What first led Henry Dunant to think of helping the oppressed?

The worldwide organization of the Red Cross stems from the idea of Henry Dunant, a Swiss banker In 1838. At the age of 10, Dunant was taken by his father to visit a prison. There he saw prisoners chained together exercising in the yard and breaking stones along the road. This experience left a deep impression on him and made him determine to do something for convicts and slaves and for all who were oppressed and deprived of their liberty.
     On 24, June, 1859, while on his way from Geneva to France, Dunant witnessed the battle between the French and Austrian armies. It was one of the fiercest battles of the 19th century. Shocked by the lack of the medical supplies and attention given to the wounded, Dunant decided a volunteer service has to be organized. He gathered together a number of women who tended the hundreds of wounded soldiers of all nationalities and helped the surgeons as best they could. From that battle, Dunant determined to form a body of people who would rally together in times of war and attend to the needs of the wounded and dying. Dunant held that a suffering human being should be helped for his own sake only without regard to race, religion or political beliefs.
     Many European states supported him and on 22, August, 1864, the first Geneva Convention was signed. This lies down that once a soldier is wounded, he and everyone who comes to help him
cease to be an enemy. A symbol by which the relief workers could be recognized was devised. As a tribute to Switzerland, the symbol was the Swiss flag reversed, that is, a red cross on a white ground.