The name of Solferino and San Martino goes down in history not only for the battle, but also for the following five reasons:
1. Here was the last battle, where in the middle of the fights there were three Head of States on horseback within a few kilometres radius: Franz Joseph, Napoleon III and Victor Emmanuel II.

2. During this battle the Sardinian Army Corps – that could be already considered Italian due to the remarkable number of volunteers from all over the peninsula – fought for the Independence of Italy.

3. For the first time in Modern Europe, there were many black fighters in the French Army who symbolized colonial Imperialism that was reigning at that time.

4. Maybe, for the last time, an Army, the one led by Franz Joseph, fought moved by dynastic loyalty and in defence of the principle of Legitimacy: one of its major creators, Prince Klemens Von Metternich – died precisely at that time in Vienna.

5. Finally, and it’s the most relevant fact in the history of humanity, that event marked the birth of the Red Cross. It was, in truth, seeing the trampled-on corpses, the badly buried bodies and the wounded left to the pity of the people rather than in the hands of the health services that inspired Henry Dunant to create the Red Cross which earned him, as its founder, the first Nobel Peace Prize.
 
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