The American Red Cross traces its origins to 1864, when the first Geneva Convention established the International Committee of the Red Cross, whose charter obligates member organizations to provide volunteer aid to the sick and wounded of armies in time of war and to carry on a peacetime program of national and international relief during disasters caused by either nature or human actions. Clara Barton founded the American chapter of the Red Cross on May 21, 1881, and it first served the United States military in 1898, during the Spanish-American War.

Initially the organization distributed relief supplies to the several hundred thousand Cubans suffering from the Spanish re-concentration policy, which held individuals in concentration camps. When the United States declared war on Spain on April 25, 1898, the American Red Cross directed its efforts toward assisting the poorly supplied volunteer army regiments in camps located in the Southern United States...