One June morning 145 years ago, Jean Henri Dunant woke up and opened his window in his beloved Switzerland. He heard an excited babble down in the street and quickly went down to see what was going on. He didn't hear much at first, but he caught the words "fighting" and "war" through all the confusion. Eventually he was able to determine that a war had started in Italy. So he hastily packed a few things and set out. He wanted to see for himself just what was going on.

Henri arrived in Italy where he saw soldiers fighting on the side of a hill near the town of Castiglione. It seemed that everyone was shooting at everyone else. He watched as men were hit b…