The Story of the Red Cross as told to The Little Colonel

In Short

Written in 1902 and expanded during the First World War, this instructional juvenile story framing the founding of the International Red Cross uses narrative fiction to deliver history. Young Lloyd Sherman, known as the Little Colonel, travels with her parents through Switzerland, where she meets a retired officer and his trained St. Bernard, Hero. Through their conversations and her return voyage to the United States, Lloyd discovers the origins of the Red Cross treaty in Geneva, the heroic life of Clara Barton, and the organization's widespread relief efforts across battlefields and natural disasters.

The Story

The narrative opens in Geneva, Switzerland, where Lloyd Sherman watches the lively traffic on Lake Rhône and Mont Blanc while staying at a hotel with her parents. Her quiet breakfast is interrupted by the appearance of a broad-shouldered, single-armed veteran whose warm demeanor contrasts with his fierce gray mustache. Shortly afterward, an embarrassing mishap with a musical chair in the hotel lobby leads Lloyd to collide with the officer. He warmly introduces himself as the Major and presents his companion, Hero, a large, yellow St. Bernard with a soft, silky coat and white ruff.

Hero soon proves his worth beyond mere gentle companionship. While Lloyd is out in an open carriage, a ladder falls from a sidewalk scaffold, startling the jaded carriage horse into a wild runaway down the quay. The coachman is thrown, leaving Lloyd clinging to the seat in terror. Hearing the commotion, the Major calls on Hero, who utilizes his earlier training as an ambulance dog to spring at the horse’s bit and bring the panicked animal to a complete halt. Grateful for her rescue, Lloyd forms an immediate bond with the dog, while the local population and press celebrate Hero’s brave intervention.

Following the rescue, Lloyd spends her afternoons in the hotel courtyard listening to the Major's histories. He explains how St. Bernard dogs were originally trained by Alpine monks to rescue lost mountain travelers, highlighting the famous rescue dog Barry, who saved forty lives. The Major then recounts his own past as a soldier, explaining how his arm was lost on the battlefield because human rescuers could not find him in time. Driven by that experience, he helped establish kennels in Coblenz under the German Society for Ambulance Dogs to train canines for field medicine. Demonstrating Hero's gear, he shows Lloyd the shoulder-bags filled with bandages and the flask marked with a red cross.

The sight of the red cross on a white field prompts Lloyd to inquire about the symbol on Hero's collar. The Major expresses gentle surprise at her ignorance of the movement's history and takes the opportunity to educate her. He describes how Swiss businessman Henri Dunant was moved by the horrific suffering at the Battle of Solferino to organize a convention of nations in Geneva, establishing a universal treaty of neutrality for medical relief. The Major further details the tireless career of Clara Barton, who tended the wounded through sixteen bloody battles of the American Civil War, identified thousands of missing soldiers, and brought the Red Cross treaty to the United States before assisting in the Franco-Prussian War.

When the Major is injured by a falling limb during a mountain storm, Hero leads rescuers to save his life. Knowing his health is failing, the Major gifts Hero to Lloyd before departing for a hospital in Zürich, asking her to take the dog back to America. On the voyage home, Lloyd shares Hero’s story with fellow passengers, who recount their own experiences receiving aid from the Red Cross during the Michigan forest fires of 1881 and the Mississippi River floods of 1882. The book concludes years later under the locust trees of Kentucky, where an adult Lloyd passes down these stories of compassion and service to her young son.

How It Unfolds

An unexpected rescue While driving through the streets of Geneva, Lloyd Sherman is caught in a terrifying carriage runaway when a falling ladder spooks the horse. The Major orders his St. Bernard, Hero, to intervene, and the dog successfully halts the panicked animal by leaping at its bit.

Tales of mountain and battlefield Sitting in the hotel courtyard, the Major teaches Lloyd about the heritage of Alpine rescue dogs like Barry of the Great St. Bernard Hospice. He describes his own wartime injuries, which inspired him to join Herr Bungartz in Coblenz to breed and train ambulance dogs for missing soldiers.

The emblem of mercy Noticeable on Hero's gear and collar, the red cross prompts a historical lesson from the Major about Henri Dunant and the 1864 Geneva Convention. He contrasts the brutal neglect of historical warfare with the international treaty and honors American nurse Clara Barton for her decades of humanitarian work.

A solemn bequest After suffering an injury in a mountain storm, the dying Major calls Lloyd to his bedside in Zug. He fastens his own military medal of honor to Hero's collar and presents the faithful dog to Lloyd to take home to America.

Echoes across the ocean During her transatlantic voyage, Lloyd's companion attracts the attention of fellow travelers, who share eyewitness accounts of Red Cross emergency responses. They recall relief operations during devastating Michigan forest fires and Mississippi River floods, illustrating the organization's peacetime mission.

The People

• Lloyd Sherman (The Little Colonel): A bright, curious twelve-year-old girl from Kentucky traveling through Europe with her parents. She begins with little knowledge of history or international affairs, but her deep empathy for animals and elderly veterans drives her to learn the origin of the Red Cross. She accepts the responsibility of caring for Hero, eventually growing into a mother who passes the lessons of service to the next generation.
• The Major: A dignified, gray-haired Swiss veteran missing an arm from battle trauma. Lonely and nearing the end of his life, he takes joy in sharing historical accounts with Lloyd because she reminds him of his deceased daughter, Christine. Driven by his past suffering on the battlefield, he spent his later years supporting the training of ambulance dogs.
• Hero: A highly intelligent St. Bernard with a silky, tawny-yellow coat, a white chest, and a white ruff around his neck. Originally bred and trained for police and battlefield ambulance work in Germany, he was adopted by the Major after suffering a leg injury. He demonstrates remarkable training, loyalty, and bravery throughout his life.
• Clara Barton: Though not present as a physical character in the immediate narrative, she is portrayed through the Major's historical accounts as a central figure of selfless devotion. She is depicted working tirelessly across Civil War battlefields, identifying missing soldiers in prison trenches, and establishing the American branch of the Red Cross.

In Its Own Voice

"The sights he saw there were horrible. The wounded men could not be cared for properly. They died by the hundreds, because there were not enough nurses and surgeons and food."

The Major explains to Lloyd how Henri Dunant was moved to form the Red Cross after witnessing the total absence of medical care following the Battle of Solferino.

"She stood the strain of nursing in sixteen such awful places, going from cot to cot among the thousands of wounded, comforting the dying, and dragging many a man back from the very grave by her untiring, unselfish devotion."

The Major recounts Clara Barton's relentless work on Civil War battlefields to demonstrate the scale of sacrifice required to establish human relief systems.

"'There, daddy,' he said, 'tell the Red Cross people to send them to some little boy like me, that's been washed out of his home and hasn't any of his toys left, or his clothes.'"

A passenger on the steamship recalls how his young son donated his savings, clothes, and tin soldiers to help victims of the Mississippi floods out of gratitude for past aid.

What It's Really About

Beneath its framing as a light juvenile travel story, the book is a deliberate work of public history designed to instill internationalism, historical memory, and civic responsibility in young readers. It argues that true heroism is found not in the aggression of war, but in the organized preservation of human life. By linking European origins with American field experiences, the text emphasizes global unity through shared vulnerability. The narrative contrasts the destructive nature of national conflicts with the constructive, non-partisan work of civilian relief, asserting that empathy must be paired with structured organizational effort to be effective.

Why Read It Today

Modern readers interested in early twentieth-century juvenile literature, the history of humanitarian organizations, or period educational fiction will find this a fascinating artifact. The narrative offers a clear window into how historical events and civic values were packaged for young audiences in Edwardian America.

The writing is gentle, direct, and unabashedly sentimental. While contemporary audiences may notice period attitudes—such as the idealized portrayal of military duty, heavy emotionalism, and occasional rendered dialect in Southern speech—the book avoids dense stylistic obstacles. Its short chapters and clean narrative arc make it an accessible, quick read.

What lingers after reading is the novel's earnest conviction that historical literacy and moral empathy are essential components of childhood education. The image of the single-armed veteran passing his story and his dog to a young girl remains a touching symbol of intergenerational legacy and public service.