-fear to receive care which they distrust. They angrily tear off
-their bandages, opening their bleeding wounds. Others remain silent,
-dejected, impassive. But the greater number are far from being
-insensible to kindness and their faces express their thanks. One of
-them, about nineteen years of age, who with forty of his compatriots is
-pushed into the deep recesses of the church, has been without food for
-two days. He has lost one eye, he trembles with fever, he is scarcely
-able to speak or to drink a little bouillon. Our nursing revives him;
-twenty-four hours later when we are able to send him to Brescia, he
-leaves us with sorrow, almost with despair, pressing to his lips the
-hands of the good-hearted women of Castiglione, whom he entreats not to
-abandon him.
-
-Another prisoner, a prey to a burning fever, draws attention to
-himself. He is not yet twenty years of age and his hair is already
-perfectly white; it became white during the battle, as his wounded
-comrades near whom he lies assure us.
-
-The women of Castiglione, seeing that I make no distinction in
-nationality, imitate my example, showing the same kindness to all these
-men of such different origin and who are to them all equally strangers.
-"Tutti Fratelli," they repeat with compassion. "All are brothers."
-
-Honor to these compassionate women, to these young girls of
-Castiglione! As devoted as they are modest, they give way neither
-before fatigue, nor disgust, nor sacrifice; nothing repels, wearies or
-disheartens them.
-
-For the soldier recommencing the everyday life of the campaign, after
-the fatigue and emotions of a battle like that of Solferino, the
-memories of his family become more strong than ever. That mental state
-is vividly described by the following lines from an officer writing
-from Volta to his brother in France:
-
-"You cannot imagine how the soldiers are moved when they catch sight
-of the baggage-master who distributes the letters to the army; because
-he brings to us, understand, news from France, from our native land,
-from our parents, from our friends. Each one listens, watches, and
-stretches to him eager hands. The happy men, who receive a letter--open
-it hurriedly and devour it immediately; the rest, deprived of this
-happiness, depart with heavy heart and isolate themselves in order to
-think about those so far away.
-
-"Sometimes a name is called to which there is no response. The men
-glance at each other, they question among themselves, they wait.
-'Dead,' murmurs a voice, and the baggage-master files the letter away
-and returns it unopened to the writer. They had rejoiced when they sent
-it, and had said to one another. 'He will be happy to receive it!' When
-they see it returned, their poor hearts will break."
-
-The streets of Castiglione are quieter; the deaths and the departures
-have left vacancies.
-
-In spite of the arrival of new wagons full of wounded, order, little by
-little, is established and regular attendance commences.
-
-The convoys from Castiglione to Brescia are more frequent. They consist
-principally of hospital wagons and heavy carts which, constantly
-carrying, to the French Commissary Department, gun supplies, and
-provisions, go back empty to Brescia.
-
-They are drawn by oxen, walking slowly under the fierce sun and through
-the thick dust in which the pedestrian sinks to his ankles. These
-uncomfortable wagons are covered with branches of trees which very
-imperfectly protect from the rays of the coming sun. The wounded, piled
-up, one may say, one upon another. It is difficult to imagine the
-torments of this long ride.
-
-In these wagons some groan, others call for their mother; there are the
-ravings and delirium of fever, sometimes curses and blasphemies.
-
-The least interest shown to these unhappy men, a kind salutation, gives
-them pleasure and they return it at once with expressions of gratitude.
-
-In all the villages along the road leading to Brescia, the women
-sitting before their doors, silently prepare lint. The Communal
-authorities have had prepared, drinks, bread and nourishment. When a
-convoy arrives the women of the village go to the wagons, wash the
-wounds, renew the lint compresses, which they moisten with fresh water.
-They pour spoonfuls of bouillon, wine or lemonade in the mouths of
-those who have not the strength to raise their heads or extend their
-arms.
-
-In Montechiaro, three small hospitals are under the care of the women
-of the people, who nurse with as much wisdom as kindheartedness. In
-Guidizzolo, about one thousand invalids are placed in a large castle.
-In Volta, some hundreds of Austrians are received in an old monastery
-which has been transformed into barracks. In Cavriana, they establish
-in the church a number of Hungarians who had been forty-eight hours
-without help. In the field-hospital of the headquarters, chloroform is
-used in operating; this produces, in the Austrians, almost immediate
-insensibility, and in the French nervous contractions, accompanied by
-exaltation before unconsciousness results.
-
-The people of Cavriana are entirely without provisions; the soldiers of
-the guard feed them by sharing with them their rations and their mess;
-the country has been laid waste, and almost everything edible, cattle,
-garden produce, etc., has been sold to the Austrian troops. The French
-army has campaign food in abundance, but only with difficulty can it
-procure the butter, meat and vegetables necessary for the ordinary food
-of soldiers.
-
-The wounded of the Sardinian army, who have been transported to
-Desenzano, Rivoltella, Lonato, and Pozzolenzo, are in conditions less
-disadvantageous than the French and Austrians temporarily established
-in Castiglione--Desenzano and Rivoltella not having been occupied
-at a few days interval by two different armies. Food is still to be
-found there; the hospitals are better kept and the inhabitants, less
-troubled, actively support the nursing service. The sick are sent
-to Brescia in good carts provided with thick beds of hay. They are
-protected from the sun by arches of interlaced foliage which support a
-strong linen cover.
-
-The feeling that one has of his own insufficiency in such solemn
-circumstances, is an inexpressible suffering. It is extremely painful
-to feel that you cannot help all those who lie before you, because of
-their great number, or aid those who appeal to you with supplications.
-Long hours pass before you reach the most unfortunate. You are stopped
-by one, petitioned by another, all equally worthy of pity. Embarrassed
-at each step by the multitude of miserable sufferers who press about
-you, who surround you, who beg support and help. Then, why turn to the
-left, while on the right are so many men who will soon die without a
-word of consolation, without even a single glass of water to appease
-their burning thirst? The thought of the importance of one human life
-that one might be able to save; the desire to alleviate the tortures
-of so many unfortunate and to restore their courage, the forced and
-unceasing activity which one imposes on himself in such moments,
-gives a supreme energy, a thirst to carry help to the greatest number
-possible. One becomes no longer moved by the thousand scenes of this
-terrible tragedy, one passes, with indifference, before the most
-hideously disfigured corpses and glances almost coldly at sights, so
-much more horrible than those already described, that the pen refuses
-absolutely to depict them; but it happens, sometimes, that the heart
-suddenly breaks, struck all at once by a poignant sadness at the sight
-of a single incident, an isolated fact, an unexpected detail, which
-goes directly to the soul, draws out our sympathy, moves the most
-impressionable cords of our being and brings a realization of the whole
-horror of this tragedy.
-
-Worn out with fatigue, but unable to sleep, I have my little carriage
-harnessed on the afternoon of Monday, the twenty-seventh, and go away
-about 6 o'clock to breathe in the open air the freshness of the evening
-and to find a little repose by escaping, for a moment, from the dismal
-sights which surround me on every side in Castiglione.
-
-It was a favorable time, for no movement of the troops had been
-ordered during the day.
-
-Calm had succeeded the terrible agitation of the previous days.
-Here and there are visible pools of dried blood which redden the
-battle-field. One meets newly turned earth, white with freshly
-strewn lime, indicating the place where repose the victims of the
-twenty-fourth.
-
-At Solferino, whose square tower has proudly dominated for some
-centuries that country, where for the third time have just met two of
-the greatest powers of modern days, one still picks up much debris
-which covers, even in the cemeteries, the crosses and the bloody stones
-of the tombs. The ground is strewn with swords, guns, haversacks,
-cartridge boxes, tin boxes, shakos, helmets and belts. Almost
-everything is twisted, torn and broken.
-
-I arrive at Cavriana at about 9 o'clock in the evening.
-
-The train of war surrounding the headquarters of the Emperor of France
-is an imposing sight.
-
-I seek the Marshal, Duke of Magenta, with whom I am personally
-acquainted.
-
-Not knowing exactly where his army corps is encamped, I stop my little
-carriage on the park opposite the house occupied, since Friday
-evening, by the Emperor Napoleon. I find myself suddenly in the midst
-of a group of generals, sitting on straw chairs and wooden stools,
-smoking their cigars and inhaling the fresh air before the improvised
-palace of the Sovereign.
-
-While I inquire about the location of Marshal MacMahon, several
-generals, very suspicious of my arrival, question the corporal, wounded
-at Magenta, who begged permission to accompany me on this excursion
-through the armies as his rank would ensure me safe conduct. Sitting
-beside the coachman, he gives me, in a certain degree, official
-character. The generals desire to know who I am and to discover the
-object of the mission with which they suppose I am charged, for they
-cannot imagine that a simple traveler would dare to risk himself alone
-in the midst of the camps at such a time.
-
-The corporal, who knows nothing, remains impenetrable, while he replies
-respectfully to their questions. Their curiosity increases considerably
-when they see me leave for Borghetto where the Duke of Magenta is.
-
-The second corps, commanded by the Marshal, has been moved from
-Cavriana to Castellaro, which is at a distance of five kilometers;
-its divisions are encamped on the right and left of the road leading
-from Castellaro to Monzambano. The Marshal, himself, with his staff,
-occupies Borghetto.
-
-Although the night has arrived, we continue our way. The fires of the
-bivouac, fed by whole trees, and the lighted tents of the officers,
-present a picturesque appearance. The last murmurings of a sleeping,
-yet watchful, camp soothes a little my excited imagination. Under this
-beautiful star-lit sky, a solemn silence at last takes the place of the
-noises and emotions of the preceding days. I breathe with delight the
-pure sweet air of a splendid Italian night.
-
-Having obtained only incomplete information, we mistake our way and
-follow a road leading to Volta. We are about to fall into the army
-corps of General Neil, made Marshal three days before, which is
-encamped on the outskirts of the town.
-
-My Italian coachman is so frightened at the idea of being very near the
-Austrian lines that, more than once, I am obliged to take the reins
-from his hands and give them to the corporal seated beside him on the
-box. The poor man had run away from Mantua several days before to save
-himself from the Austrian service, taking refuge in Brescia, he hired
-out as a coachman. His fears grow greater on hearing the discharge of a
-distant gun, fired by someone who disappears in the underbrush. After
-the retreat of the Austrian army, many of the deserters hid themselves
-in the cellars of the houses of the villages, abandoned by their owners
-and partially plundered. In order not to be captured, they, at first,
-ate and drank in those underground retreats, then, being at the end of
-their resources and pressed by hunger, but well armed, they ventured
-out at night.
-
-The unhappy and terrified Mantuan can no longer guide his horse. He
-constantly turns his head, he casts affrighted glances at all the
-thickets along the road, at all the hedges and hovels, fearing, any
-moment, to see emerge some hidden Austrians.
-
-His fears increase at every turn of the road and he almost swoons,
-when, in the silence of the night we are surprised with a shot from a
-guard, whom we do not see on account of the darkness. His terror knows
-no limit when we almost collide with a large, wide open umbrella which
-we vaguely catch sight of at the side of the road near a path leading
-to Volta. That poor umbrella, riddled with bullets and balls was,
-probably, a part of the baggage of some canteen-woman who had lost it
-during the storm of the twenty-fourth.
-
-We were retracing the road to reach Borghetto. It was after 11 o'clock.
-We were making the horse gallop and our modest vehicle rolled across
-the space, almost without noise, on to the Strato Cavallara, when cries
-of "Who goes there? Who goes there? Who goes there? or I fire," came
-like a bolt from the mouth of an invisible sentinel. "France," replies
-immediately a loud voice, which adds, in giving his rank: "Corporal
-in the First Engineer Corps, Company Seventh." "Go on," is the reply.
-Without this presence of mind of the corporal we would have received a
-shot almost in the face.
-
-Finally, at a quarter before twelve we reach, without other adventure,
-the first houses of Borghetto.
-
-All is dark and silent. However, a light shines on the ground floor
-of a house on the principal street, where are at work in a low room
-the accounting officers. Although embarrassed in their work and very
-much astonished at our appearance at such an hour, they treat us very
-kindly. A paymaster, Signor Outrey, gives me a cordial invitation to
-be his guest. His orderly brings a mattress on which I throw myself,
-completely dressed, to rest for several hours, after drinking some
-excellent bouillon, which seems to me the more delicious as I am
-hungry and for several days have eaten nothing even passable. I can
-sleep quietly, not being, as in Castiglione, suffocated with fetid
-exhalations and tormented with the flies, which though satiated with
-corpses, attack also the living.
-
-The corporal and the driver settled themselves simply in the carriage,
-remaining in the street, but the unfortunate Mantuan, always in great
-terror, could not shut his eyes during the whole night and the next day
-he was more dead than alive.
-
-Tuesday, the twenty-eighth, at six in the morning I was received
-most kindly by Marshal MacMahon. At ten o'clock I was on the way to
-Cavriana. Soon after I entered the modest house, since historic, for
-there was lodged the Emperor Napoleon.
-
-At three o'clock in the afternoon I found myself once more in the midst
-of the wounded of Castiglione, who expressed their joy at seeing me
-again.
-
-The thirtieth of June I was in Brescia.
-
-This city, so charming and picturesque, is transformed, not into a
-large temporary shelter for the wounded like Castiglione, but into
-a vast hospital. Its two cathedrals, its palaces, its churches, its
-monasteries, its colleges, its barracks, in a word all its buildings
-receive the victims of Solferino.
-
-Fifteen thousand beds, of some sort, have been improvised in
-forty-eight hours. The inhabitants have done more than was ever done
-before under similar circumstances.
-
-In the centre of the city the old basilica, "il Duomo recchio,"
-contains a thousand wounded. The people come to them in crowds, women
-of every class bring them quantities of oranges, jellies, biscuits and
-delicacies. The humblest widow or the poorest little old woman believes
-that she must present her tribute of sympathy and her modest offering.
-
-Similar scenes occur in the new cathedral, a magnificent temple of
-white marble, where the wounded are taken by the hundreds. It is the
-same in forty other buildings, churches or hospitals which contain
-nearly twenty thousand wounded.
-
-The municipality of Brescia understood the extraordinary duty imposed
-upon it by such grave circumstances. With a permanent existence it
-associates with itself the best men of the town, who bring to it eager
-co-operation.
-
-In opening a monastery, a school, a church, the municipality created,
-in a few hours, as if by magic, hospitals with hundreds of beds, vast
-kitchens, improvised laundries for linen and everything that would be
-necessary.
-
-These measures were taken with so much courage that, after a few days,
-one was able to admire the good order and regular management of these
-hurriedly arranged hospitals. The population of Brescia, which was
-forty thousand, was suddenly almost doubled by the great number of
-wounded and sick. The physicians, numbering one hundred and forty,
-displayed great self-devotion during the whole duration of their
-fatiguing service. They were helped by the medical students and some
-volunteers. Aid committees being organized, a special commission was
-appointed to receive donations of bedding, linen and provisions of all
-kinds; another commission administered the depot or central store house.
-
-In the large rooms of the hospitals, the officers are ordinarily
-separated from the soldiers. The Austrians are not mixed with the
-allies. The series of beds are all alike, on the shelf above the bed of
-each soldier, his uniform and military cap indicate to which branch of
-the service he belongs.
-
-They have commenced to refuse permission for the crowd to enter, it
-embarrasses and hinders the nurses.
-
-At the side of soldiers, with resigned faces, are others who murmur
-and complain. The idea of an amputation scarcely frightens the French
-soldier, because of his careless nature, but he is impatient and
-irritable; the Austrian, of a less thoughtless disposition, is more
-inclined to be melancholy in his isolation.
-
-I find in these hospital wards some of our wounded from Castiglione.
-They are better cared for now, but their torments are not ended.
-
-Here, is one of the heroes of the Imperial Flying Guard, wounded at
-Solferino. Shot in the leg, he passed several days at Castiglione,
-where I dressed his wounds for the first time. He is stretched on a
-straw mattress; the expression of his face denotes profound suffering;
-his eyes are hollow and shining; his great pallor gives evidence that
-purulent fever has set in to complicate and increase the gravity of his
-condition; his lips are dry; his voice trembles; the assurance of the
-brave man has given place to fear and timidity; care even unnerves him;
-he is afraid to have any one approach his poor injured leg which the
-gangrene has already attacked.
-
-A French surgeon, who makes the amputations, passes by his bed; the
-sick man, whose touch is like burning iron, seizes his hand and presses
-it in his own.
-
-"Do not hurt me! My suffering is terrible!" he cries.
-
-But one must act, and without delay. Twenty other wounded must be
-operated on during the same morning, and one hundred and fifty are
-waiting for bandages. One has not time to pity a single case nor to
-await the end of his hesitation. The surgeon, cool and resolute,
-replies: "Let me do it." Then he rapidly lifts the covering. The broken
-leg is swollen double its natural size; from three places flows a
-quantity of fetid pus, purple stains prove that as an artery has been
-broken, the sole remedy, if there is one, is amputation.
-
-Amputation! Terrible word for this poor young man, who sees before him
-no other alternative than an immediate death or the miserable life of a
-cripple.
-
-He has no time to prepare himself for the last decision, and trembling
-with anguish, he cries out in despair: "Oh! What are you going to do?"
-The surgeon does not reply. "Nurse, carry him away, make haste!" he
-says. But a heartrending cry bursts from that panting breast; the
-unskilled nurse has seized the motionless, yet sensitive, leg much too
-near the wound; the broken bones penetrating the flesh, has caused new
-torments to the soldier whose hanging leg shakes with the jolts of the
-transportation to the operating room.
-
-Fearful procession! It seems as if one were leading a victim to death.
-
-He lies finally on the operating table. Nearby, on another table, a
-linen covers the instruments. The surgeon, occupied with his work,
-hears and sees only his operation. A young army doctor holds the arms
-of the patient, while the nurse seizes the healthy leg and draws the
-invalid to the edge of the table. At this the frightened man shrieks:
-"Do not let me fall!" and he seizes convulsively in his arms the young
-physician, ready to support him and who pale from emotion is himself
-almost equally distressed.
-
-The operator, one knee on the floor and his hand armed with the
-terrible knife, places his arm about the gangrenous limb and cuts
-the skin all around. A piercing cry sounds through the hospital. The
-young physician, face to face, with the tormented man can see on his
-contracted features every detail of his atrocious agony.
-
-"Courage," he says, in a low tone to the soldier, whose hands he feels
-gripping his back, "two minutes more and you will be saved."
-
-The doctor stands up again; he separates the skin from the muscles
-which it covers, leaving them bare; as he draws back the skin he cuts
-away the flesh, then returning to the attack, with a vigorous turn, he
-cuts away every muscle to the bone; a torrent of blood gushes out of
-the arteries, just opened, covering the operator and flowing down on to
-the floor.
-
-Calm and expressionless, the rough operator does not speak a word; but,
-suddenly, in the midst of the silence reigning in the room, he turns
-in anger to the awkward nurse, reproaching him for not knowing how to
-press on the arteries. This latter, inexperienced, did not know how to
-prevent the hemorrhage by applying his thumb properly on the bleeding
-arteries.
-
-The wounded man, overcome by suffering, articulates feebly, "Oh! it is
-enough, let me die!" and a cold sweat runs down his face.
-
-But he must bear it still another minute,--a minute which seems an
-eternity.
-
-The young physician, ever full of sympathy, counts the seconds as he
-watches sometimes the operating surgeon, sometimes the patient, whose
-courage he tries to sustain, saying to him: "Only one minute more!"
-
-Indeed, the moment for the saw has come and already one hears the
-grinding of the steel as it penetrates the living bone, separating from
-the body the member half gangrenous.
-
-But the pain has been too great for that weak, exhausted body; the
-groans have ceased, for the sick man has swooned. The surgeon, who is
-no longer guided by his cries and his groans, fearing that this silence
-may be that of death, looks at him uneasily to assure himself that he
-has not expired.
-
-The restoratives, held in reserve, succeed, with difficulty, in
-reviving his dull, half-closed, vacant eyes. The dying man, however,
-seems to return to life, he is weak and shattered, but at least his
-greatest sufferings are over.
-
-Imagine such an operation on an Austrian, understanding neither
-Italian nor French and letting himself be led like a sheep or an ox to
-slaughter without being able to exchange one word with his well-meaning
-tormentors! The French meet everywhere with sympathy; they are
-flattered, pampered, encouraged; when one speaks to them about the
-battle of Solferino, they brighten up and discuss it: That memory, full
-of glory for them; drawing their thoughts elsewhere than on themselves,
-lessens a little their unhappiness. But the Austrians have not this
-good fortune. In the hospitals where they are crowded, I insist upon
-seeing them and almost by force enter their rooms. With what gratitude
-these good men welcome my words of consolation and the gift of a little
-tobacco! On their resigned faces is depicted a lively gratitude, which
-they do not know how to express. Their looks tell more than any word of
-thanks.
-
-Some of them possess two or three paper florins, a small fortune for
-them, but they cannot change this modest value for coins.
-
-The officers particularly show hearty appreciation of the attentions
-bestowed upon them. In the hospital where he is lodged, Prince von
-Isenburg occupies with another German prince, a comfortable little room.
-
-During several successive days I distribute, without distinction of
-nationality, tobacco, pipes and cigars in the churches and hospitals
-where the odor of the tobacco lessens a little the nauseous stench
-produced by the crowding of so many patients in suffocating places.
-Besides that, it is a distraction, a means of dispelling the fears of
-the wounded before the amputation of a member; not a few are operated
-on with a pipe in the mouth, and some die smoking.
-
-Finally all the supply of tobacco in Brescia is exhausted. It must be
-brought from Milan.
-
-An eminent inhabitant of Brescia, Signor Carlo Borghetti, takes me in
-his carriage, from hospital to hospital. He helps me to distribute my
-modest gifts of tobacco, arranged by the merchants in thousands of
-little bags that are carried by willing soldiers in very large baskets.
-
-Everywhere I am well received. Only a doctor of Lombardy, named Calini,
-will not allow the distribution of cigars in the hospital San Luca,
-which is confided to his care. In other places the physicians, on the
-contrary, show themselves almost as grateful as their patients. But
-wishing to try once more at San Luca, I visit again that hospital and
-succeed in making a large distribution of cigars, to the great joy
-the poor wounded, whom I had innocently made suffer the torments of
-Tantalus.
-
-During the course of my investigations I penetrate into a series
-of rooms forming the second floor of a large monastery, a kind of
-labyrinth of which the ground and the first floors are full of the
-sick. I find in one of the upper rooms four or five wounded and
-feverish patients, in another ten or fifteen, in a third about twenty,
-all neglected (this is very excusable; there were so many wounded,
-everywhere), complaining bitterly of not having seen a nurse for
-several hours and begging insistently that someone bring them bouillon
-in place of cold water which they have for their only drink. At the
-end of an interminable corridor, in a little isolated room, is dying
-absolutely alone, motionless on a mattress, a young corporal attacked
-with tetanus. Although he seems full of life as his eyes are wide open,
-he hears and understands nothing and remains neglected.
-
-Many of the soldiers beg me to write to their relatives, some to their
-captains, who replace in their eyes their absent families.
-
-In the hospital of Saint Clement, a lady of Brescia, Countess Bronna,
-occupies herself, with saintly self-abnegation, in nursing those
-who have had limbs amputated. The French soldiers speak of her with
-enthusiasm, the most repellant details do not stop her. "Sono madre!"
-she says to me with simplicity: "I am a mother!" These words well
-express her devotion as complete as motherly.
-
-In the hospital San Gaetano, a Franciscan monk, distinguishes himself
-by his zeal and kindness to the sick. A convalescent Piedmontese,
-speaking French and Italian, translates the petitions of the French
-soldiers to the Lombardy physicians. They keep him as interpreter.
-
-In a neighboring hospital chloroform is used. Some patients are
-chloroformed with difficulty, accidents result and sometimes it is
-in vain that they try to revive a man who a few minutes before was
-speaking.
-
-I am stopped many times on the street by kind people who beg me to come
-to their homes, for a minute, to act as interpreter to the wounded
-French officers, lodged in their houses, surrounded by the best care,
-but whose language they do not understand. The invalids, excited and
-uneasy, are irritated at not being understood, to the great distress of
-the family whose sympathetic kindness is received with the bad humour
-that fever and suffering often call forth. One of them, whom an Italian
-physician desires to bleed, imagining that they wish to amputate him,
-resists with all his strength, overheating himself and doing himself
-much harm. A few words of explanation in their mother tongue, in the
-midst of this lamentable confusion, alone succeed in calming and
-tranquilizing these invalids of Solferino.
-
-With what patience the inhabitants of Brescia devote themselves to
-these who have sacrificed themselves in order to deliver them from a
-foreign rule! They feel a real grief when their charge dies. These
-adopted families religiously follow to the cemetery, accompanying to
-its last resting place, the coffin of the French officer, their guest
-of a few days, for whom they weep as for a friend, a relative or a son,
-but whose name, perhaps, they do not know.
-
-During the night the soldiers, who have died in the hospitals, are
-interred. Their names and numbers are noted down, which was rarely done
-in Castiglione. For example, the parents of Corporal Mazuet, aided by
-me in the Chiesa Maggiore and who lived in Lyons, 3 Rue d'Alger, never
-received other information about their son than that which I sent them.
-
-All the cities of Lombardy considered it due to their honor to share in
-the distribution of the wounded.
-
-In Bergamo and Cremona special commisions organized in haste are aided
-by auxiliary committees of devoted ladies. In one of the hospitals of
-Cremona an Italian physician having said: "We keep the good things
-for our friends of the allied army, but we give to our enemies only
-what is absolutely necessary, and if they die, so much the worse for
-them!" A lady, directing one of the hospitals of that city, hastened
-to disapprove of these barbarous words, saying that she always took
-the same care of Austrians, French and Sardinians, not wishing to make
-any difference between friends and enemies, "for," she said, "Our Lord
-Jesus Christ made no distinction between men when it was a question of
-doing them good."
-
-In Cremona, as everywhere else, the French physicians regret their
-insufficient number. "I cannot, without profound sorrow," said Dr.
-Sonrier, "think of a small room of twenty-five beds assigned, in
-Cremona, to the most dangerously wounded Austrians. I see again their
-faces, emaciated and wan, with complexion pallid from exhaustion and
-blood poisoning, begging with heartrending gestures, accompanied by
-pitiful cries, for one last favor, the amputation of a limb (which they
-had hoped to save), to end an intolerable agony of which we are forced
-to remain powerless spectators."
-
-Besides the group of courageous and indefatigable surgeons, whose names
-I would like to be able to cite (for, certainly, if to kill men is a
-title to glory, to nurse them and cure them, often at the risk of one's
-own life, merits indeed esteem and gratitude), medical students hasten
-from Bologna, Pisa and other Italian cities. A Canadian surgeon, Dr.
-Norman Bettun, professor of anatomy in Toronto, comes to assist these
-devoted men. Besides the people of Lombardy, French, Swiss and Belgian
-tourists seek to render themselves useful, but their efforts had to
-be limited to the distribution of oranges, ices, coffee, lemonade and
-tobacco.
-
-In Plaisance, whose three hospitals are administered by private
-individuals, and by ladies serving as nurses, one of these last, a
-young lady, supplicated by her family to renounce her intention to pass
-her days in the hospital, on account of the contagious fevers there,
-continued her labors so willingly and with such kindness that she was
-greatly esteemed by all the soldiers. "She enlivens the hospital," they
-said.
-
-How valuable, in the cities of Lombardy, would have been some hundreds
-of voluntary nurses, devoted, experienced and, above all, previously
-instructed! They would have rallied around themselves the meagre band
-of assistants and the scattered forces. Not only was time lacking to
-those who were capable of counselling and guiding; but the necessary
-knowledge and experience was not possessed by the greater number of
-those who could offer only personal devotion, which was insufficient
-and often useless. What, indeed, in spite of their good will, could
-a handful of persons do in such urgent need? After some weeks the
-compassionate enthusiasm began to cool and the people, as inexperienced
-as they were injudicious in their kindness, sometimes brought improper
-food to the wounded, so that it was necessary to deny them entrance to
-the churches and hospitals.
-
-Many persons, who would have consented to pass one or two hours
-a day with the sick, gave up their intention, because a special
-permission was necessary, which could only be obtained by petitioning
-the authorities. Strangers disposed to help met with all kinds of
-unexpected hindrances, of a nature to discourage them. But voluntary
-hospital workers, well chosen and capable, sent by societies with the
-sanction of the governments and respected because of an agreement
-between the belligerents, would have surmounted the difficulties and
-done incomparably more good.
-
-During the first eight days after the battle the wounded, of whom the
-physicians said, in low tones, when passing by their beds and shaking
-their heads: "There is nothing more to be done," received no more
-attention and died neglected. And is not this very natural when the
-scarcity of the nurses is compared with the enormous number of the
-wounded? An inexorable and cruel logic insists that these unfortunate
-men should be left to perish without further care and without having
-given to them the precious time that must be reserved for the soldiers
-who could be cured. They were numerous, however, and not deaf, those
-unfortunate men on whom was passed such pitiless judgment! Soon they
-perceive their deserted condition and with a broken and embittered
-heart gasp out the last breath while no one notices.
-
-The death of many a one among them is rendered more sad and bitter
-by the proximity, on a cot by his side, of a young soldier, slightly
-wounded, whose foolish jokes leave him neither peace nor tranquillity.
-On the other side, one of his companions in misery has just died; and,
-he dying, must see and hear the funeral ceremony, much too rapidly
-performed, which shows him in advance his own. Finally, about to die,
-he sees men, profiting by his weakness, search his knapsack and steal
-what they desire.
-
-For that dying man there have been, lying in the postoffice for eight
-days, letters from his family; if he could have had them, they would
-have been to him a great consolation; he has entreated the nurses to
-bring them that he may read them before his last hour, but they replied
-unkindly, that they had not time as there was so much else to do.
-
-Better would it have been for you, poor martyr, if you had perished,
-struck dead on the field of butchery, in the midst of the splendid
-abomination which men call "Glory!" Your name, at least, would not have
-been forgotten, if you had fallen near your colonel defending the flag
-of your regiment. It would almost have been better for you had you been
-buried alive by the peasants commissioned for that purpose, when you,
-unconscious, were carried from the hill of the Cypresses, from the foot
-of the tower of Solferino or from the plains of Medole. Your agony
-would not have been long. Now, it is a succession of miseries that you
-must endure, it is no longer the field of honor that is presented to
-you, but cold death with all its terrors, and the word "disappeared"
-for a funeral oration.
-
-What has become of the love of glory which electrified this brave
-soldier at the commencement of the campaign and during that day at
-Solferino, when, risking his own life, he so courageously attempted to
-take the lives of his fellow-creatures, whose blood he ran, with such
-light feet, to shed? Where is the irresistible allurement? Where the
-contagious enthusiasm, increased by the odor of powder, by the flourish
-of trumpets and by the sound of military music, by the noise of cannon
-and the whistling of bullets which hide the view of danger, suffering
-and death.
-
-In these many hospitals of Lombardy may be seen at what price is bought
-that which men so proudly call "Glory," and how dearly this glory costs.
-
-The battle of Solferino is the only one during our century to be
-compared by the magnitude of its losses with the battles of Moscow,
-Leipzig and Waterloo.
-
-As a consequence of the twenty-fourth of June, 1859, it has been
-calculated that there were in killed and wounded, in the Austrian and
-Franco-Sardinian Armies, three field-marshals, nine generals, fifteen
-hundred and sixty-six officers of all grades, of whom six hundred and
-thirty were Austrians and nine hundred and thirty-six allies, and about
-forty thousand soldiers and non-commissioned officers.
-
-Besides that, from the fifteenth of June to the thirty-first of August,
-there were in the hospitals of Brescia, according to the official
-statistics, nineteen thousand six hundred and sixty-five patients with
-fever and other illnesses, of whom more than nineteen thousand belonged
-to the Franco-Sardinian Army.
-
-On their side, the Austrians had at least twenty thousand sick soldiers
-in Venice, beside ten thousand wounded, who, after Solferino, were sent
-to Verona, where the overcrowded hospitals were finally attacked by
-gangrene and typhus fever.
-
-Consequently, to the forty thousand killed and wounded on the
-twenty-fourth of June, must be added more than forty thousand sick with
-fever or dying from illness caused by the excessive fatigue experienced
-on the day of the battle or during the days which preceded and
-succeeded it or from the pernicious effects of the tropical temperature
-of the plains of Lombardy, or, finally, from the imprudence of these
-soldiers themselves.
-
-If one does not consider the military point of view, the battle of
-Solferino was then, from the point of humanity a European catastrophe.
-
-The transportation of the wounded from Brescia to Milan, which takes
-place during the night because of the torrid heat of the day, presents
-a dramatic sight with its trains loaded with crippled soldiers arriving
-at the station filled with crowds of people.
-
-Lighted by the pale flare of the tar torches, the mass of men seems
-to hold its breath to listen to the groans and the stifled complaints
-which reach their ears.
-
-The Austrians, in their retreat, having torn up several places on the
-railroad between Milan and Brescia--this road was restored for use
-by the first days of July, for the transportation of ammunition, of
-supplies and of food sent to the allied army--the evacuation of the
-hospitals in Brescia was in this way facilitated.
-
-At each station, long and narrow sheds have been constructed to receive
-the wounded. These, when taken from the cars, are placed on mattresses,
-arranged in a line one after the other. Under these sheds are set up
-tables covered with bread, soup, lemonade, wine, water, lint, linen
-and bandages. Torches, carried by the young men of the place where
-the convoy stops, light the darkness. The citizens of Lombardy hasten
-to present their tribute of gratitude to the conquerors of Solferino;
-in respectful silence they bandage the wounded whom they have lifted
-carefully out of the cars to place them on the beds made ready for
-their use. The women of the country offer refreshing drinks, and food
-of all kinds, which they distribute on the cars to those who must go on
-to Milan.
-
-In this city, where about a thousand wounded have arrived every night
-for several nights in succession, the martyrs of Solferino are received
-with great kindness. No longer are rose leaves scattered from the
-flag-ornamented balconies of the luxurious palaces of the Milanese
-aristocracy, on shining epaulets and on striped gold and enameled
-orders, by beautiful and graceful ladies whom exaltation and enthusiasm
-rendered still more beautiful. To-day, in their gratitude, they shed
-tears of compassion which are interpreted by devotion and sacrifice.
-
-Every family possessing a carriage, goes to the station to transport
-the wounded. The number of equipages sent by the people of Milan
-probably exceeds five hundred. The finest carriages as well as the
-most modest carts are sent every evening to Porto Tosca, where stands
-the railroad station for Venice. The Italian ladies consider it an
-honor to themselves to place in their rich carriages, which they have
-provided with mattresses, sheets and pillows, the guests assigned to
-them and who are accompanied by the greatest noblemen of Lombardy,
-aided in this work by their not less considerate servants.
-
-The people applaud the passage of these men, famed because of their
-suffering. They respectfully uncover their heads. They follow the
-slow march of the convoy with torches illuminating the sad faces of
-the wounded, who try to smile. They accompany them to the door of the
-hospitable palace, where awaits them the most devoted care.
-
-Every family wishes to receive the French wounded and, by all sorts of
-kindness, try to lessen the sadness caused by distance from home, from
-parents and from friends.
-
-But after a few days the greater number of the inhabitants of Milan
-are obliged to remove to the hospitals the wounded whom they have
-received in their houses. The administration desires to avoid too
-great scattering of the nursing and any increase of fatigue for the
-physicians. Before Solferino, the hospitals of this city contained
-about nine thousand wounded from preceding battles.
-
-Great Milanese ladies watch beside the bed of the simple soldier, of
-whom they become the guardian angels. Countess Verri, née Borroméo,
-Madame Uboldi de Capei, Madame Boselli, Madame Sala-Taverna, Countess
-Taverna and many others, forgetting their luxurious habits, pass whole
-months by these beds of suffering. Some of these ladies are mothers,
-whose mourning garments testify to a recent and sorrowful loss. One of
-them said: "The war robbed me of my oldest son; he died eight months
-ago, from a shot received while fighting with the French Army at
-Sebastopol. When I knew that the French wounded were coming to Milan
-and that I could nurse them, I felt that God was sending me His first
-consolation."
-
-Countess Verri-Borroméo, president of the Central Aid Committee, has
-charge of the great depot for linens and lint. In spite of her advanced
-age she devotes many hours a day to reading to the sick.
-
-All the palaces contain wounded. That of the Borroméo family has
-received three hundred. The Superior of the Ursulines, Sister Marina
-Videmari, has converted her convent into a hospital and serves in it
-with her companions. This convent-hospital is a model of order and
-cleanliness.
-
-The Marchioness Pallavicini-Trivulzio, who presides over the great
-Turin Committee with admirable devotion and self-forgetfulness,
-collects the donations from different cities and countries; thanks to
-her activity the depot in Milan, situated contrada San Paolo, remains
-always well provided.
-
-Some weeks later, in the streets of Milan, there were seen passing
-a few companies of convalescent French soldiers sadly returning to
-France. Some have their arms in slings, others are supported by
-crutches or bear marks of wounds. Their uniforms are well worn and
-torn, but they wear fine linen, which the rich men of Lombardy have
-generously given them in exchange for their blood-stained shirts:
-"Your blood flowed to defend our country," they said, "and we wish
-to keep these memories of it." These men, not long ago so strong, so
-robust, now deprived of an arm or a leg or with head bandaged, bear
-their misfortune with resignation. But, thus incapable of continuing
-in the army and earning bread for their families, they already with
-bitterness, behold themselves, after their return to their native
-land, objects of commiseration and pity, a care to others and to
-themselves.
-
-In one of the hospitals of Milan, a sergeant of the Zouave Guard,
-with an energetic and proud face, who has had one leg amputated and
-had borne that operation without a complaint, was seized, some time
-after, with extreme sadness, although his health was improving and his
-recovery rapidly taking place. This sadness, increasing daily, was
-incomprehensible. A Sister of Charity, perceiving tears in his eyes,
-questioned so insistently that he at last confessed that he was the
-sole support of his aged and infirm mother to whom he used to send each
-month five francs of his pay. He added that, being unable to help her,
-this poor woman must be in great need of money. The Sister of Charity,
-touched with compassion, gave him five francs, the value of which was
-immediately sent to France. When the directress of the hospital wished
-to make him another gift, he would not accept it, and said to her
-thankfully: "Keep this money for others who need it more than I; as for
-my mother, I hope next month to send her her usual allowance, for I
-count on soon being able to work."
-
-A lady of Milan, bearing an illustrious name, placed at the disposition
-of the wounded one of her palaces, with one hundred and fifty beds.
-Among the soldiers, lodged in this magnificent mansion, was a grenadier
-of the Seventieth Regiment of the French Infantry, who, having
-undergone an operation, was in danger of death. The lady, trying to
-console him, spoke to him of his family. He told her that he was the
-only son of poor peasants in the Department of Gers, and that he was
-very sad at leaving his parents in misery, for he alone provided
-for their maintenance. He added that his greatest consolation would
-be to kiss his mother before he died. Saying nothing to him of her
-project, the noble lady suddenly decides to leave Milan, takes the
-train, reaches the Departments of Gers, near the family, whose address
-she has procured, takes possession of the mother of the wounded man.
-After having left a large sum of money for the infirm old father, she
-brings the humble villager with her to Milan; and six days after the
-confession of the grenadier, the son kisses his mother, weeping and
-blessing his benefactress.
-
-But why recall so many pitiful and melancholy scenes and thus arouse
-such painful emotions? Why relate, with complaisance, these lamentable
-details and dwell upon these distressing pictures?
-
-To this very natural question we reply with another question.
-
-Would it not be possible to establish in every country of Europe, Aid
-Societies, whose aim would be to provide, during war, volunteer nurses
-for the wounded, without distinction of nationality?
-
-As they wish us to give up the desires and hopes of the Societies
-of the Friends of Peace, the beautiful dreams of the Abbot of Saint
-Pierre and of Count Sellon; as men continue to kill each other without
-personal enmity, and as the height of glory in war is to exterminate
-the greatest number possible; as they still dare to say, as did Count
-Joseph de Maistre, that "war is divine"; as they invent every day with
-a perseverence worthy of a better aim, instruments of destruction more
-and more terrible, and as the inventors of these death-dealing engines
-are encouraged by all the European governments--who arm themselves in
-emulation one of another--why not profit from a moment of comparative
-calm and tranquillity in order to settle the question which we have
-just raised, and which is of such great importance from the double
-point of view of humanity and Christianity.
-
-Once presented to the consideration of every man, this theme will
-probably call forth opinions and writings from more competent persons;
-but, first, must not this idea, presented to the different branches
-of the great European family, hold the attention and conquer the
-sympathies of all those who possess an elevated soul and a heart
-capable of being moved by the suffering of their fellow-men?
-
-Such is the purpose for which this book has been written.
-
-Societies of this kind, once created, with a permanent existence, would
-be found all ready at the time of war. They should obtain the favor of
-the authorities of countries where they are created, and beg, in case
-of war, from the sovereigns of the belligerent powers the permission
-and the facilities necessary to carry out their purpose. These
-societies should include in their own and each country, as members of
-the central committee, the most honorable and esteemed men.
-
-The moment of the commencement of war, the committee would call
-on those persons who desire to dedicate themselves, for the time
-being, to this work, which will consist in helping and nursing, under
-the guidance of experienced physicians, the wounded, first on the
-battle-field, then in the field and regular hospitals.
-
-Spontaneous devotion is not as rare as one might think. Many persons,
-sure of being able to do some good, helped and facilitated by a
-Superior Committee, would certainly go, and others, at their own
-expense, would undertake a task so essentially beneficent. During our
-selfish century what an attraction for the generous-hearted and for
-chivalrous characters to brave the same danger as the soldier with an
-entirely voluntary mission of peace and consolation.
-
-History proves that it is in no way chimerical to hope for such
-self-devotion. Two recent facts especially have just confirmed this.
-They occurred during the war in the East and closely relate to our
-subject.
-
-While Sisters of Charity were nursing the wounded and sick of the
-French army in the Crimea, into the Russian and English armies, there
-came, from the north and west, two groups of self-devoted women nurses.
-
-The Grand Duchess Helen Pavlovna, of Russia, born, Princess Charlotte,
-of Wurttemberg, widow of the Grand Duke Michael, having enlisted
-nearly three hundred ladies of St. Petersburg and Moscow, to serve as
-nurses in the Russian hospitals of the Crimea; she provided them with
-everything necessary, and these saintly women were blessed by thousands
-of soldiers.
-
-In England, Miss Florence Nightingale, having received a pressing
-appeal from Lord Sidney Herbert, Secretary of War of the British
-Empire, inviting her to go to the aid of the English soldiers in the
-Orient, this lady did not hesitate to expose herself personally by
-great self-devotion. In November, 1854, she went to Constantinople and
-Scutari with thirty-seven English ladies, who, immediately on arrival
-gave their attention to nursing the great number of men, wounded in
-the battle of Inkerman. In 1855 Miss Stanley, having come to take part
-in her labor with fifty new companions, made it possible for Miss
-Nightingale to go to Balaklava to inspect the hospitals there. The
-picture of Miss Florence Nightingale, during the night, going through
-the vast wards of the military hospitals with a small lamp in her
-hand, noting the condition of each sick man, will never be obliterated
-from the hearts of the men, who were the objects or the witnesses of
-her admirable beneficence, and the memory of it will be engraven in
-history.
-
-Of the multitude of similar good works, ancient or modern, the greater
-number of which have remained unknown and without fame, how many have
-been in vain, because they were isolated and were not supported by
-a united action, which would have wisely joined them together for a
-common aim.
-
-If voluntary hospital workers could have been found in Castiglione on
-the twenty-fourth, the twenty-fifth, and the twenty-sixth of June, and
-also in Brescia, Mantua, and Verona, how much good they might have done.
-
-How many human beings they might have saved from death during that
-fatal Friday night, when moans and heartrending supplications escaped
-from the breasts of thousands of the wounded, who were enduring the
-most acute pains and tormented by the inexpressible suffering of thirst.
-
-If Prince von Isenburg had been rescued sooner, by compassionate hands,
-from the blood-soaked field on which he was lying unconscious, he
-would not have been obliged to suffer for several years from wounds
-aggravated by long neglect; if the sight of his riderless horse had not
-brought about his discovery among the corpses, he would have perished
-for lack of help with so many other wounded, who also were creatures of
-God, and whose death would be equally cruel for their families.
-
-Those good old women, those beautiful young girls of Castiglione could
-not save the lives of many of those whom they nursed! Besides them were
-needed experienced men, skillful, decided, previously trained to act
-with order and harmony, the only means of preventing the accidents,
-which complicate the wounds and make them mortal.
-
-If there could have been a sufficient number of assistants to remove
-the wounded quickly from the plains of Medole, from the ravines of San
-Martin, on the slopes of Mount Fontana, or on the hills of Solferino,
-there would not have been left during long hours of terrible fear
-that poor bersaglier, that Uhlan, or that Zouave, who tried to raise
-himself, in spite of cruel suffering, to gesticulate in vain for
-someone to send a litter for him. Finally, the risk of burying the
-living with the dead would have been avoided.
-
-Better means of transportation would have made it possible to avoid in
-the case of the light infantryman of the Guard the terrible amputation
-which he had to undergo in Brescia, because of the lack of proper care
-during the journey from the battle-field to Castiglione.
-
-The sight of those young cripples, deprived of an arm, or a leg,
-returning sadly to their homes, does it not call forth remorse that
-there was not more effort made before to avert the evil consequences of
-the wounds, which, often could have been cured by timely aid?
-
-Would those dead, deserted in the hospitals of Castiglione, or in
-those of Brescia, many of whom could not make themselves understood,
-on account of the difference of language, have gasped out their last
-breath with curses and blasphemies, if they had had near them some
-compassionate soul to listen to them and console them?
-
-In spite of the official aid, in spite of the zeal of the cities of
-Lombardy, much remained to be done, although in no other war has been
-seen so great a display of charity; it was nevertheless unequal to the
-extent of the help that was needed.
-
-It is not the paid employee, whom disgust drives away, whom fatigue
-makes unfeeling, unsympathetic and lazy who can fulfil such a noble
-task. Immediate help is needed, for that which can to-day save the
-wounded will not save him to-morrow; the loss of time causes gangrene,
-which leads to death. One must have volunteer nurses, previously
-trained, accustomed to the work, officially recognized by the
-commanding officers of the armies, so that they may be facilitated in
-their mission.
-
-These nurses should not only find their place on the battle-field, but
-also in the hospitals, where the long weeks pass away painfully for
-the wounded, without family and without friends. During this short
-Italian war, there were soldiers who were attacked with home-sickness
-to such a degree that, without other illness and without wounds, they
-died. On the other hand, the Italians, and this is comprehensible,
-showed scarcely any interest in the wounded of the allied army, and
-still less for the suffering Austrians. It is true, courageous women
-were found in Italy, whose patience and perseverance never wearied;
-but, unfortunately, in the end they could be easily counted; the
-contagious fevers drove many persons away, and the nurses and servants
-did not respond for any length of time, to that which might have been
-expected of them. The personnel of the military hospitals is always
-insufficient; and, if it were doubled or tripled, it would still be
-insufficient. We must call on the public, it is not possible, it never
-will be possible to avoid that. Only by this co-operation can one hope
-to lessen the sufferings of war.
-
-An appeal must be made, a petition presented to the men of all
-countries, of all classes, to the influential of this world, as well as
-to the most modest artisan, since all can, in one way or another, each
-in his own sphere, and according to his strength, co-operate in some
-measure in this good work.
-
-This appeal is addressed to women as well as to men, to the queen,
-to the princess seated on the steps of the throne, as well as to the
-humble orphaned and charitable maid-servant or the poor widow alone in
-the world, who desires to consecrate her last strength to the good of
-others.
-
-It is addressed to the general, to the marshal, the Minister of War, as
-well as to the writer and the man of letters, who, by his publications,
-can plead with ability for the cause, thereby interesting all mankind,
-each nation, each country, each family even, since no one can say for
-certain that he is exempt from the dangers of war.
-
-If an Austrian general and a French general, after having fought
-one against another at Solferino, could, soon afterwards, finding
-themselves seated side by side at the hospitable table of the King
-of Prussia, converse amicably one with the other, what would have
-prevented them from considering and discussing a question so worthy of
-their interest and attention?
-
-During the grand manoeuvers at Cologne, in 1861, King William of
-Prussia invited to dinner, in Benrath Castle, near Dusseldorf, the
-officers of the different nations, who were sent there by their
-governments. Before going to the table the King took by the hand
-General Forey and General Baumgarten: "Now that you are friends," he
-said to them, smiling, "sit there, beside one another, and chat." Forey
-was the victor of Montebello, and Baumgarten was his adversary.
-
-On extraordinary occasions, such as those which assembled at Cologne,
-at Chalons, or elsewhere, eminent men of the military art of different
-nations, is it not to be desired that they will profit by this kind
-of congress to formulate some international, sacred, and accepted
-principle which, once agreed upon and ratified, would serve as the
-foundation for societies for aid for the wounded in the different
-countries of Europe? It is still more important to agree upon and adopt
-in advance these measures, because when hostilities have commenced,
-the belligerents are ill-disposed one towards the other, and will not
-consider these questions, except from the exclusive point of view of
-their own interests.
-
-Are not small congresses called together of scientists, jurists,
-medical men, agriculturists, statisticians, and economists, who meet
-expressly in order to consider questions of much less importance? Are
-there not international societies which are occupied with questions of
-charity and public utility? Cannot men, in like manner, meet to solve a
-problem as important as that of caring for the victims of war?
-
-Humanity and civilization surely demand the accomplishment of such a
-work. It is a duty, to the fulfilment of which every good man, and
-every person possessing any influence owes his assistance.
-
-What prince, what ruler, would refuse his support to these societies,
-and would not be glad to give the soldiers of his army the full
-assurance that they will be immediately and properly nursed in case
-they should be wounded?
-
-With permanent societies, such as I propose, the chance of waste and
-the injudicious distribution of money and supplies would often be
-avoided. During the war in the East an enormous quantity of lint,
-prepared by Russian ladies, was sent from St. Petersburg to the Crimea;
-but the packages, instead of reaching the hospitals to which they were
-sent, arrived at paper mills which used it all for their own industry.
-
-By perfecting the means of transportation, by preventing the accidents
-during the journey from the battle-field to the hospital, many
-amputations will be avoided, and the burden of the governments, which
-pension the injured will be proportionately lessened.
-
-These societies, by their permanent existence, could also render great
-service at the time of epidemics, floods, great fires, and other
-unexpected catastrophes; the humane motive which would have created
-them would instigate them to act on all occasions in which their labors
-could be exercised.
-
-This work will necessitate the devotion of a certain number of persons,
-but it will never lack money in time of war. Each one will bring his
-offering or his compassion in response to the appeals which will be
-made by the committee. A nation will not remain indifferent when its
-children are fighting for its defense. The difficulty is not there;
-but the problem rests entirely in the serious preparation, in all
-countries, of a work of this kind, that is, in the creation of these
-societies.
-
-In order to establish these committees at the head of the societies,
-all that is necessary is a little good-will on the part of some
-honorable and persevering persons. The committees, animated by an
-international spirit of charity, would create corps of nurses in a
-latent state, a sort of staff. The committees of the different nations,
-although independent of one another, will know how to understand and
-correspond with each other, to convene in congress and, in event of
-war, to act for the good of all.
-
-If the terrible instruments of destruction now possessed by the nations
-seem to shorten wars, will not, on the other hand, the battles be
-more deadly? And in this century, when the unexpected plays such an
-important role, may not war bring about the most sudden and unforseen
-results?
-
-Are there not, in these considerations alone, more than sufficient
-reasons for us not to allow ourselves to be taken unawares?
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber's Notes
-
-Obvious errors of punctuation and diacritics repaired.
-
-Inconsistent hyphenation fixed.
-
-P. 25: monastary -> monastery.
-
-P. 71: transportation of ammunitions -> transportation of ammunition.
-
-P. 87: manouvers -> manoeuvers.
-
-P. 89: catastrophies -> catastrophes.
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's The Origin of the Red Cross, by Henry Dunant
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-
-<pre>
-
-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Origin of the Red Cross, by Henry Dunant
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: The Origin of the Red Cross
-       "Un souvenir de Solferino"
-
-Author: Henry Dunant
-
-Translator: Mrs. David H. Wright
-
-Release Date: January 19, 2016 [EBook #50968]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ORIGIN OF THE RED CROSS ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Bryan Ness, Moti Ben-Ari and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-</pre>
-
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
-<img id="coverpage" src="images/cover.jpg" width="600" height="943" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 860px;">
-<img src="images/portrait.jpg" width="860" height="900" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><span class="smcap">Jean Henri Dunant</span></div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a></span></p>
-
-<h1><i>The</i> ORIGIN <i>of the</i> RED CROSS</h1>
-
-<p class="center spaced space-above">
-"<i>Un Souvenir de Solferino</i>"<br />
-<small>BY</small><br />
-<big>HENRI DUNANT</big><br />
-<br />
-<small>Translated from the French by</small><br />
-MRS. DAVID H. WRIGHT,<br />
-<small>of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American<br />
-Red Cross, Independence Hall.<br />
-Philadelphia, Pa.</small><br />
-<br />
-1911<br />
-THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO.<br />
-PHILADELPHIA, PA.<br />
-</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="center">
-<small>
-Copyright, 1911,<br />
-By <span class="smcap">Mrs. David H. Wright</span>.<br />
-</small>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="center">
-AMERICAN RED CROSS.<br />
-<span class="smcap">Washington</span>, D. C., November 9, 1910.<br />
-<br />
-</div>
-<p>
-Mrs. David H. Wright,<br />
-<br />
-Philadelphia, Pa.<br />
-<br />
-<span class="smcap">Dear Mrs. Wright:</span><br />
-</p>
-
-<p>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."</p>
-
-<p>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.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
-<img src="images/signature.jpg" width="600" height="164" alt="" />
-<div class="caption">William Howard Taft<br />
-<i>President American Red Cross.</i><br /></div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="center"><big><i>EDITOR'S NOTE</i></big></div>
-
-<p><i>So far as is known, this book of such far-reaching
-influence has never before been
-translated or published in English.</i></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="center"><big>PREFACE</big></div>
-
-<p><i>Henri Dunant, the famous author of "A
-Souvenir of Solferino," was born in Geneva
-in 1828.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>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.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>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.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>This event was the battle of Solferino,
-when he first organized, in Castiglione, corps
-of volunteers to search for and nurse the
-wounded.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>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</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span>
-<i>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.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>Soon Dunant organized an Aid Committee
-in Geneva, and shortly afterwards he
-published his "Souvenir of Solferino," which
-was enthusiastically received and greatly
-applauded.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>He met, however, opposition and obstacles,
-principally from the French Minister of
-War.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>The philanthropic ideas of this book were
-received with interest by many European
-sovereigns with whom Dunant had intercourse,
-either by correspondence or by conversation;
-he always propagated persistently
-his ideas in regard to the organization of a
-national permanent committee for the
-wounded, his International Treaty, and the
-neutralization of those injured in war (he
-developed in separate works his ideas which
-were outlined only in the "Souvenir").</i></p>
-
-<p><i>The Geneva Society of Public Utility
-created a commission for the purpose of
-studying the question. Meanwhile Dunant
-had the opportunity to speak with the King
-of Saxony, and to persuade representatives</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span>
-<i>of some other countries to take up the question
-with their respective sovereigns.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>Dunant interested the governments so
-much in his project that various nations sent
-delegates to the International Conference,
-which was held in Geneva, in 1863, when it
-was decided to establish a National Committee,
-and when the desire was expressed
-that the neutralization of the physicians,
-nurses and injured should be provided by
-treaty, and for the adoption of a distinctive
-and uniform international emblem and flag
-for the hospital corps, and the unanimous
-thanks of this Conference were extended to
-Dunant.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>To consider this subject, a diplomatic International
-Congress was held in 1864, at
-Geneva, by invitation of the Swiss Federate
-Counsel. The treaty there drafted accepted
-the projects of Dunant and the formation
-of Volunteer Aid Societies, later called Red
-Cross Societies, was recommended by the
-Convention to the signatory powers.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>In the further development of the ideas
-of Dunant The Hague Conference, in 1899,
-extended the provisions of the Treaty of
-Geneva to naval warfare.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>Thus, a single individual, inspired with the
-sentiment of kindness and compassion for</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span>
-<i>his fellow-creatures, by his own untiring
-energy attained the realization of his ideas,
-and aided in the progress of mankind toward
-peace.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>Thus, truly all men, and above all, the
-workers for peace, owe to this laborer
-merited and everlasting gratitude and remembrance.</i></p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p><i>The recompense, however, arrived late.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>In the zealous propaganda, for which, during
-four years, he edited pamphlets and
-articles in all languages, and traveled continuously
-through the whole of Europe,
-Dunant spent everything that he possessed,
-and, for many years, nothing more was
-heard of the modest and good man, to whom
-the approval of his conscience was all sufficient.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>At last, in 1897, he was discovered in the
-Swiss village of Heiden, where he was living
-in misery, in a "Home" for old men, with
-almost no means other than a small pension
-received from the Empress of Russia.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>The Baroness von Suttner sent at that
-time to the press of the whole world, and
-especially to those interested in International
-Peace, an appeal to raise a contribution of
-money to ease his last years. In 1901, when</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span>
-<i>the Nobel-Peace-Prize, valued at 208,000
-francs, was awarded for the first time, it
-was divided between Henri Dunant and
-Frederick Passy.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>It is true that many peace workers did
-not approve of this decision of the Nobel
-Committee. They said in opposition, that
-the projects of Dunant not only were not
-pacific, but could even have the contrary
-effect. To lessen the terrors of war is really,
-according to them, to destroy the most effective
-means of turning men from it, and
-consequently tended to prolong the duration
-of its reign. One of the chief representatives
-of this idea, Signor H. H. Fried, said that
-the Geneva Convention was only a small
-concession by the governments to the new
-idea that is fighting against war.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>Without doubt, they do not approve of the
-humane plan of Dunant, on the contrary,
-they think that it is not essentially peace-making;
-that it should not be recompensed
-by the first peace prize, and that it is dangerous
-to confuse pacification with simple humanitarianism.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>The contrary opinion is shown by the following
-words, written by Signor Ruyssin,
-in the review "Peace by Right," at the time
-when Dunant received his prize:</i></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span></p>
-
-<p><i>"His glory has grown each year in proportion
-to all the lessening of suffering which
-his work has accomplished, to all the lives
-which it saves, and to all the self-devotion
-to which it gives birth.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>"Henri Dunant has decreased the abomination
-of war; Frederick Passy fought to
-make it impossible. One has accomplished
-more; the other has created more remote,
-but brighter hopes. One has harvested already;
-the other sows for the future harvest;
-and so it would be arbitrary and unjust to
-compare such dissimilar lines of work, both
-equally meritorious. The accomplishment of
-the wishes of Nobel rightly placed identical
-crowns on the heads of two old men who
-employed their lives in fighting against
-war."</i></p>
-
-<p><i>This disagreement is interesting in that
-it shows the contrary judgment to which different
-zealous peace workers were led in regard
-to the project of Dunant.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>Whatever may be the conclusion of the
-reader, about the relation between it and the
-peace propaganda, he will certainly be of
-the opinion that "A Souvenir of Solferino,"
-showing the abominations of war, is a useful
-instrument of the propaganda, and that
-the name of Dunant should be blessed, as</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span>
-<i>that of one of the most self-devoted benefactors
-of mankind.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>Henri Dunant died at Heiden, Switzerland,
-on October the thirty-first, 1910.</i>
-</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[xii]</a></span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="center"><big>THE ORIGIN OF THE RED CROSS</big><br /></div>
-
-<p>The bloody victory of Magenta opened the
-gates of Milan to the French Army, which
-the towns of Pavia, Lodi and Cremona welcomed
-enthusiastically.</p>
-
-<p>The Austrians, abandoning the lines of the
-Adda, the Oglio, and the Chiese, gathered
-their forces on the bank of the River Mincio,
-at whose head the young and courageous
-Emperor Joseph placed himself.</p>
-
-<p>The King of Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel,
-arrived on the seventeenth of June, 1859,
-at Brescia, where, with great joy, the inhabitants
-welcomed him, seeing in the son of
-Charles Albert a saviour and a hero. During
-the next day the French Emperor entered
-the same town amid the enthusiastic
-cries of the people, happy to show their
-gratitude to the monarch who came to help
-them gain their independence.</p>
-
-<p>On the twenty-first of June, Napoleon III
-and Victor Emmanuel II left Brescia, from
-which place their armies had departed during
-the previous day. On the twenty-second
-they occupied Lonato, Castenedolo and Montechiaro.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>
-On the evening of the twenty-third
-Napoleon, who was commander-in-chief,
-published strict orders for the army
-of the King of Sardinia, encamped at Desenzano,
-and forming the left flank of the allied
-armies, to proceed early the following day
-to Pozzelengo.</p>
-
-<p>Marshal Baraguey d'Hilliers was ordered
-to march on Solferino; Marshal MacMahon,
-Duke de Magenta, on Cavriana; General Neil
-was to proceed to Guidizzolo; Marshal Canrobert
-to Medole; Marshal Regnaud de Saint-Jean
-d'Angley, with the Imperial Guard, to
-Castiglione.</p>
-
-<p>These united forces amounted to 150,000
-men, with 400 cannon.</p>
-
-<p>The Austrian Emperor had at his disposition,
-in the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom,
-nine army corps, amounting in all to 250,000
-men, comprising the garrison of Verona and
-Mantua. The effective force prepared to
-enter the line of battle consisted of seven
-corps, some 170,000 men, supported by 500
-cannon.</p>
-
-<p>The headquarters of the Emperor Francis
-Joseph had been moved from Verona to Villafranca,
-then to Valeggio. On the evening
-of the twenty-third the Austrian troops received
-the order to recross the River Mincio<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>
-during the night to Peschiera, Salionze,
-Valeggio, Ferri, Goito and Mantua. The
-main part of the army took up its position
-from Pozzolengo to Guidizzolo, in order to
-attack the enemy between the Rivers Mincio
-and Chiese.</p>
-
-<p>The Austrian forces formed two armies.
-The first having as Commander-in-chief
-Count Wimpffen, under whose orders were
-the corps commanded by Field Marshals
-Prince Edmund Schwarzenberg, Count
-Schaffgotsche and Baron Veigl, also the
-cavalry division of Count Zeidewitz. This
-composed the left flank. It was stationed in
-the neighborhood of Volta, Guidizzolo, Medole
-and Castel-Gioffredo.</p>
-
-<p>The second army was commanded by
-Count Schlick, having under his orders the
-Field Marshals Count Clam-Gallas, Count
-Stadion, Baron Zobel and Cavalier Benedek,
-as well as the cavalry division of Count
-Mensdorf. This composed the right flank.
-It occupied Cavriana, Pozzolengo and San
-Martino.</p>
-
-<p>Thus, on the morning of the twenty-fourth,
-the Austrians occupied all the heights between
-Pozzolengo, Solferino, Cavriana and
-Guidizzolo. They ranged their artillery in
-series of breastworks, forming the center of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>
-the attacking line, which permitted their
-right and left flanks to fall back upon these
-fortified heights which they believed to be
-unconquerable.</p>
-
-<p>The two belligerent armies, although
-marching one against the other, did not expect
-such a sudden meeting. Austria, misinformed,
-supposed that only a part of the
-allied army had crossed the Chiese River.
-On their side the confederates did not expect
-this attack in return, and did not believe
-that they would find themselves so soon before
-the army of the Austrian Emperor.
-The reconnoitering, the observations and the
-reports of the scouts, and those made from
-the fire balloons during the day of the
-twenty-third showed no signs of such an imminent
-encounter.</p>
-
-<p>The collision of the armies of Austria and
-Franco-Sardinia on Friday, the twenty-fourth
-of June, 1859, was, therefore, unexpected,
-although the combatants on both
-sides conjectured that a great battle was
-near.</p>
-
-<p>The Austrian army, already fatigued by
-the difficult march during the night of the
-twenty-third and twenty-fourth, had to support
-from the earliest dawn the attack of
-the enemies' armies and to suffer from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>
-intensely hot weather as well as from hunger
-and thirst, for, except a double ration of
-brandy, the greater number of the Austrians
-were unable to take any food.</p>
-
-<p>The French troops already in movement
-before daybreak had had nothing but coffee.
-Therefore, this exhaustion of the soldiers,
-and above all, of the unfortunate wounded,
-was extreme at the end of this very bloody
-battle, which lasted more than fifteen hours.</p>
-
-<p>Both armies are awake.</p>
-
-<p>Three hundred thousand men are standing
-face to face. The line of battle is ten miles
-long.</p>
-
-<p>Already at three o'clock in the morning,
-corps commanded by Marshals Baraguey d'Hilliers and MacMahon are commencing to
-move on Solferino and Cavriana.</p>
-
-<p>Hardly have the advance columns passed
-Castiglione when they themselves are in the
-presence of the first posts of the Austrians,
-who dispute the ground.</p>
-
-<p>On all sides bugles are playing the charges
-and the drums are sounding.</p>
-
-<p>The Emperor Napoleon who passed the
-night at Montechiaro hastens rapidly to Castiglione.</p>
-
-<p>By six o'clock a furious fire has commenced.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The Austrians march in a compact mass in
-perfect order along the open roads. In the
-air are flying their black and yellow standards,
-on which are embroidered the ancient
-Imperial arms.</p>
-
-<p>The day is very clear. The Italian sun
-makes the brilliant equipments of the dragoons,
-the lancers and the cuirassiers of the
-French army glitter brightly.</p>
-
-<p>At the commencement of the engagement
-the Emperor Francis Joseph, together with
-his entire staff, leaves headquarters in order
-to go to Volta. He is accompanied by the
-Archdukes of the House of Lorraine, among
-whom are the Grand Duke of Tuscany and
-the Duke of Modena.</p>
-
-<p>In the midst of the difficulties of a field
-unknown to the French army the first meeting
-takes place. It has to make its way
-through plantations of mulberry trees, interlaced
-by climbing vines, which form almost
-impassable barriers.</p>
-
-<p>The earth is cut by great dried up trenches
-which the horses have to leap, and by long
-walls with broad foundations which they
-have to climb.</p>
-
-<p>From the hills the Austrians pour on the
-enemy a constant hail of shot and shell. With
-the smoke of the cannon's continual discharge<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>
-the rain of bullets is ploughing up
-the earth and dust into thousands of missiles.</p>
-
-<p>The French hurl themselves upon these
-strongly fortified places in spite of the firing
-of the batteries which falls upon the earth
-with redoubled force.</p>
-
-<p>During the burning heat of noon the battle
-everywhere becomes more and more furious.</p>
-
-<p>Column after column throw themselves
-one against the other with the force of a
-devastating torrent.</p>
-
-<p>A number of French regiments surround
-masses of Austrian troops, but, like iron
-walls, these resist and at first remain unshaken.</p>
-
-<p>Entire divisions throw their knapsacks to
-the earth in order to rush at the enemy with
-fixed bayonets.</p>
-
-<p>If a battalion is driven away another replaces
-it; each hill, each height, each rocky
-eminence becomes a theatre for an obstinate
-struggle.</p>
-
-<p>On the heights, as well as in the ravines,
-the dead lie piled up. The Austrians and the
-allied armies march one against the other,
-killing each other above the blood-covered
-corpses, butchering with gunshots, crushing
-each other's skulls or disemboweling with
-the sword or bayonet. No cessation in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>
-conflict, no quarter given. The wounded are
-defending themselves to the last. It is
-butchery by madmen drunk with blood.</p>
-
-<p>Sometimes the fighting becomes more terrible
-on account of the arrival of rushing,
-galloping cavalry. The horses, more compassionate
-than their riders, seek in vain
-to step over the victims of this butchery, but
-their iron hoofs crush the dead and dying.
-With the neighing of the horses are mingled
-blasphemies, cries of rage, shrieks of pain
-and despair.</p>
-
-<p>The artillery, at full speed, follows the
-cavalry which has cut a way through the
-corpses and the wounded lying in confusion
-on the ground. A jaw-bone of one of these
-last is torn away; the head of another is
-battered in; the breast of a third is crushed.
-Limbs are broken and bruised; the field is
-covered with human remains; the earth is
-soaked with blood.</p>
-
-<p>The French troops, with fiery ardor, scale
-the steep hills and rocky declivities in spite
-of shot and shell.</p>
-
-<p>Hardly does some harassed and profusely
-perspiring company capture a hill and reach
-its summit, when it falls like an avalanche
-on the Austrians, overthrows, repulses and
-pursues them to the depths of the hollows.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>But the Austrians regain the advantage.
-Ambuscaded behind the houses, the churches
-and the walls of Medole, Solferino and Cavriana,
-they heroically fight on and very nearly
-win the victory.</p>
-
-<p>The unending combat rages incessantly
-and in every place with fury. Nothing stops,
-nothing interrupts the butchery. They are
-killing one another by the hundreds. Every
-foot of ground is carried at the bayonet's
-point, every post disputed foot by foot.
-From the hands of the enemy are taken
-villages, house after house, farm after farm,
-each is the theatre of a siege. Doors, windows
-and courts are abattoirs.</p>
-
-<p>A rain of cannon balls is sending death
-to the distant reserves of Austria. If these
-desert the field they yield it only step by
-step, and soon recommence action. Their
-ranks are ceaselessly reforming. On the
-plains the wind raises the dust, which flies
-over the roads like dense clouds, darkening
-the day and blinding the fighters.</p>
-
-<p>The French cavalry flings itself on the
-Austrian cavalry; uhlans and hussars slash
-furiously at each other with their swords.</p>
-
-<p>The rage is so great that in some places,
-after the exhaustion of the cartridges and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>
-the breaking of the muskets, they fight with
-fists and beat one another with stones.</p>
-
-<p>The strongest positions are captured, lost,
-and recaptured, to be lost again. Everywhere
-men are falling mutilated, riddled
-with bullets, covered with wounds.</p>
-
-<p>In the midst of these endless combats,
-these massacres, blasphemies arise in different
-tongues, telling of the diverse nationalities
-of the men, many of whom are obliged
-to become homicides in their twentieth year.</p>
-
-<p>The soldiers of the Sardinian King, defending
-and attacking with fervor, continue
-their skirmishes from early morning. The
-hills of San Martino, Roccolo, Madonno della
-Scoperta are captured and recaptured five
-or six times. Their Generals Mollard, La
-Marmora, Della Rocca, Durando, Fanti,
-Cialdini, Cucchiari, de Sonnoz, with all
-kinds and all grades of officers help the king
-before whose eyes lie the wounded Generals
-Cedale, Perrier and Arnoldi.</p>
-
-<p>The French Emperor orders that the corps
-of Baraguey d'Hilliers and MacMahon, together
-with the Imperial Guard, attack at
-the same time the fortress of San Cassiano
-and occupy Solferino.</p>
-
-<p>But the brave Austrians make the allied
-army pay dearly for its success....<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>
-One of its heroes, Prince Aleksandro de Hessen,
-after fighting with great courage at
-San Cassiano defends against repeated attacks,
-the three heights of Mount Fontana....
-At Guidizzolo, Prince Charles of
-Windischraetz, braves certain death in seeking
-to recapture under a hail of balls Casa
-Nova. Mortally wounded, he still commands,
-supported and carried by his brave soldiers,
-who vainly make for him a rampart of their
-own bodies.</p>
-
-<p>Marshal Baraguey d'Hilliers finally enters
-the town of Solferino, courageously defended
-by Baron Stadion.</p>
-
-<p>The sky is darkened, dense clouds cover
-the horizon. A furious wind is rising. It
-carries away the broken branches of the
-trees. A cold rain, driven by the tempest,
-a veritable cloud-burst, drenches the combatants,
-exhausted from hunger and fatigue,
-while dust, hail and smoke are blinding the
-soldiers forced to fight also the elements.</p>
-
-<p>The army of the Emperor Francis Joseph
-retreats. Throughout the entire action the
-chief of the House of Hapsburg shows admirable
-tranquillity and self-control.</p>
-
-<p>During the capture of Cavriana the Austrian
-Emperor finds himself, together with
-Baron Schlick and the Prince of Nassau, on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
-the adjacent heights, Madonna della Pieve,
-opposite a church surrounded by cypress
-trees. Towards evening, the Austrian center
-having yielded and the left flank not daring
-to hope to force the position of the allies, the
-general retreat is decided. In this grave
-moment, Emperor Francis Joseph, around
-whom rained balls and bullets during the
-whole day, goes with a part of his staff to
-Volta, while the Archdukes and the hereditary
-Grand Duke of Tuscany returned to
-Valeggio.</p>
-
-<p>The Austrian officers fought like lions.
-Some, through despair, let themselves die,
-but sold their lives dearly. The greater
-number rejoin their regiments covered with
-the blood of their own wounds or with that
-of the enemy. To their bravery should be
-rendered merited praise.</p>
-
-<p>... Guidizzolo remains occupied
-by the Austrians until ten o'clock in the evening....
-The roads are covered with
-army wagons, carts and reserve artillery.
-The transport vans are saved by the rapid
-construction of improvised bridges. The
-first Austrian wounded consisting of men
-slightly injured, commence to enter Villafranca.
-The more seriously wounded follow
-them. Austrian physicians and their assistants<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
-rapidly bandage the wounds, give some
-nourishment to the wounded and send them
-by railroad trains to Verona, where the embarrassment
-is becoming terrible.</p>
-
-<p>Although during its retreat the Austrian
-army tries to carry away all the wounded
-which it could transport (and with what
-great suffering!), nevertheless, thousands remain
-lying on the ground moistened with
-their blood.</p>
-
-<p>The allied army is in possession of the conquered
-field.</p>
-
-<p>Near the close of the day when the evening
-shadows creep over this vast field of
-carnage, more than one officer, more than
-one French soldier, seek here and there a
-comrade, a compatriot, or a friend, when
-he finds the wounded friend, he kneels beside,
-trying to restore him to consciousness, wiping
-away the blood, bandaging the wounds
-as well as he can, wrapping a handkerchief
-around the broken limb, but rarely can he
-secure water for the suffering man.</p>
-
-<p>How many silent tears were shed during
-this sad night, when all false pride, all human
-regard were set aside.</p>
-
-<p>During the battle, hospitals for the
-wounded established in nearby farmhouses,
-churches, monasteries, in the open air, under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
-the shade of trees receive the wounded
-officers and non-commissioned officers, who
-are hastily given treatment. After these
-comes the turn of the soldiers, when that is
-possible. Those of the latter who are still
-able to walk find their way to the field hospitals.
-The others are carried on litters and
-stretchers, weakened as they are by loss of
-blood, by pain, by continued lack of food,
-and by the mental and moral shock they have
-experienced. During the battle a pennant
-fixed on an elevation marks the station for
-the wounded and the field hospitals of the
-fighting regiments. Unfortunately, only a
-few of the soldiers know the color of the hospital
-pennant or that of the hospital flag of
-the enemy, for the colors differ with the
-different nations. The bombs fall upon them,
-sparing neither physicians, nor wounded,
-nor wagons loaded with bread, wine, meat
-or lint.</p>
-
-<p>The heights which extend from Castiglione
-to Volta, sparkle with thousands of fires,
-which are fed by pieces of Austrian gun-wagons
-and by huge branches of trees,
-broken by the tempest or by cannon balls.
-The soldiers dry their dripping clothes; then,
-overcome by fatigue and exhaustion, they fall
-asleep on the stones or on the ground.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>What terrible episodes! What touching
-scenes! What disillusionments!</p>
-
-<p>There are battalions without food, companies
-lacking almost every necessity, because
-of the loss of the knapsacks. Water
-also is lacking, but their thirst is so intense
-that officers and soldiers resort to slimy and
-even bloody pools. Everywhere the wounded
-are begging for water.</p>
-
-<p>Through the silence of the night are heard
-groans, stifled cries of anguish and pain,
-and heartrending voices calling for help.</p>
-
-<p>Who will ever be able to paint the agonies
-of this horrible night!</p>
-
-<p>The sun on the twenty-fifth of June, 1859,
-shines above one of the most frightful sights
-imaginable. The battle-field is everywhere
-covered with corpses of men and horses.
-They appear as if sown along the roads, in
-the hollows, the thickets and the fields, above
-all, near the village of Solferino.</p>
-
-<p>The fields ready for the harvest are ruined,
-the grain trodden down, the fences overturned,
-the orchards destroyed.</p>
-
-<p>Here and there one finds pools of blood.</p>
-
-<p>The villages are deserted. They bear
-traces of bullets, of bombs and shells and
-grenades.</p>
-
-<p>The houses whose walls have been pierced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>
-with bullets and are gaping widely, are
-shaken and ruined.</p>
-
-<p>The inhabitants, of whom the greater
-number have passed almost twenty hours in
-the refuge of their cellars, without light or
-food, are commencing to come out. The look
-of stupor of these poor peasants bears testimony
-to the long terror they have endured.</p>
-
-<p>The ground is covered with all kinds of
-debris, broken pieces of arms, articles of
-equipments and blood-stained clothing.</p>
-
-<p>The miserable wounded gathered up during
-the day are pale, livid and inert.</p>
-
-<p>Some, principally those seriously injured,
-have a vacant look, they seem not to understand
-what is said to them. They turn their
-staring eyes toward those who bring them
-help.</p>
-
-<p>Others, in a dangerous state of nervous
-shock, are shaking with convulsive tremblings.</p>
-
-<p>Still others, with uncovered wounds,
-where inflammation has already appeared,
-seem frenzied with pain; they beg that someone
-may end their sufferings, and, with
-drawn faces, writhe in the last torments of
-agony.</p>
-
-<p>Elsewhere, poor fellows are prostrated on
-the ground by bullets and bursting shells.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
-Their arms and legs have been fractured by
-the cannon wheels that have passed over
-them.</p>
-
-<p>The shock of the cylindrical ball shatters
-the bones, so that the wound it causes is always
-very dangerous. The bursting of shells
-and the conical balls make extremely painful
-fractures, the internal injury being terrible.
-Every kind of pieces of bone, of earth, of
-lead, of clothing, of equipments, of shoes,
-aggravate and irritate the wounds of the
-patients and increase their sufferings.</p>
-
-<p>Those who cross this vast field of yesterday's
-battle meet at every step, in the midst
-of a confusion without parallel, inexpressible
-despair and suffering of every kind.</p>
-
-<p>Some of the battalions which had taken off
-their knapsacks during the battle, at last
-find them again, but they have been robbed
-of all their contents. During the night, vagabonds
-have stolen everything. A grave loss
-to the poor men whose linen and uniforms
-are stained and torn. Not only do they find
-themselves deprived of their clothing, but
-even their smallest savings, all their fortune
-as well as of the treasures dear to them;
-small family mementoes given by mothers,
-sisters and sweethearts.</p>
-
-<p>In several places the dead are stripped of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>
-their clothing by the thieves, who do not always
-spare the wounded who are still living.</p>
-
-<p>Besides these painful sights are others still
-more dramatic.</p>
-
-<p>Here the old, retired General Le Breton
-wanders, seeking his son-in-law, the
-wounded General Douay, who has left his
-daughter, Madame Douay, in the midst of
-the tumult of war, in a state of the most
-cruel uneasiness. There, Colonel de Maleville,
-shot at Casa Nova, expires. Here, it is
-Colonel de Genlis, whose dangerous wound
-causes a burning fever. There, Lieutenant
-de Selve of the artillery, only a few weeks
-out of Saint Cyr, has his right arm amputated
-on the battle-field, where he was
-wounded.</p>
-
-<p>I help care for a poor sergeant-major of
-the Vincennes Chasseurs, both of whose legs
-are pierced through with balls. I meet him
-again in the Brescia Hospital; but he will
-die crossing Mount Cenis.</p>
-
-<p>Lieutenant de Guiseul, who was believed
-dead, is picked up on the spot, where, having
-fallen with his standard, he was lying in a
-swoon. The courageous sub-lieutenant
-Fournier, of the flying-guard, gravely
-wounded, finishes in his twentieth year a
-military career commenced in his tenth year<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
-by voluntarily enlisting in the foreign legion.
-They bury the Commander de Pontgibaud,
-who died during the night, and the young
-Count de Saint Paer, who had attained the
-rank of major hardly seven days before.
-General Auger, of the artillery, is carried to
-the field hospital of Casa Morino. His left
-shoulder has been shattered by a six-inch
-shell, part of which remained imbedded for
-twenty-four hours in the interior of the
-muscles of the armpit. Carried to Castiglione
-he is attacked with gangrene, and dies
-as a result of the disarticulation of the arm.
-General de Ladmirault and General Dieu,
-both gravely wounded, also arrived at Castiglione.</p>
-
-<p>The lack of water becomes greater and
-greater. The sun is burning, the ditches are
-dried up. The soldiers have only brackish
-and unwholesome water to appease their
-thirst. Where even the least little stream
-or spring trickling drop by drop is found,
-guards with loaded guns have great difficulty
-in preserving this water for the most urgent
-needs.</p>
-
-<p>Wounded horses, who have lost their riders,
-and have wandered during the whole
-night, drag themselves to their comrades,
-from whom they seem to beg for help. They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
-are put out of their agony by a bullet. One
-of these noble chargers comes alone into the
-midst of a French company. The rich saddle-bag,
-fastened to the saddle, shows that it
-belongs to Prince von Isenberg. Afterwards,
-the wounded Prince himself is found; but
-careful nursing during a serious illness will
-allow him to return to Germany, where his
-family, in ignorance of the truth, have believed
-him dead and have mourned for him.</p>
-
-<p>Among the dead some have peaceful faces;
-these are the men who were struck suddenly
-and died at once. But those who did not
-perish immediately have their limbs rigid
-and twisted in agony, their bodies are covered
-with dirt; their hands clutch the earth,
-their eyes are open and staring, a convulsive
-contraction has uncovered their clenched
-teeth.</p>
-
-<p>Three days and three nights are passed in
-burying the dead who are left on the battle-field.</p>
-
-<p>On so large a field, many of the corpses
-hidden in the ditches, covered by the thickets
-or by some uneveness of the ground are
-discovered very late. They, as well as the
-dead horses, emit a fetid stench.</p>
-
-<p>In the French army a number of soldiers
-from each company are detailed to recognize<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>
-and bury the dead. As far as possible soldiers
-of the same corps must pick up their
-fellow-members. They write down the number
-stamped on the clothing of the dead.
-Then, aided in this painful duty by paid
-Lombardy peasants, they put the corpses in
-a common grave. Unfortunately, it is possible
-that, because of the unavoidable rapidity
-in this labor, and because of the carelessness
-and inattention of the paid workmen,
-more than one living man is buried with the
-dead.</p>
-
-<p>The letters, papers, orders, money,
-watches found on the officers are sent to
-their families, but the great number of the
-interred bodies make the faithful accomplishment
-of this task impossible.</p>
-
-<p>A son, the idol of his parents, educated
-and cared for during many years by a loving
-mother who was uneasy at the very
-slightest indisposition. A brilliant officer,
-beloved by his family, having left at home
-his wife and children. A young soldier who
-has just left his betrothed and his mother,
-sisters and old father; there he lies in the
-mud and in the dust, soaked in his own blood.
-Because of the wound in his head his face
-has become unrecognizable. He is in agony,
-he expires in cruel suffering, and his body,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
-black, swollen, hideous, thrown in a shallow
-grave, is covered with a little lime and earth.
-The birds of prey will not respect his feet
-and hands protruding from the muddy
-ground of the slope which serves him as a
-tomb. Someone will come back, will carry
-more earth there and, perhaps, will put up
-a wooden cross above the place where his
-body rests, and that will be all.</p>
-
-<p>The corpses of the Austrians, clothed in
-mud-stained cloaks, torn linen jackets, white
-tunics stained with blood are strewn by
-thousands on the hills and plains of Medole.
-Clouds of crows fly over the bodies in hopes
-of having them for prey.</p>
-
-<p>By hundreds they are crowded into a great
-common grave.</p>
-
-<p>Once out of the line of fire, Austrian soldiers,
-slightly wounded, young first-year recruits,
-throw themselves on the ground from
-fatigue and inanition, then weakened by
-loss of blood, they die miserably from exhaustion
-and hunger.</p>
-
-<p>Unhappy mothers in Austria, Hungary
-and Bohemia, your sorrow will be great
-when you learn that your children died in
-the enemy's country, without care, without
-help, and without consolation!</p>
-
-<p>The lot of the Austrian prisoners-of-war<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>
-is very sad. Led like simple cattle, they are
-sent in a crowd, with a strong guard, to
-Brescia, where they at last find repose, if
-not a kind welcome.</p>
-
-<p>Some French soldiers wish to do violence
-to the Hungarian captives whom they take
-for Croates, adding furiously that those
-"Glued-pantalooners," as they called them,
-always killed the wounded. I succeeded in
-tearing from their hands these unfortunate,
-trembling captives.</p>
-
-<p>On the battle-field many Austrians are
-permitted to keep their swords. They have
-the same food as the French officers. Some
-troops of the allied army fraternally divide
-their biscuits with the famished prisoners.
-Some even take the wounded on their backs
-and carry them to the ambulances. Near me
-the lieutenant of the guard bandages with
-his white handkerchief the head of a Tyrolese
-which was scarcely covered with old,
-torn, and dirty linen.</p>
-
-<p>During the previous day at the height
-of the battle, Commandant de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt,
-the fearless African hunter,
-threw himself upon a squad of Hungarians;
-but his horse having been pierced through
-with balls, he himself was struck by two
-shots and made prisoner by the Hungarians.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
-Learning that wounded La Rochefoucauld
-had been captured by the soldiers, the Austrian
-Emperor ordered that he be treated
-with great kindness and given the best care.</p>
-
-<p>The commissary continue to pick up the
-wounded. These, bandaged or not, are carried
-by mules or wheelbarrows and litters
-to the field hospitals in the villages and
-towns near the place where they fell.</p>
-
-<p>In these towns, churches, monasteries,
-houses, parks, courts, streets and promenades
-are transformed into improvised hospitals.</p>
-
-<p>In Carpenedolo, Castel-Goffredo, Medole,
-Guidizzolo, Volta and neighboring places are
-arriving many of the wounded. But the
-greater number are carried to Castiglione,
-where the least mutilated have already succeeded
-in dragging themselves.</p>
-
-<p>Behold the long procession of vehicles of
-the Commissary Department, loaded with
-soldiers, non-commissioned officers and officers
-of all grades mixed together; cavalry-men,
-infantry, artillerymen, bleeding,
-fatigued, lacerated, covered with dust. Each
-jolt of the wagons which carry them imposing
-on them new suffering.</p>
-
-<p>Then the mules come trotting in, their
-gait drawing, each instant, bitter cries from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
-the throats of the unfortunate wounded
-whom they are bearing.</p>
-
-<p>Many die during the transportation.</p>
-
-<p>Their corpses are put on the sides of the
-roads. To others is left the duty of burying
-them. These dead are enscribed, "Disappeared."</p>
-
-<p>The wounded are sent to Castiglione.
-From there they are carried on to the hospitals
-in Brescia, Cremona, Bergama, Milan,
-and other cities of Lombardy, where they
-will receive the regular care and will submit
-to the necessary amputations. But as the
-means of transportation are very scarce,
-they are obliged to wait several days in
-Castiglione. This city, where the confusion
-surpasses all imagination, soon becomes for
-the French and Austrians a vast temporary
-hospital.</p>
-
-<p>On the day of battle the field-hospital of
-headquarters is established there. Chests of
-lint are unpacked, dressings for wounds and
-medicate necessities are prepared. The inhabitants
-give everything that they can get
-ready&mdash;coverings, linens, mattresses and
-straw.</p>
-
-<p>The Hospital of Castiglione, the monastery,
-the Barracks of San Luigi, the Church
-of the Capucines, the stations of the police,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
-the churches of Maggiore, San Giuseppe,
-Santa Rosalie, are filled with the wounded
-lying crowded on the straw.</p>
-
-<p>Straw is also arranged for them in the
-courts and in the public parks. Plank roofs
-are quickly put up and linen is stretched to
-protect them from the hot sun.</p>
-
-<p>The private dwellings are soon converted
-into hospitals. Officers and soldiers are there
-received by the inhabitants.</p>
-
-<p>Some of these last run through the streets
-anxiously searching for a physician for their
-guests. Later, others, in consternation, go
-and come through the city, insistently begging
-that someone take away from their
-houses the corpses with which they do not
-know what to do.</p>
-
-<p>A number of French surgeons, having remained
-in Castiglione, aided by young Italian
-physicians and by hospital orderlies, dress
-and bandage the wounds.</p>
-
-<p>But all this is very insufficient.</p>
-
-<p>The number of convoys of wounded becomes
-so great during Saturday that the administration,
-the citizens and the few soldiers
-left in Castiglione are incapable of
-caring for so much misery.</p>
-
-<p>Then, melancholy scenes occur. There is
-water; there is food; and nevertheless the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
-wounded are dying of hunger and thirst.
-There is much lint, but not enough hands to
-put it on the wounds! The greater number
-of the army of physicians must go to Cavriana;
-the hospital orderlies make mistakes,
-and hands are lacking at this critical moment.</p>
-
-<p>A voluntary service, good or bad, must be
-organized. But this is difficult in the midst
-of such disorder, to which is added a panic
-of the Castiglionians, which results in aggravating
-the misery of the wounded. This
-panic is caused by a very insignificant circumstance.</p>
-
-<p>As each corps of the French army had
-recovered itself, after taking up its position,
-on the day after the battle, convoys of prisoners
-were formed who were sent to Brescia,
-through Castiglione and Montechiaro. The
-inhabitants took one band of captives coming
-from Cavriana escorted by hussars, for the
-Austrian army returning in force. Alarm
-was given by the frightened peasants, by the
-assistant conductors of the baggage, by
-itinerant merchants who follow the troops
-in a campaign.</p>
-
-<p>Immediately all the houses are closed, the
-inhabitants barricading themselves in their
-homes, burning the tri-color flags which had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
-adorned their windows, hiding themselves
-in the cellars or the attics. Some run into
-the fields with their wives and children
-carrying with them their most valuable possessions.
-Others, less frightened and more
-sagacious, remain at home, but take in the
-first Austrian wounded upon whom they lay
-their hands and overwhelm them with kindness
-and care.</p>
-
-<p>In the streets, on the roads, blocked by
-wagonloads of wounded, by convoys of supplies,
-are rapid transport wagons, horses flying
-in all directions, amid cries of fear, of
-anger and of pain. Baggage wagons are
-overturned, bread and biscuits fall into the
-gutter. The drivers detach the horses,
-dashing away with hanging bridles on the
-road to Brescia, spreading the alarm as they
-go. They collide with carts of provisions
-and convoys of wounded. These latter, trodden
-under foot and frenzied with terror, beg
-to be taken with them. In the city some of
-them deaf to all orders tear away their bandages,
-go staggering out of the churches, into
-the streets where they are jostled and bruised
-and finally fall from exhaustion and pain.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>What agonies! What suffering during the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
-days of June twenty-fifth, twenty-sixth and
-twenty-seventh!</p>
-
-<p>Wounds poisoned by heat, by dust and by
-lack of water and care, have become intensely
-painful.</p>
-
-<p>Suffocating stenches pollute the air in
-spite of efforts to keep in good condition
-these local hospitals.</p>
-
-<p>Every quarter of an hour the convoys sent
-to Castiglione are bringing new loads of
-wounded. The insufficiency in the number
-of assistants, of hospital orderlies, of servants
-is cruelly felt.</p>
-
-<p>In spite of the activity of the Commissary
-Department, which is organizing transportation
-to Brescia by means of ox-carts; in spite
-of the spontaneous care of the inhabitants
-of Castiglione, who transport the sick, the
-departures are much less numerous than the
-arrivals, and the crowding grows unceasingly
-greater.</p>
-
-<p>On the stone floors of the churches of
-Castiglione are placed, side by side, men of
-every nation. French, Germans, Slavs and
-Arabs are temporarily crowded to the most
-remote part of the chapels. Many have no
-longer the strength to move themselves and
-cannot move or stir in the narrow space
-where they are lying. Oaths, blasphemies<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
-and cries which can be interpreted by no expression,
-are sounding beneath the arches of
-the sanctuaries.</p>
-
-<p>"Ah, sir, how I suffer!" say to me some
-of these poor fellows. "We are abandoned,
-left to die miserably, and yet we fought
-bravely!" They can get no rest, in spite of
-the nights they have passed in sleeplessness
-and long-endured fatigue. In their distress
-they beg for help which is not given. Some,
-in despair, roll in convulsions which will
-end in tetanus and death. Others, believing
-that the cold water poured on their festered
-wounds produce worms, which appear in
-great numbers, refuse to have the bandages
-moistened. Others still, whose wounds were
-dressed at the improvised hospitals on the
-battle-fields, are given no further attention
-during the halt they are obliged to make in
-Castiglione, and as these bandages are very
-tight, in view of the roughness of the transportation
-and have not been changed, they
-are suffering veritable tortures.</p>
-
-<p>These, whose faces are black with flies,
-with which the air is infested and which
-cling to their wounds, cast on all sides distracted
-glances. But no one notices. On
-these, the cloaks, shirts, flesh and blood form
-a compact mass that cannot be removed.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Here, lies a soldier totally disfigured; his
-tongue hanging far out of his broken jaws.
-He stirs and wishes to rise. I moisten his
-dried palate and hardened tongue. Seizing a
-handful of lint I soak it in a bucket and
-squeeze the water from this improvised
-sponge in the formless opening which is in
-the place of his mouth.</p>
-
-<p>There, is an unfortunate man a part of
-whose face, the nose, lips and chin have
-been cut away by the stroke of a sword. Incapable
-of speech, half blind, he makes signs
-with his hands, and by that heartrending
-pantomime, accompanied by guttural sounds,
-draws attention to himself. I give him a
-drink by dropping gently on his blood-covered
-face a little pure water.</p>
-
-<p>A third, with a cleft head, expires, his
-blood spreading over the stone floor of the
-church. He presents a horrible sight. His
-companions in misfortune push him with
-their feet, for he incommodes the passage.
-I protect his last moments and cover with a
-handkerchief his poor head which he still
-feebly moves.</p>
-
-<p>Although every house has become an infirmary,
-and every family has dedicated itself
-to nursing the wounded officers, that it
-has gathered in, nevertheless I succeed by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
-Sunday morning in collecting a certain number
-of women of the people, who assist, as
-best they can, in the efforts made to help so
-many thousands of wounded men who are
-without succor. Food must be given, and
-above all, drink, to the men who literally are
-dying from hunger and thirst. Wounds must
-be bandaged, blood-stained bodies, covered
-all over with dirt and vermin, must be
-washed, and all this must be done in the extremely
-hot weather, in the midst of the
-suffocating, nauseating stench, and of groans
-and cries of pain.</p>
-
-<p>Nevertheless, a little group of volunteers
-is formed. I organize, well as I can, aid in
-the section which seems to be the most without
-care, and I choose one of the churches of
-Castiglione, called Chiesa Maggiore.</p>
-
-<p>Nearly five hundred soldiers are crowded
-together on the straw, about one hundred
-others, suffering and groaning, are lying in
-the public park before the church.</p>
-
-<p>In the church the women of Lombardy go
-from one to the other with jars and pitchers
-full of clear water, which serves to appease
-the thirst and to bathe the wounds. Some
-of these improvised nurses are good-hearted
-old women, others are charming young girls.
-Their gentleness, goodness, compassion, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
-their attentive care restores a little courage
-to the wounded.</p>
-
-<p>The boys of the neighborhood come and
-go between the church and the nearby
-springs with buckets, pitchers and jars.</p>
-
-<p>The distribution of water is followed by
-that of bouillon and soup, of which the servants
-of the Commissary Department are
-obliged to cook a marvelous quantity.</p>
-
-<p>Thick bundles of lint are placed here and
-there. Everyone can use it freely; but
-bandages, linen and shirts are lacking, and
-one can hardly procure the most necessary
-articles. I purchase, however, some new
-shirts by the aid of those kind-hearted
-women who have already given all their old
-linen; and, on Monday, early in the morning,
-I send my coachman to Brescia to bring
-back supplies. He returns after some hours
-with his cabriolet loaded with sponges, linen,
-pins, cigars, tobacco, camomile, mallow, sambuca,
-oranges, sugar and lemons.</p>
-
-<p>This makes it possible to give refreshing
-lemonade, wash the wounds with mallow-water,
-put on warm compresses and renew
-the material of the bandages.</p>
-
-<p>In the meantime we have gained some recruits,
-who help us. The first is an old naval
-officer, then some English tourists, who, desiring<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>
-to see everything, have entered the
-church, and whom we keep almost by force.
-Two other Englishmen, on the contrary,
-show themselves desirous to help. They distribute
-cigars to the Austrians. An Italian
-priest, three or four travelers, a Swiss merchant
-from Neuchatel, a Parisian journalist,
-who afterwards takes charge of the relief in
-the adjacent church, and some officers whose
-company has received orders to remain in
-Castiglione, also aid us.</p>
-
-<p>But soon some of those voluntary nurses
-go away, not being able to bear the sight of
-this suffering. The priest follows their example,
-but he reappears, however, with delicate
-kindness to make us smell aromatic
-herbs and bottles of salts. A tourist, oppressed
-at the sight of these living debris,
-swooned from emotion. The merchant from
-Neuchatel perseveres for two days, bandaging
-wounds and writing for the dying letters
-of farewell to their families. We are obliged
-to quiet the compassionate excitement of a
-Belgian, fearing that he will have an attack
-of burning fever.</p>
-
-<p>Some men of the detachment, left to garrison
-the city, try to help their comrades, but
-cannot endure the sight which breaks down
-their courage, striking too keenly upon their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
-imagination. Nevertheless, a corporal of the
-engineer corps, wounded at Magenta, almost
-restored to health and about to return to his
-battalion, but whose orders leave him a few
-days of liberty, aids us with courage and
-perseverance.</p>
-
-<p>The French Commissary, remaining in
-Castiglione, finally grants, on my insistence,
-authority to utilize for service in the hospitals,
-some healthy prisoners, and three or
-four Austrian physicians who aid the efforts
-of the few surgeons left in Castiglione.</p>
-
-<p>A German physician remaining voluntarily
-on the battle-field to care for the soldiers,
-dedicates himself to the injured of
-both armies. After three days the Commissary
-sends him back to Mantua to rejoin his
-compatriots.</p>
-
-<p>"Do not leave me to die," exclaim some of
-these agonized men seizing my hand in despair,
-but their death is not long delayed.</p>
-
-<p>"Ah, sir, if you would write to my father,
-that he might console my poor mother!" said
-to me, with tears in his eyes, a corporal
-named Mazuet, scarcely twenty years old. I
-noted down the address of his parents and
-a few minutes later he had ceased to live.
-The parents, who dwelt on rue d'Alger, in
-Lyons, and of whom this young man, enlisted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
-as a volunteer, was the only son, received no
-other information about their child than that
-which I sent to them. He very probably,
-like so many others, has been enscribed,
-"disappeared."</p>
-
-<p>An old sergeant, decorated with many
-chevrons, repeated with profound melancholy
-and an air of conviction full of bitterness:
-"If someone had cared for me sooner,
-I should have lived, whereas, this evening I
-will die." That evening he died.</p>
-
-<p>"I do not want to die! I do not want to
-die!" cries, with savage energy, a grenadier
-of the guard, full of strength and health
-three days before, but who, mortally
-wounded, and feeling sure that his minutes
-are irrevocably numbered, fights against this
-dark certainty. I talk to him, he listens to
-me, and this man, calmed, soothed, consoled,
-finally resigns himself to die with the simplicity
-of a child.</p>
-
-<p>In the back of the church, on the steps of
-an altar, a Chasseur d'Afrique lies on straw.
-Three balls have struck him, one on the right
-side, one on the left shoulder, the third remained
-in the right leg. It is Sunday, and
-he asserts that he has eaten nothing since
-Friday. He is covered with dried mud
-flecked with blood, his clothing is torn; his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>
-shirt is in tatters. After I had washed his
-wounds, given him a little bouillon and wrapped
-him in covers, he put my hand to his lips
-with an expression of unspeakable gratitude.
-Later we were able to send him to a better
-hospital.</p>
-
-<p>At the entrance of the church is a Hungarian
-who cries unceasingly, calling in
-heartrending tones for a physician. His
-back and his shoulders, ploughed with grapeshot,
-appear as if torn by iron hooks and are
-one mass of quivering, raw flesh. The rest
-of his body is swollen, green and black&mdash;horrible.
-He can neither lie down nor sit up.
-I dip some packages of lint in cool water and
-try to make a cushion for him, but gangrene
-soon carries him off.</p>
-
-<p>A little further on lies a dying Zouave
-who is weeping bitter tears, and we console
-him as if he were a little child. The preceding
-fatigue, the lack of food and repose,
-the intensity of the pain, the fear of dying
-without help, excites even in these brave soldiers
-a nervous sensibility which betrays
-itself by sobs. One of their chief thoughts,
-when they are not suffering too cruelly, is the
-memory of their mother, and the fear of the
-grief she will experience on learning of their
-fate. On the corpse of a soldier we found,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
-hanging from his neck, a medallion containing
-the portrait of an aged woman, without
-doubt his mother, which with his left hand
-he was pressing on his heart.</p>
-
-<p>In the part nearest the great door of the
-church Maggiore lie, now, on straw, enveloped
-in covers, about a hundred French non-commissioned
-officers and soldiers. They are
-ranged in two nearly parallel ranks, between
-which one can pass. Their wounds have
-been dressed. The distribution of soup has
-taken place. They are quiet. They follow
-me with their eyes; all heads turn to the
-left if I go to the left, to the right when I go
-to the right. Sincere thanks are visible on
-their astonished faces. "One can easily see
-that he is a Parisian," say some. "No," retort
-others, "he seems to be a Southerner."
-"Truly, sir, are you not from Bordeaux?"
-asks a third, and each wishes that I might be
-from his city or province. I met afterwards
-some of these wounded men, who had become
-crippled invalids. Recognizing me, they
-stopped to express their gratitude because
-I had nursed them in Castiglione. "We
-called you 'the gentleman in white,'" said
-one, in his picturesque language, "for you
-were always dressed entirely in white. It
-is true the weather did not fail to be hot."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The resignation of the poor soldiers was
-often touching; they suffered without complaint,
-they died humbly and silently.</p>
-
-<p>On the other side of the church, some
-wounded Austrian prisoners fear to receive
-care which they distrust. They angrily tear
-off their bandages, opening their bleeding
-wounds. Others remain silent, dejected, impassive.
-But the greater number are far
-from being insensible to kindness and their
-faces express their thanks. One of them,
-about nineteen years of age, who with forty
-of his compatriots is pushed into the deep
-recesses of the church, has been without food
-for two days. He has lost one eye, he trembles
-with fever, he is scarcely able to speak
-or to drink a little bouillon. Our nursing revives
-him; twenty-four hours later when we
-are able to send him to Brescia, he leaves us
-with sorrow, almost with despair, pressing
-to his lips the hands of the good-hearted
-women of Castiglione, whom he entreats not
-to abandon him.</p>
-
-<p>Another prisoner, a prey to a burning
-fever, draws attention to himself. He is not
-yet twenty years of age and his hair is already
-perfectly white; it became white during
-the battle, as his wounded comrades near
-whom he lies assure us.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The women of Castiglione, seeing that I
-make no distinction in nationality, imitate
-my example, showing the same kindness to
-all these men of such different origin and
-who are to them all equally strangers. "Tutti
-Fratelli," they repeat with compassion. "All
-are brothers."</p>
-
-<p>Honor to these compassionate women, to
-these young girls of Castiglione! As devoted
-as they are modest, they give way neither
-before fatigue, nor disgust, nor sacrifice;
-nothing repels, wearies or disheartens them.</p>
-
-<p>For the soldier recommencing the everyday
-life of the campaign, after the fatigue
-and emotions of a battle like that of Solferino,
-the memories of his family become
-more strong than ever. That mental state is
-vividly described by the following lines from
-an officer writing from Volta to his brother
-in France:</p>
-
-<p>"You cannot imagine how the soldiers are
-moved when they catch sight of the baggage-master
-who distributes the letters to the
-army; because he brings to us, understand,
-news from France, from our native land,
-from our parents, from our friends. Each
-one listens, watches, and stretches to him
-eager hands. The happy men, who receive
-a letter&mdash;open it hurriedly and devour it immediately;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
-the rest, deprived of this happiness,
-depart with heavy heart and isolate
-themselves in order to think about those so
-far away.</p>
-
-<p>"Sometimes a name is called to which there
-is no response. The men glance at each
-other, they question among themselves, they
-wait. 'Dead,' murmurs a voice, and the
-baggage-master files the letter away and returns
-it unopened to the writer. They had
-rejoiced when they sent it, and had said to
-one another. 'He will be happy to receive
-it!' When they see it returned, their poor
-hearts will break."</p>
-
-<p>The streets of Castiglione are quieter;
-the deaths and the departures have left
-vacancies.</p>
-
-<p>In spite of the arrival of new wagons full
-of wounded, order, little by little, is established
-and regular attendance commences.</p>
-
-<p>The convoys from Castiglione to Brescia
-are more frequent. They consist principally
-of hospital wagons and heavy carts which,
-constantly carrying, to the French Commissary
-Department, gun supplies, and provisions,
-go back empty to Brescia.</p>
-
-<p>They are drawn by oxen, walking slowly
-under the fierce sun and through the thick
-dust in which the pedestrian sinks to his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
-ankles. These uncomfortable wagons are
-covered with branches of trees which very
-imperfectly protect from the rays of the
-coming sun. The wounded, piled up, one
-may say, one upon another. It is difficult to
-imagine the torments of this long ride.</p>
-
-<p>In these wagons some groan, others call
-for their mother; there are the ravings and
-delirium of fever, sometimes curses and
-blasphemies.</p>
-
-<p>The least interest shown to these unhappy
-men, a kind salutation, gives them pleasure
-and they return it at once with expressions
-of gratitude.</p>
-
-<p>In all the villages along the road leading
-to Brescia, the women sitting before their
-doors, silently prepare lint. The Communal
-authorities have had prepared, drinks, bread
-and nourishment. When a convoy arrives
-the women of the village go to the wagons,
-wash the wounds, renew the lint compresses,
-which they moisten with fresh water. They
-pour spoonfuls of bouillon, wine or lemonade
-in the mouths of those who have not the
-strength to raise their heads or extend their
-arms.</p>
-
-<p>In Montechiaro, three small hospitals are
-under the care of the women of the people,
-who nurse with as much wisdom as kindheartedness.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>
-In Guidizzolo, about one thousand
-invalids are placed in a large castle. In
-Volta, some hundreds of Austrians are received
-in an old monastery which has been
-transformed into barracks. In Cavriana,
-they establish in the church a number of
-Hungarians who had been forty-eight hours
-without help. In the field-hospital of the
-headquarters, chloroform is used in operating;
-this produces, in the Austrians, almost
-immediate insensibility, and in the French
-nervous contractions, accompanied by exaltation
-before unconsciousness results.</p>
-
-<p>The people of Cavriana are entirely without
-provisions; the soldiers of the guard feed
-them by sharing with them their rations and
-their mess; the country has been laid waste,
-and almost everything edible, cattle, garden
-produce, etc., has been sold to the Austrian
-troops. The French army has campaign
-food in abundance, but only with difficulty
-can it procure the butter, meat and vegetables
-necessary for the ordinary food of
-soldiers.</p>
-
-<p>The wounded of the Sardinian army, who
-have been transported to Desenzano, Rivoltella,
-Lonato, and Pozzolenzo, are in conditions
-less disadvantageous than the French
-and Austrians temporarily established in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
-Castiglione&mdash;Desenzano and Rivoltella not
-having been occupied at a few days interval
-by two different armies. Food is still to be
-found there; the hospitals are better kept
-and the inhabitants, less troubled, actively
-support the nursing service. The sick are
-sent to Brescia in good carts provided with
-thick beds of hay. They are protected from
-the sun by arches of interlaced foliage which
-support a strong linen cover.</p>
-
-<p>The feeling that one has of his own insufficiency
-in such solemn circumstances, is an
-inexpressible suffering. It is extremely painful
-to feel that you cannot help all those who
-lie before you, because of their great number,
-or aid those who appeal to you with supplications.
-Long hours pass before you
-reach the most unfortunate. You are stopped
-by one, petitioned by another, all equally
-worthy of pity. Embarrassed at each step
-by the multitude of miserable sufferers who
-press about you, who surround you, who beg
-support and help. Then, why turn to the left,
-while on the right are so many men who will
-soon die without a word of consolation,
-without even a single glass of water to appease
-their burning thirst? The thought of
-the importance of one human life that one
-might be able to save; the desire to alleviate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
-the tortures of so many unfortunate and to
-restore their courage, the forced and unceasing
-activity which one imposes on himself
-in such moments, gives a supreme energy, a
-thirst to carry help to the greatest number
-possible. One becomes no longer moved by
-the thousand scenes of this terrible tragedy,
-one passes, with indifference, before the most
-hideously disfigured corpses and glances almost
-coldly at sights, so much more horrible
-than those already described, that the pen
-refuses absolutely to depict them; but it happens,
-sometimes, that the heart suddenly
-breaks, struck all at once by a poignant sadness
-at the sight of a single incident, an
-isolated fact, an unexpected detail, which
-goes directly to the soul, draws out our sympathy,
-moves the most impressionable cords
-of our being and brings a realization of the
-whole horror of this tragedy.</p>
-
-<p>Worn out with fatigue, but unable to sleep,
-I have my little carriage harnessed on the
-afternoon of Monday, the twenty-seventh,
-and go away about 6 o'clock to breathe in the
-open air the freshness of the evening and to
-find a little repose by escaping, for a moment,
-from the dismal sights which surround me
-on every side in Castiglione.</p>
-
-<p>It was a favorable time, for no movement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
-of the troops had been ordered during the
-day.</p>
-
-<p>Calm had succeeded the terrible agitation
-of the previous days. Here and there are
-visible pools of dried blood which redden the
-battle-field. One meets newly turned earth,
-white with freshly strewn lime, indicating
-the place where repose the victims of the
-twenty-fourth.</p>
-
-<p>At Solferino, whose square tower has
-proudly dominated for some centuries that
-country, where for the third time have just
-met two of the greatest powers of modern
-days, one still picks up much debris which
-covers, even in the cemeteries, the crosses
-and the bloody stones of the tombs. The
-ground is strewn with swords, guns, haversacks,
-cartridge boxes, tin boxes, shakos, helmets
-and belts. Almost everything is twisted,
-torn and broken.</p>
-
-<p>I arrive at Cavriana at about 9 o'clock in
-the evening.</p>
-
-<p>The train of war surrounding the headquarters
-of the Emperor of France is an
-imposing sight.</p>
-
-<p>I seek the Marshal, Duke of Magenta, with
-whom I am personally acquainted.</p>
-
-<p>Not knowing exactly where his army corps
-is encamped, I stop my little carriage on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
-park opposite the house occupied, since Friday
-evening, by the Emperor Napoleon. I
-find myself suddenly in the midst of a group
-of generals, sitting on straw chairs and
-wooden stools, smoking their cigars and inhaling
-the fresh air before the improvised
-palace of the Sovereign.</p>
-
-<p>While I inquire about the location of Marshal
-MacMahon, several generals, very suspicious
-of my arrival, question the corporal,
-wounded at Magenta, who begged permission
-to accompany me on this excursion
-through the armies as his rank would ensure
-me safe conduct. Sitting beside the coachman,
-he gives me, in a certain degree, official
-character. The generals desire to know who
-I am and to discover the object of the mission
-with which they suppose I am charged,
-for they cannot imagine that a simple traveler
-would dare to risk himself alone in the
-midst of the camps at such a time.</p>
-
-<p>The corporal, who knows nothing, remains
-impenetrable, while he replies respectfully to
-their questions. Their curiosity increases
-considerably when they see me leave for
-Borghetto where the Duke of Magenta is.</p>
-
-<p>The second corps, commanded by the Marshal,
-has been moved from Cavriana to Castellaro,
-which is at a distance of five kilometers;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>
-its divisions are encamped on the
-right and left of the road leading from Castellaro
-to Monzambano. The Marshal, himself,
-with his staff, occupies Borghetto.</p>
-
-<p>Although the night has arrived, we continue
-our way. The fires of the bivouac, fed
-by whole trees, and the lighted tents of the
-officers, present a picturesque appearance.
-The last murmurings of a sleeping, yet
-watchful, camp soothes a little my excited
-imagination. Under this beautiful star-lit
-sky, a solemn silence at last takes the place of
-the noises and emotions of the preceding
-days. I breathe with delight the pure sweet
-air of a splendid Italian night.</p>
-
-<p>Having obtained only incomplete information,
-we mistake our way and follow a road
-leading to Volta. We are about to fall into
-the army corps of General Neil, made Marshal
-three days before, which is encamped
-on the outskirts of the town.</p>
-
-<p>My Italian coachman is so frightened at
-the idea of being very near the Austrian
-lines that, more than once, I am obliged to
-take the reins from his hands and give them
-to the corporal seated beside him on the box.
-The poor man had run away from Mantua
-several days before to save himself from the
-Austrian service, taking refuge in Brescia,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
-he hired out as a coachman. His fears grow
-greater on hearing the discharge of a distant
-gun, fired by someone who disappears in the
-underbrush. After the retreat of the Austrian
-army, many of the deserters hid themselves
-in the cellars of the houses of the villages,
-abandoned by their owners and partially
-plundered. In order not to be captured,
-they, at first, ate and drank in those underground
-retreats, then, being at the end of
-their resources and pressed by hunger, but
-well armed, they ventured out at night.</p>
-
-<p>The unhappy and terrified Mantuan can
-no longer guide his horse. He constantly
-turns his head, he casts affrighted glances at
-all the thickets along the road, at all the
-hedges and hovels, fearing, any moment, to
-see emerge some hidden Austrians.</p>
-
-<p>His fears increase at every turn of the
-road and he almost swoons, when, in the
-silence of the night we are surprised with a
-shot from a guard, whom we do not see on
-account of the darkness. His terror knows
-no limit when we almost collide with a large,
-wide open umbrella which we vaguely catch
-sight of at the side of the road near a path
-leading to Volta. That poor umbrella, riddled
-with bullets and balls was, probably, a
-part of the baggage of some canteen-woman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
-who had lost it during the storm of the
-twenty-fourth.</p>
-
-<p>We were retracing the road to reach
-Borghetto. It was after 11 o'clock. We
-were making the horse gallop and our modest
-vehicle rolled across the space, almost without
-noise, on to the Strato Cavallara, when
-cries of "Who goes there? Who goes there?
-Who goes there? or I fire," came like a bolt
-from the mouth of an invisible sentinel.
-"France," replies immediately a loud voice,
-which adds, in giving his rank: "Corporal
-in the First Engineer Corps, Company Seventh."
-"Go on," is the reply. Without this
-presence of mind of the corporal we would
-have received a shot almost in the face.</p>
-
-<p>Finally, at a quarter before twelve we
-reach, without other adventure, the first
-houses of Borghetto.</p>
-
-<p>All is dark and silent. However, a light
-shines on the ground floor of a house on the
-principal street, where are at work in a low
-room the accounting officers. Although embarrassed
-in their work and very much
-astonished at our appearance at such an
-hour, they treat us very kindly. A paymaster,
-Signor Outrey, gives me a cordial invitation
-to be his guest. His orderly brings a
-mattress on which I throw myself, completely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
-dressed, to rest for several hours,
-after drinking some excellent bouillon, which
-seems to me the more delicious as I am
-hungry and for several days have eaten nothing
-even passable. I can sleep quietly, not
-being, as in Castiglione, suffocated with
-fetid exhalations and tormented with the
-flies, which though satiated with corpses,
-attack also the living.</p>
-
-<p>The corporal and the driver settled themselves
-simply in the carriage, remaining in
-the street, but the unfortunate Mantuan, always
-in great terror, could not shut his eyes
-during the whole night and the next day he
-was more dead than alive.</p>
-
-<p>Tuesday, the twenty-eighth, at six in the
-morning I was received most kindly by Marshal
-MacMahon. At ten o'clock I was on the
-way to Cavriana. Soon after I entered the
-modest house, since historic, for there was
-lodged the Emperor Napoleon.</p>
-
-<p>At three o'clock in the afternoon I found
-myself once more in the midst of the
-wounded of Castiglione, who expressed their
-joy at seeing me again.</p>
-
-<p>The thirtieth of June I was in Brescia.</p>
-
-<p>This city, so charming and picturesque, is
-transformed, not into a large temporary
-shelter for the wounded like Castiglione, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
-into a vast hospital. Its two cathedrals, its
-palaces, its churches, its monasteries, its colleges,
-its barracks, in a word all its buildings
-receive the victims of Solferino.</p>
-
-<p>Fifteen thousand beds, of some sort, have
-been improvised in forty-eight hours. The
-inhabitants have done more than was ever
-done before under similar circumstances.</p>
-
-<p>In the centre of the city the old basilica,
-"il Duomo recchio," contains a thousand
-wounded. The people come to them in
-crowds, women of every class bring them
-quantities of oranges, jellies, biscuits and
-delicacies. The humblest widow or the poorest
-little old woman believes that she must
-present her tribute of sympathy and her
-modest offering.</p>
-
-<p>Similar scenes occur in the new cathedral,
-a magnificent temple of white marble, where
-the wounded are taken by the hundreds. It
-is the same in forty other buildings, churches
-or hospitals which contain nearly twenty
-thousand wounded.</p>
-
-<p>The municipality of Brescia understood
-the extraordinary duty imposed upon it by
-such grave circumstances. With a permanent
-existence it associates with itself the
-best men of the town, who bring to it eager
-co-operation.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>In opening a monastery, a school, a church,
-the municipality created, in a few hours, as
-if by magic, hospitals with hundreds of beds,
-vast kitchens, improvised laundries for linen
-and everything that would be necessary.</p>
-
-<p>These measures were taken with so much
-courage that, after a few days, one was able
-to admire the good order and regular management
-of these hurriedly arranged hospitals.
-The population of Brescia, which
-was forty thousand, was suddenly almost
-doubled by the great number of wounded and
-sick. The physicians, numbering one hundred
-and forty, displayed great self-devotion
-during the whole duration of their fatiguing
-service. They were helped by the medical
-students and some volunteers. Aid committees
-being organized, a special commission
-was appointed to receive donations of bedding,
-linen and provisions of all kinds; another
-commission administered the depot or
-central store house.</p>
-
-<p>In the large rooms of the hospitals, the
-officers are ordinarily separated from the soldiers.
-The Austrians are not mixed with
-the allies. The series of beds are all alike,
-on the shelf above the bed of each soldier,
-his uniform and military cap indicate to
-which branch of the service he belongs.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>They have commenced to refuse permission
-for the crowd to enter, it embarrasses
-and hinders the nurses.</p>
-
-<p>At the side of soldiers, with resigned faces,
-are others who murmur and complain. The
-idea of an amputation scarcely frightens the
-French soldier, because of his careless nature,
-but he is impatient and irritable; the
-Austrian, of a less thoughtless disposition,
-is more inclined to be melancholy in his
-isolation.</p>
-
-<p>I find in these hospital wards some of our
-wounded from Castiglione. They are better
-cared for now, but their torments are not
-ended.</p>
-
-<p>Here, is one of the heroes of the Imperial
-Flying Guard, wounded at Solferino. Shot
-in the leg, he passed several days at Castiglione,
-where I dressed his wounds for the
-first time. He is stretched on a straw mattress;
-the expression of his face denotes
-profound suffering; his eyes are hollow and
-shining; his great pallor gives evidence that
-purulent fever has set in to complicate and
-increase the gravity of his condition; his lips
-are dry; his voice trembles; the assurance of
-the brave man has given place to fear and
-timidity; care even unnerves him; he is
-afraid to have any one approach his poor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
-injured leg which the gangrene has already
-attacked.</p>
-
-<p>A French surgeon, who makes the amputations,
-passes by his bed; the sick man,
-whose touch is like burning iron, seizes his
-hand and presses it in his own.</p>
-
-<p>"Do not hurt me! My suffering is terrible!"
-he cries.</p>
-
-<p>But one must act, and without delay.
-Twenty other wounded must be operated on
-during the same morning, and one hundred
-and fifty are waiting for bandages. One has
-not time to pity a single case nor to await
-the end of his hesitation. The surgeon, cool
-and resolute, replies: "Let me do it." Then
-he rapidly lifts the covering. The broken leg
-is swollen double its natural size; from three
-places flows a quantity of fetid pus, purple
-stains prove that as an artery has been
-broken, the sole remedy, if there is one, is
-amputation.</p>
-
-<p>Amputation! Terrible word for this poor
-young man, who sees before him no other
-alternative than an immediate death or the
-miserable life of a cripple.</p>
-
-<p>He has no time to prepare himself for the
-last decision, and trembling with anguish,
-he cries out in despair: "Oh! What are you
-going to do?" The surgeon does not reply.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
-"Nurse, carry him away, make haste!" he
-says. But a heartrending cry bursts from
-that panting breast; the unskilled nurse has
-seized the motionless, yet sensitive, leg much
-too near the wound; the broken bones penetrating
-the flesh, has caused new torments to
-the soldier whose hanging leg shakes with
-the jolts of the transportation to the operating
-room.</p>
-
-<p>Fearful procession! It seems as if one
-were leading a victim to death.</p>
-
-<p>He lies finally on the operating table.
-Nearby, on another table, a linen covers the
-instruments. The surgeon, occupied with his
-work, hears and sees only his operation. A
-young army doctor holds the arms of the
-patient, while the nurse seizes the healthy
-leg and draws the invalid to the edge of the
-table. At this the frightened man shrieks:
-"Do not let me fall!" and he seizes convulsively
-in his arms the young physician, ready
-to support him and who pale from emotion
-is himself almost equally distressed.</p>
-
-<p>The operator, one knee on the floor and his
-hand armed with the terrible knife, places
-his arm about the gangrenous limb and cuts
-the skin all around. A piercing cry sounds
-through the hospital. The young physician,
-face to face, with the tormented man can see<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
-on his contracted features every detail of his
-atrocious agony.</p>
-
-<p>"Courage," he says, in a low tone to the
-soldier, whose hands he feels gripping his
-back, "two minutes more and you will be
-saved."</p>
-
-<p>The doctor stands up again; he separates
-the skin from the muscles which it covers,
-leaving them bare; as he draws back the skin
-he cuts away the flesh, then returning to the
-attack, with a vigorous turn, he cuts away
-every muscle to the bone; a torrent of blood
-gushes out of the arteries, just opened, covering
-the operator and flowing down on to
-the floor.</p>
-
-<p>Calm and expressionless, the rough operator
-does not speak a word; but, suddenly, in
-the midst of the silence reigning in the room,
-he turns in anger to the awkward nurse, reproaching
-him for not knowing how to press
-on the arteries. This latter, inexperienced,
-did not know how to prevent the hemorrhage
-by applying his thumb properly on the
-bleeding arteries.</p>
-
-<p>The wounded man, overcome by suffering,
-articulates feebly, "Oh! it is enough, let me
-die!" and a cold sweat runs down his face.</p>
-
-<p>But he must bear it still another minute,&mdash;a
-minute which seems an eternity.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The young physician, ever full of sympathy,
-counts the seconds as he watches sometimes
-the operating surgeon, sometimes the
-patient, whose courage he tries to sustain,
-saying to him: "Only one minute more!"</p>
-
-<p>Indeed, the moment for the saw has come
-and already one hears the grinding of the
-steel as it penetrates the living bone, separating
-from the body the member half
-gangrenous.</p>
-
-<p>But the pain has been too great for that
-weak, exhausted body; the groans have
-ceased, for the sick man has swooned. The
-surgeon, who is no longer guided by his cries
-and his groans, fearing that this silence may
-be that of death, looks at him uneasily to
-assure himself that he has not expired.</p>
-
-<p>The restoratives, held in reserve, succeed,
-with difficulty, in reviving his dull, half-closed,
-vacant eyes. The dying man, however,
-seems to return to life, he is weak and
-shattered, but at least his greatest sufferings
-are over.</p>
-
-<p>Imagine such an operation on an Austrian,
-understanding neither Italian nor French
-and letting himself be led like a sheep or an
-ox to slaughter without being able to exchange
-one word with his well-meaning tormentors!
-The French meet everywhere with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
-sympathy; they are flattered, pampered, encouraged;
-when one speaks to them about the
-battle of Solferino, they brighten up and
-discuss it: That memory, full of glory for
-them; drawing their thoughts elsewhere
-than on themselves, lessens a little their unhappiness.
-But the Austrians have not this
-good fortune. In the hospitals where they
-are crowded, I insist upon seeing them and
-almost by force enter their rooms. With
-what gratitude these good men welcome my
-words of consolation and the gift of a little
-tobacco! On their resigned faces is depicted
-a lively gratitude, which they do not know
-how to express. Their looks tell more than
-any word of thanks.</p>
-
-<p>Some of them possess two or three paper
-florins, a small fortune for them, but they
-cannot change this modest value for coins.</p>
-
-<p>The officers particularly show hearty appreciation
-of the attentions bestowed upon
-them. In the hospital where he is lodged,
-Prince von Isenburg occupies with another
-German prince, a comfortable little room.</p>
-
-<p>During several successive days I distribute,
-without distinction of nationality,
-tobacco, pipes and cigars in the churches and
-hospitals where the odor of the tobacco lessens
-a little the nauseous stench produced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
-by the crowding of so many patients in
-suffocating places. Besides that, it is a distraction,
-a means of dispelling the fears of
-the wounded before the amputation of a
-member; not a few are operated on with a
-pipe in the mouth, and some die smoking.</p>
-
-<p>Finally all the supply of tobacco in Brescia
-is exhausted. It must be brought from
-Milan.</p>
-
-<p>An eminent inhabitant of Brescia, Signor
-Carlo Borghetti, takes me in his carriage,
-from hospital to hospital. He helps me to
-distribute my modest gifts of tobacco, arranged
-by the merchants in thousands of
-little bags that are carried by willing soldiers
-in very large baskets.</p>
-
-<p>Everywhere I am well received. Only a
-doctor of Lombardy, named Calini, will not
-allow the distribution of cigars in the hospital
-San Luca, which is confided to his care.
-In other places the physicians, on the contrary,
-show themselves almost as grateful as
-their patients. But wishing to try once more
-at San Luca, I visit again that hospital and
-succeed in making a large distribution of
-cigars, to the great joy the poor wounded,
-whom I had innocently made suffer the
-torments of Tantalus.</p>
-
-<p>During the course of my investigations I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>
-penetrate into a series of rooms forming the
-second floor of a large monastery, a kind of
-labyrinth of which the ground and the first
-floors are full of the sick. I find in one of the
-upper rooms four or five wounded and feverish
-patients, in another ten or fifteen, in a
-third about twenty, all neglected (this is
-very excusable; there were so many wounded,
-everywhere), complaining bitterly of not
-having seen a nurse for several hours and
-begging insistently that someone bring them
-bouillon in place of cold water which they
-have for their only drink. At the end of an
-interminable corridor, in a little isolated
-room, is dying absolutely alone, motionless
-on a mattress, a young corporal attacked
-with tetanus. Although he seems full of life
-as his eyes are wide open, he hears and understands
-nothing and remains neglected.</p>
-
-<p>Many of the soldiers beg me to write to
-their relatives, some to their captains, who
-replace in their eyes their absent families.</p>
-
-<p>In the hospital of Saint Clement, a lady of
-Brescia, Countess Bronna, occupies herself,
-with saintly self-abnegation, in nursing
-those who have had limbs amputated. The
-French soldiers speak of her with enthusiasm,
-the most repellant details do not stop
-her. "Sono madre!" she says to me with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
-simplicity: "I am a mother!" These words
-well express her devotion as complete as
-motherly.</p>
-
-<p>In the hospital San Gaetano, a Franciscan
-monk, distinguishes himself by his zeal and
-kindness to the sick. A convalescent Piedmontese,
-speaking French and Italian, translates
-the petitions of the French soldiers to
-the Lombardy physicians. They keep him as
-interpreter.</p>
-
-<p>In a neighboring hospital chloroform is
-used. Some patients are chloroformed with
-difficulty, accidents result and sometimes it
-is in vain that they try to revive a man who
-a few minutes before was speaking.</p>
-
-<p>I am stopped many times on the street by
-kind people who beg me to come to their
-homes, for a minute, to act as interpreter to
-the wounded French officers, lodged in their
-houses, surrounded by the best care, but
-whose language they do not understand.
-The invalids, excited and uneasy, are irritated
-at not being understood, to the great
-distress of the family whose sympathetic
-kindness is received with the bad humour
-that fever and suffering often call forth. One
-of them, whom an Italian physician desires
-to bleed, imagining that they wish to amputate
-him, resists with all his strength, overheating<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>
-himself and doing himself much
-harm. A few words of explanation in their
-mother tongue, in the midst of this lamentable
-confusion, alone succeed in calming and
-tranquilizing these invalids of Solferino.</p>
-
-<p>With what patience the inhabitants of
-Brescia devote themselves to these who have
-sacrificed themselves in order to deliver them
-from a foreign rule! They feel a real grief
-when their charge dies. These adopted families
-religiously follow to the cemetery, accompanying
-to its last resting place, the
-coffin of the French officer, their guest of a
-few days, for whom they weep as for a
-friend, a relative or a son, but whose name,
-perhaps, they do not know.</p>
-
-<p>During the night the soldiers, who have
-died in the hospitals, are interred. Their
-names and numbers are noted down, which
-was rarely done in Castiglione. For example,
-the parents of Corporal Mazuet, aided
-by me in the Chiesa Maggiore and who lived
-in Lyons, 3 Rue d'Alger, never received
-other information about their son than that
-which I sent them.</p>
-
-<p>All the cities of Lombardy considered it
-due to their honor to share in the distribution
-of the wounded.</p>
-
-<p>In Bergamo and Cremona special commisions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
-organized in haste are aided by auxiliary
-committees of devoted ladies. In one
-of the hospitals of Cremona an Italian
-physician having said: "We keep the good
-things for our friends of the allied army,
-but we give to our enemies only what is
-absolutely necessary, and if they die, so much
-the worse for them!" A lady, directing one
-of the hospitals of that city, hastened to
-disapprove of these barbarous words, saying
-that she always took the same care of Austrians,
-French and Sardinians, not wishing
-to make any difference between friends and
-enemies, "for," she said, "Our Lord Jesus
-Christ made no distinction between men
-when it was a question of doing them good."</p>
-
-<p>In Cremona, as everywhere else, the
-French physicians regret their insufficient
-number. "I cannot, without profound sorrow,"
-said Dr. Sonrier, "think of a small
-room of twenty-five beds assigned, in Cremona,
-to the most dangerously wounded Austrians.
-I see again their faces, emaciated
-and wan, with complexion pallid from exhaustion
-and blood poisoning, begging with
-heartrending gestures, accompanied by pitiful
-cries, for one last favor, the amputation
-of a limb (which they had hoped to save),<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>
-to end an intolerable agony of which we are
-forced to remain powerless spectators."</p>
-
-<p>Besides the group of courageous and indefatigable
-surgeons, whose names I would like
-to be able to cite (for, certainly, if to kill men
-is a title to glory, to nurse them and cure
-them, often at the risk of one's own life,
-merits indeed esteem and gratitude), medical
-students hasten from Bologna, Pisa and
-other Italian cities. A Canadian surgeon,
-Dr. Norman Bettun, professor of anatomy in
-Toronto, comes to assist these devoted men.
-Besides the people of Lombardy, French,
-Swiss and Belgian tourists seek to render
-themselves useful, but their efforts had to be
-limited to the distribution of oranges, ices,
-coffee, lemonade and tobacco.</p>
-
-<p>In Plaisance, whose three hospitals are administered
-by private individuals, and by
-ladies serving as nurses, one of these last, a
-young lady, supplicated by her family to
-renounce her intention to pass her days in
-the hospital, on account of the contagious
-fevers there, continued her labors so willingly
-and with such kindness that she was
-greatly esteemed by all the soldiers. "She
-enlivens the hospital," they said.</p>
-
-<p>How valuable, in the cities of Lombardy,
-would have been some hundreds of voluntary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
-nurses, devoted, experienced and, above all,
-previously instructed! They would have rallied
-around themselves the meagre band of
-assistants and the scattered forces. Not
-only was time lacking to those who were
-capable of counselling and guiding; but the
-necessary knowledge and experience was not
-possessed by the greater number of those
-who could offer only personal devotion,
-which was insufficient and often useless.
-What, indeed, in spite of their good will,
-could a handful of persons do in such urgent
-need? After some weeks the compassionate
-enthusiasm began to cool and the people, as
-inexperienced as they were injudicious in
-their kindness, sometimes brought improper
-food to the wounded, so that it was necessary
-to deny them entrance to the churches and
-hospitals.</p>
-
-<p>Many persons, who would have consented
-to pass one or two hours a day with the sick,
-gave up their intention, because a special permission
-was necessary, which could only be
-obtained by petitioning the authorities.
-Strangers disposed to help met with all kinds
-of unexpected hindrances, of a nature to discourage
-them. But voluntary hospital workers,
-well chosen and capable, sent by societies
-with the sanction of the governments and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
-respected because of an agreement between
-the belligerents, would have surmounted the
-difficulties and done incomparably more good.</p>
-
-<p>During the first eight days after the battle
-the wounded, of whom the physicians said, in
-low tones, when passing by their beds and
-shaking their heads: "There is nothing more
-to be done," received no more attention and
-died neglected. And is not this very natural
-when the scarcity of the nurses is compared
-with the enormous number of the wounded?
-An inexorable and cruel logic insists that
-these unfortunate men should be left to
-perish without further care and without having
-given to them the precious time that
-must be reserved for the soldiers who could
-be cured. They were numerous, however,
-and not deaf, those unfortunate men on
-whom was passed such pitiless judgment!
-Soon they perceive their deserted condition
-and with a broken and embittered heart gasp
-out the last breath while no one notices.</p>
-
-<p>The death of many a one among them is
-rendered more sad and bitter by the proximity,
-on a cot by his side, of a young soldier,
-slightly wounded, whose foolish jokes leave
-him neither peace nor tranquillity. On the
-other side, one of his companions in misery
-has just died; and, he dying, must see and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
-hear the funeral ceremony, much too rapidly
-performed, which shows him in advance his
-own. Finally, about to die, he sees men,
-profiting by his weakness, search his knapsack
-and steal what they desire.</p>
-
-<p>For that dying man there have been, lying
-in the postoffice for eight days, letters from
-his family; if he could have had them, they
-would have been to him a great consolation;
-he has entreated the nurses to bring them
-that he may read them before his last hour,
-but they replied unkindly, that they had not
-time as there was so much else to do.</p>
-
-<p>Better would it have been for you, poor
-martyr, if you had perished, struck dead on
-the field of butchery, in the midst of
-the splendid abomination which men call
-"Glory!" Your name, at least, would not
-have been forgotten, if you had fallen near
-your colonel defending the flag of your regiment.
-It would almost have been better for
-you had you been buried alive by the peasants
-commissioned for that purpose, when
-you, unconscious, were carried from the hill
-of the Cypresses, from the foot of the tower
-of Solferino or from the plains of Medole.
-Your agony would not have been long. Now,
-it is a succession of miseries that you must
-endure, it is no longer the field of honor that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
-is presented to you, but cold death with all its
-terrors, and the word "disappeared" for a
-funeral oration.</p>
-
-<p>What has become of the love of glory
-which electrified this brave soldier at the
-commencement of the campaign and during
-that day at Solferino, when, risking his own
-life, he so courageously attempted to take the
-lives of his fellow-creatures, whose blood he
-ran, with such light feet, to shed? Where is
-the irresistible allurement? Where the contagious
-enthusiasm, increased by the odor of
-powder, by the flourish of trumpets and by
-the sound of military music, by the noise of
-cannon and the whistling of bullets which
-hide the view of danger, suffering and death.</p>
-
-<p>In these many hospitals of Lombardy may
-be seen at what price is bought that which
-men so proudly call "Glory," and how dearly
-this glory costs.</p>
-
-<p>The battle of Solferino is the only one during
-our century to be compared by the magnitude
-of its losses with the battles of
-Moscow, Leipzig and Waterloo.</p>
-
-<p>As a consequence of the twenty-fourth of
-June, 1859, it has been calculated that there
-were in killed and wounded, in the Austrian
-and Franco-Sardinian Armies, three field-marshals,
-nine generals, fifteen hundred and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
-sixty-six officers of all grades, of whom six
-hundred and thirty were Austrians and nine
-hundred and thirty-six allies, and about
-forty thousand soldiers and non-commissioned
-officers.</p>
-
-<p>Besides that, from the fifteenth of June to
-the thirty-first of August, there were in the
-hospitals of Brescia, according to the official
-statistics, nineteen thousand six hundred
-and sixty-five patients with fever and other
-illnesses, of whom more than nineteen thousand
-belonged to the Franco-Sardinian
-Army.</p>
-
-<p>On their side, the Austrians had at least
-twenty thousand sick soldiers in Venice, beside
-ten thousand wounded, who, after Solferino,
-were sent to Verona, where the overcrowded
-hospitals were finally attacked by
-gangrene and typhus fever.</p>
-
-<p>Consequently, to the forty thousand killed
-and wounded on the twenty-fourth of June,
-must be added more than forty thousand sick
-with fever or dying from illness caused by
-the excessive fatigue experienced on the day
-of the battle or during the days which preceded
-and succeeded it or from the pernicious
-effects of the tropical temperature of the
-plains of Lombardy, or, finally, from the
-imprudence of these soldiers themselves.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>If one does not consider the military point
-of view, the battle of Solferino was then,
-from the point of humanity a European
-catastrophe.</p>
-
-<p>The transportation of the wounded from
-Brescia to Milan, which takes place during
-the night because of the torrid heat of the
-day, presents a dramatic sight with its trains
-loaded with crippled soldiers arriving at the
-station filled with crowds of people.</p>
-
-<p>Lighted by the pale flare of the tar torches,
-the mass of men seems to hold its breath to
-listen to the groans and the stifled complaints
-which reach their ears.</p>
-
-<p>The Austrians, in their retreat, having
-torn up several places on the railroad between
-Milan and Brescia&mdash;this road was restored
-for use by the first days of July, for
-the transportation of ammunition, of supplies
-and of food sent to the allied army&mdash;the
-evacuation of the hospitals in Brescia was in
-this way facilitated.</p>
-
-<p>At each station, long and narrow
-sheds have been constructed to receive the
-wounded. These, when taken from the cars,
-are placed on mattresses, arranged in a line
-one after the other. Under these sheds are
-set up tables covered with bread, soup, lemonade,
-wine, water, lint, linen and bandages.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>
-Torches, carried by the young men of the
-place where the convoy stops, light the darkness.
-The citizens of Lombardy hasten to
-present their tribute of gratitude to the conquerors
-of Solferino; in respectful silence
-they bandage the wounded whom they have
-lifted carefully out of the cars to place them
-on the beds made ready for their use. The
-women of the country offer refreshing
-drinks, and food of all kinds, which they
-distribute on the cars to those who must go
-on to Milan.</p>
-
-<p>In this city, where about a thousand
-wounded have arrived every night for several
-nights in succession, the martyrs of Solferino
-are received with great kindness. No
-longer are rose leaves scattered from the
-flag-ornamented balconies of the luxurious
-palaces of the Milanese aristocracy, on shining
-epaulets and on striped gold and enameled
-orders, by beautiful and graceful ladies
-whom exaltation and enthusiasm rendered
-still more beautiful. To-day, in their gratitude,
-they shed tears of compassion which
-are interpreted by devotion and sacrifice.</p>
-
-<p>Every family possessing a carriage, goes
-to the station to transport the wounded. The
-number of equipages sent by the people of
-Milan probably exceeds five hundred. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
-finest carriages as well as the most modest
-carts are sent every evening to Porto Tosca,
-where stands the railroad station for Venice.
-The Italian ladies consider it an honor to
-themselves to place in their rich carriages,
-which they have provided with mattresses,
-sheets and pillows, the guests assigned to
-them and who are accompanied by the
-greatest noblemen of Lombardy, aided in
-this work by their not less considerate
-servants.</p>
-
-<p>The people applaud the passage of these
-men, famed because of their suffering. They
-respectfully uncover their heads. They follow
-the slow march of the convoy with
-torches illuminating the sad faces of the
-wounded, who try to smile. They accompany
-them to the door of the hospitable palace,
-where awaits them the most devoted care.</p>
-
-<p>Every family wishes to receive the French
-wounded and, by all sorts of kindness, try to
-lessen the sadness caused by distance from
-home, from parents and from friends.</p>
-
-<p>But after a few days the greater number
-of the inhabitants of Milan are obliged to remove
-to the hospitals the wounded whom
-they have received in their houses. The administration
-desires to avoid too great scattering
-of the nursing and any increase of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
-fatigue for the physicians. Before Solferino,
-the hospitals of this city contained about nine
-thousand wounded from preceding battles.</p>
-
-<p>Great Milanese ladies watch beside the bed
-of the simple soldier, of whom they become
-the guardian angels. Countess Verri,
-née Borroméo, Madame Uboldi de Capei,
-Madame Boselli, Madame Sala-Taverna,
-Countess Taverna and many others, forgetting
-their luxurious habits, pass whole
-months by these beds of suffering. Some of
-these ladies are mothers, whose mourning
-garments testify to a recent and sorrowful
-loss. One of them said: "The war robbed
-me of my oldest son; he died eight months
-ago, from a shot received while fighting with
-the French Army at Sebastopol. When I
-knew that the French wounded were coming
-to Milan and that I could nurse them, I felt
-that God was sending me His first consolation."</p>
-
-<p>Countess Verri-Borroméo, president of the
-Central Aid Committee, has charge of the
-great depot for linens and lint. In spite of
-her advanced age she devotes many hours a
-day to reading to the sick.</p>
-
-<p>All the palaces contain wounded. That of
-the Borroméo family has received three hundred.
-The Superior of the Ursulines, Sister<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>
-Marina Videmari, has converted her convent
-into a hospital and serves in it with her companions.
-This convent-hospital is a model
-of order and cleanliness.</p>
-
-<p>The Marchioness Pallavicini-Trivulzio,
-who presides over the great Turin Committee
-with admirable devotion and self-forgetfulness,
-collects the donations from different
-cities and countries; thanks to her activity
-the depot in Milan, situated contrada San
-Paolo, remains always well provided.</p>
-
-<p>Some weeks later, in the streets of Milan,
-there were seen passing a few companies of
-convalescent French soldiers sadly returning
-to France. Some have their arms in slings,
-others are supported by crutches or bear
-marks of wounds. Their uniforms are well
-worn and torn, but they wear fine linen,
-which the rich men of Lombardy have generously
-given them in exchange for their
-blood-stained shirts: "Your blood flowed to
-defend our country," they said, "and we
-wish to keep these memories of it." These
-men, not long ago so strong, so robust, now
-deprived of an arm or a leg or with head
-bandaged, bear their misfortune with resignation.
-But, thus incapable of continuing in
-the army and earning bread for their
-families, they already with bitterness, behold<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
-themselves, after their return to their native
-land, objects of commiseration and pity, a
-care to others and to themselves.</p>
-
-<p>In one of the hospitals of Milan, a sergeant
-of the Zouave Guard, with an energetic
-and proud face, who has had one leg amputated
-and had borne that operation without a
-complaint, was seized, some time after, with
-extreme sadness, although his health was improving
-and his recovery rapidly taking
-place. This sadness, increasing daily, was
-incomprehensible. A Sister of Charity, perceiving
-tears in his eyes, questioned so insistently
-that he at last confessed that he
-was the sole support of his aged and infirm
-mother to whom he used to send each month
-five francs of his pay. He added that, being
-unable to help her, this poor woman must be
-in great need of money. The Sister of
-Charity, touched with compassion, gave him
-five francs, the value of which was immediately
-sent to France. When the directress
-of the hospital wished to make him another
-gift, he would not accept it, and said to her
-thankfully: "Keep this money for others
-who need it more than I; as for my mother,
-I hope next month to send her her usual
-allowance, for I count on soon being able to
-work."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>A lady of Milan, bearing an illustrious
-name, placed at the disposition of the
-wounded one of her palaces, with one hundred
-and fifty beds. Among the soldiers,
-lodged in this magnificent mansion, was a
-grenadier of the Seventieth Regiment of the
-French Infantry, who, having undergone an
-operation, was in danger of death. The
-lady, trying to console him, spoke to him of
-his family. He told her that he was the only
-son of poor peasants in the Department of
-Gers, and that he was very sad at leaving
-his parents in misery, for he alone
-provided for their maintenance. He added
-that his greatest consolation would be to
-kiss his mother before he died. Saying
-nothing to him of her project, the noble
-lady suddenly decides to leave Milan, takes
-the train, reaches the Departments of Gers,
-near the family, whose address she has procured,
-takes possession of the mother of the
-wounded man. After having left a large sum
-of money for the infirm old father, she brings
-the humble villager with her to Milan; and
-six days after the confession of the grenadier,
-the son kisses his mother, weeping and
-blessing his benefactress.</p>
-
-<p>But why recall so many pitiful and melancholy
-scenes and thus arouse such painful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>
-emotions? Why relate, with complaisance,
-these lamentable details and dwell upon these
-distressing pictures?</p>
-
-<p>To this very natural question we reply
-with another question.</p>
-
-<p>Would it not be possible to establish in
-every country of Europe, Aid Societies,
-whose aim would be to provide, during war,
-volunteer nurses for the wounded, without
-distinction of nationality?</p>
-
-<p>As they wish us to give up the desires and
-hopes of the Societies of the Friends of
-Peace, the beautiful dreams of the Abbot of
-Saint Pierre and of Count Sellon; as men
-continue to kill each other without personal
-enmity, and as the height of glory in war
-is to exterminate the greatest number
-possible; as they still dare to say, as did
-Count Joseph de Maistre, that "war is divine";
-as they invent every day with a perseverence
-worthy of a better aim, instruments
-of destruction more and more terrible, and
-as the inventors of these death-dealing engines
-are encouraged by all the European
-governments&mdash;who arm themselves in emulation
-one of another&mdash;why not profit from a
-moment of comparative calm and tranquillity
-in order to settle the question which we have
-just raised, and which is of such great importance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
-from the double point of view of
-humanity and Christianity.</p>
-
-<p>Once presented to the consideration of
-every man, this theme will probably call
-forth opinions and writings from more competent
-persons; but, first, must not this idea,
-presented to the different branches of the
-great European family, hold the attention
-and conquer the sympathies of all those who
-possess an elevated soul and a heart capable
-of being moved by the suffering of their
-fellow-men?</p>
-
-<p>Such is the purpose for which this book
-has been written.</p>
-
-<p>Societies of this kind, once created, with a
-permanent existence, would be found all
-ready at the time of war. They should obtain
-the favor of the authorities of countries
-where they are created, and beg, in case of
-war, from the sovereigns of the belligerent
-powers the permission and the facilities
-necessary to carry out their purpose. These
-societies should include in their own and
-each country, as members of the central committee,
-the most honorable and esteemed
-men.</p>
-
-<p>The moment of the commencement of war,
-the committee would call on those persons
-who desire to dedicate themselves, for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
-time being, to this work, which will consist
-in helping and nursing, under the guidance
-of experienced physicians, the wounded, first
-on the battle-field, then in the field and regular
-hospitals.</p>
-
-<p>Spontaneous devotion is not as rare as one
-might think. Many persons, sure of being
-able to do some good, helped and facilitated
-by a Superior Committee, would certainly
-go, and others, at their own expense, would
-undertake a task so essentially beneficent.
-During our selfish century what an attraction
-for the generous-hearted and for chivalrous
-characters to brave the same danger
-as the soldier with an entirely voluntary mission
-of peace and consolation.</p>
-
-<p>History proves that it is in no way chimerical
-to hope for such self-devotion. Two
-recent facts especially have just confirmed
-this. They occurred during the war in the
-East and closely relate to our subject.</p>
-
-<p>While Sisters of Charity were nursing the
-wounded and sick of the French army in
-the Crimea, into the Russian and English
-armies, there came, from the north and west,
-two groups of self-devoted women nurses.</p>
-
-<p>The Grand Duchess Helen Pavlovna, of
-Russia, born, Princess Charlotte, of Wurttemberg,
-widow of the Grand Duke Michael,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>
-having enlisted nearly three hundred ladies
-of St. Petersburg and Moscow, to serve as
-nurses in the Russian hospitals of the Crimea;
-she provided them with everything
-necessary, and these saintly women were
-blessed by thousands of soldiers.</p>
-
-<p>In England, Miss Florence Nightingale,
-having received a pressing appeal from Lord
-Sidney Herbert, Secretary of War of the
-British Empire, inviting her to go to the aid
-of the English soldiers in the Orient, this
-lady did not hesitate to expose herself personally
-by great self-devotion. In November,
-1854, she went to Constantinople and Scutari
-with thirty-seven English ladies, who,
-immediately on arrival gave their attention
-to nursing the great number of men,
-wounded in the battle of Inkerman. In 1855
-Miss Stanley, having come to take part in her
-labor with fifty new companions, made it
-possible for Miss Nightingale to go to Balaklava
-to inspect the hospitals there. The picture
-of Miss Florence Nightingale, during
-the night, going through the vast wards of
-the military hospitals with a small lamp in
-her hand, noting the condition of each sick
-man, will never be obliterated from the
-hearts of the men, who were the objects or
-the witnesses of her admirable beneficence,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>
-and the memory of it will be engraven in
-history.</p>
-
-<p>Of the multitude of similar good works,
-ancient or modern, the greater number of
-which have remained unknown and without
-fame, how many have been in vain, because
-they were isolated and were not supported
-by a united action, which would have wisely
-joined them together for a common aim.</p>
-
-<p>If voluntary hospital workers could have
-been found in Castiglione on the twenty-fourth,
-the twenty-fifth, and the twenty-sixth
-of June, and also in Brescia, Mantua,
-and Verona, how much good they might have
-done.</p>
-
-<p>How many human beings they might have
-saved from death during that fatal Friday
-night, when moans and heartrending supplications
-escaped from the breasts of thousands
-of the wounded, who were enduring the
-most acute pains and tormented by the inexpressible
-suffering of thirst.</p>
-
-<p>If Prince von Isenburg had been rescued
-sooner, by compassionate hands, from the
-blood-soaked field on which he was lying unconscious,
-he would not have been obliged to
-suffer for several years from wounds aggravated
-by long neglect; if the sight of his
-riderless horse had not brought about his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
-discovery among the corpses, he would have
-perished for lack of help with so many other
-wounded, who also were creatures of God,
-and whose death would be equally cruel for
-their families.</p>
-
-<p>Those good old women, those beautiful
-young girls of Castiglione could not save the
-lives of many of those whom they nursed!
-Besides them were needed experienced men,
-skillful, decided, previously trained to act
-with order and harmony, the only means of
-preventing the accidents, which complicate
-the wounds and make them mortal.</p>
-
-<p>If there could have been a sufficient number
-of assistants to remove the wounded
-quickly from the plains of Medole, from the
-ravines of San Martin, on the slopes of
-Mount Fontana, or on the hills of Solferino,
-there would not have been left during long
-hours of terrible fear that poor bersaglier,
-that Uhlan, or that Zouave, who tried to raise
-himself, in spite of cruel suffering, to gesticulate
-in vain for someone to send a litter for
-him. Finally, the risk of burying the living
-with the dead would have been avoided.</p>
-
-<p>Better means of transportation would
-have made it possible to avoid in the case of
-the light infantryman of the Guard the terrible
-amputation which he had to undergo<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
-in Brescia, because of the lack of proper
-care during the journey from the battle-field
-to Castiglione.</p>
-
-<p>The sight of those young cripples, deprived
-of an arm, or a leg, returning sadly to their
-homes, does it not call forth remorse that
-there was not more effort made before to
-avert the evil consequences of the wounds,
-which, often could have been cured by timely
-aid?</p>
-
-<p>Would those dead, deserted in the hospitals
-of Castiglione, or in those of Brescia, many
-of whom could not make themselves understood,
-on account of the difference of language,
-have gasped out their last breath with
-curses and blasphemies, if they had had near
-them some compassionate soul to listen to
-them and console them?</p>
-
-<p>In spite of the official aid, in spite of the
-zeal of the cities of Lombardy, much remained
-to be done, although in no other war
-has been seen so great a display of charity;
-it was nevertheless unequal to the extent of
-the help that was needed.</p>
-
-<p>It is not the paid employee, whom disgust
-drives away, whom fatigue makes unfeeling,
-unsympathetic and lazy who can fulfil
-such a noble task. Immediate help is
-needed, for that which can to-day save the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>
-wounded will not save him to-morrow; the
-loss of time causes gangrene, which leads to
-death. One must have volunteer nurses, previously
-trained, accustomed to the work,
-officially recognized by the commanding
-officers of the armies, so that they may be
-facilitated in their mission.</p>
-
-<p>These nurses should not only find their
-place on the battle-field, but also in the hospitals,
-where the long weeks pass away painfully
-for the wounded, without family and
-without friends. During this short Italian
-war, there were soldiers who were attacked
-with home-sickness to such a degree that,
-without other illness and without wounds,
-they died. On the other hand, the Italians,
-and this is comprehensible, showed scarcely
-any interest in the wounded of the allied
-army, and still less for the suffering Austrians.
-It is true, courageous women were
-found in Italy, whose patience and perseverance
-never wearied; but, unfortunately,
-in the end they could be easily counted; the
-contagious fevers drove many persons away,
-and the nurses and servants did not respond
-for any length of time, to that which might
-have been expected of them. The personnel
-of the military hospitals is always insufficient;
-and, if it were doubled or tripled, it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>
-would still be insufficient. We must call on
-the public, it is not possible, it never will be
-possible to avoid that. Only by this co-operation
-can one hope to lessen the sufferings
-of war.</p>
-
-<p>An appeal must be made, a petition presented
-to the men of all countries, of all
-classes, to the influential of this world, as
-well as to the most modest artisan, since all
-can, in one way or another, each in his own
-sphere, and according to his strength, co-operate
-in some measure in this good work.</p>
-
-<p>This appeal is addressed to women as well
-as to men, to the queen, to the princess seated
-on the steps of the throne, as well as to the
-humble orphaned and charitable maid-servant
-or the poor widow alone in the world,
-who desires to consecrate her last strength to
-the good of others.</p>
-
-<p>It is addressed to the general, to the marshal,
-the Minister of War, as well as to the
-writer and the man of letters, who, by his
-publications, can plead with ability for the
-cause, thereby interesting all mankind, each
-nation, each country, each family even, since
-no one can say for certain that he is exempt
-from the dangers of war.</p>
-
-<p>If an Austrian general and a French general,
-after having fought one against another<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
-at Solferino, could, soon afterwards, finding
-themselves seated side by side at the hospitable
-table of the King of Prussia, converse
-amicably one with the other, what would
-have prevented them from considering and
-discussing a question so worthy of their interest
-and attention?</p>
-
-<p>During the grand man&oelig;uvers at Cologne,
-in 1861, King William of Prussia invited to
-dinner, in Benrath Castle, near Dusseldorf,
-the officers of the different nations, who were
-sent there by their governments. Before going
-to the table the King took by the hand
-General Forey and General Baumgarten:
-"Now that you are friends," he said to them,
-smiling, "sit there, beside one another, and
-chat." Forey was the victor of Montebello,
-and Baumgarten was his adversary.</p>
-
-<p>On extraordinary occasions, such as those
-which assembled at Cologne, at Chalons, or
-elsewhere, eminent men of the military art
-of different nations, is it not to be desired
-that they will profit by this kind of congress
-to formulate some international, sacred, and
-accepted principle which, once agreed upon
-and ratified, would serve as the foundation
-for societies for aid for the wounded in the
-different countries of Europe? It is still
-more important to agree upon and adopt in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
-advance these measures, because when hostilities
-have commenced, the belligerents are
-ill-disposed one towards the other, and will
-not consider these questions, except from
-the exclusive point of view of their own
-interests.</p>
-
-<p>Are not small congresses called together of
-scientists, jurists, medical men, agriculturists,
-statisticians, and economists, who meet
-expressly in order to consider questions of
-much less importance? Are there not international
-societies which are occupied with
-questions of charity and public utility? Cannot
-men, in like manner, meet to solve a
-problem as important as that of caring for
-the victims of war?</p>
-
-<p>Humanity and civilization surely demand
-the accomplishment of such a work. It is
-a duty, to the fulfilment of which every good
-man, and every person possessing any influence
-owes his assistance.</p>
-
-<p>What prince, what ruler, would refuse his
-support to these societies, and would not be
-glad to give the soldiers of his army the full
-assurance that they will be immediately and
-properly nursed in case they should be
-wounded?</p>
-
-<p>With permanent societies, such as I propose,
-the chance of waste and the injudicious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>
-distribution of money and supplies would
-often be avoided. During the war in the
-East an enormous quantity of lint, prepared
-by Russian ladies, was sent from St. Petersburg
-to the Crimea; but the packages, instead
-of reaching the hospitals to which they
-were sent, arrived at paper mills which used
-it all for their own industry.</p>
-
-<p>By perfecting the means of transportation,
-by preventing the accidents during the
-journey from the battle-field to the hospital,
-many amputations will be avoided, and the
-burden of the governments, which pension
-the injured will be proportionately lessened.</p>
-
-<p>These societies, by their permanent existence,
-could also render great service at
-the time of epidemics, floods, great fires, and
-other unexpected catastrophes; the humane
-motive which would have created them
-would instigate them to act on all occasions
-in which their labors could be exercised.</p>
-
-<p>This work will necessitate the devotion of
-a certain number of persons, but it will never
-lack money in time of war. Each one will
-bring his offering or his compassion in response
-to the appeals which will be made by
-the committee. A nation will not remain
-indifferent when its children are fighting for
-its defense. The difficulty is not there; but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
-the problem rests entirely in the serious
-preparation, in all countries, of a work of
-this kind, that is, in the creation of these
-societies.</p>
-
-<p>In order to establish these committees at
-the head of the societies, all that is necessary
-is a little good-will on the part of some honorable
-and persevering persons. The committees,
-animated by an international spirit
-of charity, would create corps of nurses in
-a latent state, a sort of staff. The committees
-of the different nations, although independent
-of one another, will know how to
-understand and correspond with each other,
-to convene in congress and, in event of war,
-to act for the good of all.</p>
-
-<p>If the terrible instruments of destruction
-now possessed by the nations seem to shorten
-wars, will not, on the other hand, the battles
-be more deadly? And in this century, when
-the unexpected plays such an important role,
-may not war bring about the most sudden
-and unforseen results?</p>
-
-<p>Are there not, in these considerations
-alone, more than sufficient reasons for us not
-to allow ourselves to be taken unawares?</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="transnote">
-<div class="center"><big>Transcriber's Notes</big></div>
-
-<p>Obvious errors of punctuation and diacritics repaired.</p>
-
-<p>Inconsistent hyphenation fixed.</p>
-
-<p>P. 25: monastary -> monastery.</p>
-
-<p>P. 71: transportation of ammunitions -> transportation of ammunition.</p>
-
-<p>P. 87: manouvers -> man&oelig;uvers.</p>
-
-<p>P. 89: catastrophies -> catastrophes.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
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