Henry Dufour, of Geneva. Switzerland possesses no standing army; but
every able-bodied man goes through military training, and there is a
permanent staff of superior officers, on which Dufour held the post
of Quartermaster-General. He was now sixty years old; and though in
his youth he had served in the French army during all the time of
Napoleon’s great campaigns, and risen to the rank of captain, he had
seen no active service, having passed those stirring years as an
engineer-officer in the island of Corfu, which for most of the time was
blockaded by the English fleet. When Geneva became part of Switzerland,
in 1815, he transferred his services to the Confederation, and gained a
considerable reputation as a student and teacher of military science.
He was also at the head of the Commission which from 1833 onwards was
engaged in the production of the finest map of any country which up
till then had existed--the Ordnance Map of Switzerland. Only a few days
before he had remarked to one of his officers that it was lucky for
them both that their duties would prevent them from taking an active
part in the conflict! As the result showed, no better man could have
been chosen. On October 25th he received the rank of General, and took
the oath of office as Commander-in-Chief. In a few days he had under
his orders a force of nearly 100,000 men and 174 guns.
The Sonderbund leaders had been unable to find a commander among the
citizens of the seceding cantons. Their choice finally fell upon
Colonel Ulrich Salis-Soglio, of Chur in Graubünden. Like Dufour, he
was an elderly man, but had had the advantage of actual military
experience. He had served in the Bavarian army during the Leipzig
campaign, and had distinguished himself at the battle of Hanau. For
twenty-five years he had been an officer in the Swiss regiment in
the Dutch service. He is described as a man of charming manners and
chivalrous courage; but by no means Dufour’s equal as a strategist.
Curiously enough he was a Protestant. The Sonderbund forces amounted in
all to about 78,000 men and 72 guns. He commanded only the forces of
the “Forest Cantons” and Zug. General Maillardoz commanded in Fribourg,
General Kalbermatten in Valais.
[Illustration: “MAJOR SCHERRER SEIZED THE COLOURS”
(_p._ 144).]
Dufour’s first care was to secure himself from attack in the rear by
subduing Fribourg, which, as we have said, is separated by the cantons
of Bern and Vaud from the rest of those composing the Sonderbund.
His strategy for this purpose was simple, but effective. The town of
Fribourg is not more than sixteen or seventeen miles from Bern, in a
westerly direction. It was strongly fortified, and defended by a force
of from 12,000 to 15,000 men. The defenders naturally expected that
the attack would come from the direction of the Federal capital, and
they had made their arrangements to resist it on that side by throwing
up batteries and blocking the roads with trees. Dufour caused his
first division, under Colonel Rilliet, to advance in three brigades
from Vevey, Moudon, and Payerne, in Canton Vaud, with instructions
to reach Matran, some four miles south-west of Fribourg, on November
12th. This manœuvre was executed punctually. At the same time Colonel
Burckhardt’s division, which had been stationed in Canton Bern, instead
of advancing directly upon Fribourg, made a night-march to the right,
and took up a position about the same distance north-west of the town.
Lastly, Colonel Ochsenbein was directed to make a demonstration on the
side of Bern, so as to draw off the attention of the defenders from
the movements on the west and north, and at the same time to watch the
approaches from the south. These dispositions were all so accurately
carried out that on the morning of November 13th Dufour was able to
send a missive to the mayor of Fribourg, pointing out that his city was
surrounded by superior forces--they were from 25,000 to 30,000 men,
with sixty guns--and that under the circumstances he could surrender
without discredit. The authorities of the city saw the force of his
arguments, and agreed to an armistice for twenty-four hours; and on
the following day a capitulation was signed, the first article of
which bound Fribourg to leave the Sonderbund forthwith. This success
was not quite bloodless, for on the afternoon of the 13th some of the
outposts of the first division who were stationed in a wood on the
west of a town, and had not heard of the armistice, made, under some
misconception, an attack upon a redoubt which was close in front of
them. The artillery on both sides came into action, and the Federal
troops lost seven killed and fifty wounded.
The fall of Fribourg, says Dufour, fell like a thunderclap on the
Sonderbund, and astonished the rest of Europe. His own task became
much easier, owing to the spirit of cheerfulness and unanimity which
now took the place of the indecision and even reluctance which had
been felt in many quarters. He lost no time in grappling with the more
arduous part of his work--the subjection of Lucerne. Hitherto he had
given strict orders to his subordinate commanders that they were to
act entirely on the defensive, and his orders had been obeyed, though
to do so must have required some self-restraint on the part of those
officers. For the Sonderbund forces were by no means inactive. The
canton of Aargau runs down in a long tongue between Lucerne and Zug,
forming the district known as the Freiamt. At the northern end of this
tongue, where it widens out to the full breadth of the canton, is the
village of Muri, where one of the suppressed monasteries had been
situated. Perhaps the Sonderbund expected to find some sympathisers
in that district. At all events, on November 12th a strong force, in
two columns, under General Salis and his Chief of the Staff, Colonel
Elgger, respectively, entered Aargau, with the intention of marching
by different routes upon Muri. The General, starting from Gislikon,
entered the Freiamt at its southernmost point; while Elgger, keeping
within the territory of Lucerne, was to take a parallel line and
approach Muri from the south-west. It was a foggy day, and the two
columns, separated by a range of lofty hills, completely lost touch
of each other. In the afternoon, Salis made an attempt to destroy a
bridge which the Federal engineers had thrown over the river Reuss, to
connect Zürich with Aargau. But he was met with a stout resistance, and
compelled to retire. Near Muri he again fell in with troops from St.
Gallen and Appenzell, who received him with a vigorous fire, and he
found nothing to do but return to his starting-point. Colonel Elgger
was at first more fortunate, and drove the Aargau troops back with some
loss. His own son, who was acting as his aide-de-camp, got a bullet in
his head, but lived to edit the Swiss Military Gazette thirty years
later. Presently an order to the artillery to retire in order to take
up a better position, caused a panic among some troops from Valais,
who probably did not understand the words, and only saw the movement.
They fled, and Elgger, having lost a part of his force and hearing the
sound of Salis’ guns grow fainter and fainter, had nothing to do but
to withdraw. A third column, which was to have invaded Aargau further
to the westward, succeeded in surprising the Federal outposts and
bombarding an unfortified village; but did not wait for the arrival
of the Aargau battalions, which hastened up at the summons of the
alarm-bells.
In the south, where the Federal strength was less, matters for a few
days looked more promising for the Sonderbund. On November 17th a
body of 2000 men, with four guns, crossed the St. Gotthard Pass in a
storm of wind and snow, and fell upon Airolo. The Ticino troops, who
were holding that place, 2700 strong, hardly expected a visit in such
weather, and allowed themselves to be surprised. Before they knew what
was happening, the village was surrounded by the riflemen of Uri,
and cannon-balls were crashing through the snow-covered roofs. They
fled in disorder to Bellinzona, with a loss of six killed and thirty
wounded, leaving weapons, ammunition, baggage, even their colonel’s
despatch-boxes and dressing-case, in the enemy’s hands. This was the
nearest approach to success which the Sonderbund had. It was hoped that
Ticino, being a Catholic canton, at least a portion of the population
might welcome the invaders; but they received no encouragement, and in
a few days the approach of the Federal army to Lucerne rendered their
retreat necessary.
For Dufour did not let the grass grow under his feet. Two days after
the capitulation of Fribourg had been signed, his headquarters were
at Aarau, the capital of Aargau, and all his dispositions made for
striking the decisive blow. Lucerne is very well situated for defence
against an enemy approaching from the north. The stream of the Reuss,
flowing out of the lake towards the north-west, presently sweeps round
to the north-east. Just at the angle the smaller River Emme joins it
from the south-west, so that a continuous obstacle is offered to an
attacking force. Between the Reuss and the Kussnacht arm of the lake
(which washes the foot of the Rigi) is a range of lofty wooded hills
called the Rooterberg, which continue almost to the Lake of Zug; and in
the other direction, a similar line of hills, cut by deep gorges, runs
parallel to the Emme. It was on this latter side that the ill-starred
attempt of the Free Corps had been made in 1845. Dufour determined on
this occasion to approach from the other direction, along the line
of the Reuss, and between that river and the Rooterberg. It was a
hazardous operation: in his own words, “taking the bull by the horns.”
Gislikon, the point where the main road crosses the river, while that
on the right bank comes close to it, was strongly fortified; and
the Rooterberg afforded an admirable position for sharpshooters and
artillery. But by advancing from this side he would, if successful,
separate Lucerne and Schwyz, and would strike at the heart of the
secession. Therefore, while ordering all the five divisions which he
intended to employ, to converge by various roads on Lucerne, from east,
north, and west, he resolved to make his main attack with the fourth
and fifth, under Colonels Ziegler and Gmür. Of these, the former was at
present quartered in Aarau, the latter between the Reuss and the Lake
of Zürich.
[Illustration: BATTLE OF GISLIKON.]
The attack was fixed for November 23rd. Two days before, the little
canton of Zug, which had entered the Sonderbund somewhat reluctantly,
seeing that further resistance was useless, capitulated, thereby
relieving Dufour of anxiety for his left flank. On the 22nd the
General issued a proclamation to his troops, reminding them that
they were performing a duty to their country, and bidding them lay
aside all feeling of hostility as soon as the victory was won. They
were specially enjoined to respect all churches and buildings used
in the service of religion, and to see that no injury was done to
non-combatants or to private property.
That evening Colonel Ziegler’s division bivouacked in the “Freiamt,”
right up to the frontier of Lucerne. It was a clear night, and round
the Lake of Zug they could see the watch-fires of the fifth division,
which was now occupying that canton. In the early morning of the 23rd
the Aargau engineers threw a bridge of boats over the Reuss at Sins,
another being placed a couple of miles higher up, at Oberrüti. Ziegler,
with two brigades of his division, under Colonels Egloff and König,
crossed to the right bank, and came into touch with Colonel Gmür and
the fifth division, advancing from the Lake of Zug. The third brigade,
under Colonel Müller, was to remain on the left bank, and attack
Gislikon from the direction of Klein Dietwyl. It should have acted
in conjunction with the third division, under Donatz, which occupied
the next place to the westward, but bad roads hindered that commander
from arriving in time to take part in the main action. About nine
in the morning the batteries of Gislikon opened fire upon Müller’s
brigade, compelling it to retire for a time. One of the first shots
killed Captain Buk, a refugee from Lucerne, who was marching with the
column. Colonel Ziegler, meanwhile, was making progress on the other
side of the Reuss. In spite of the fire from the Rooterberg, and from
the Lucerne artillery in front of the village of Honau, he pressed on,
and presently his guns coming into action caused the enemy’s batteries
to retire. They made a short stand in Honau, but were soon forced
back upon Gislikon, where regular earthworks had been thrown up.
Here they made a resolute defence, the battery under Captain Mazzola
specially distinguishing itself. On the other side, Rust’s battery
(from Solothurn) galloped through Honau, leaving the infantry behind,
and took up its position in an orchard, five hundred paces--this was
before the days of rifled cannon--from the earthworks. Its first shot
killed and wounded five men in Hegi’s company, which retired, leaving
Mazzola’s left flank uncovered. Mazzola, however, literally “stuck
to his guns,” though the artillery on the further side of the Reuss
was now playing upon him, and presently compelled Rust to retire
behind the fighting line, barely saving his guns from capture by the
Lucerne _chasseurs_. A plucky action on the part of one of his
subordinates is recorded. Just after the Solothurn guns had retired,
a body of troops was seen in the spot they had occupied. In the smoke
and haze of the November day, it was not certain whether they were
friend or foe. Corporal Pfiffer asked his captain’s permission to go
and ascertain, which Mazzola willingly gave. Pfiffer left the battery,
and went forward till he could see the others clearly; then, waving his
sword, cried: “Fire, Captain; it is the enemy!” and made his way back.
General Salis, who had taken up his position in the battery, pressed a
piece of gold into his hand; but the sturdy Swiss rejected it, saying:
“No need for that, General; I only did my duty.” The narrator of this
story, himself a bitter partisan on the Catholic side, adds that
Pfiffer was a well-known adherent of the Liberals. Here, as later in
the American Civil War, when hostilities had once begun, men put the
defence of their homes first, and let their private opinions wait for
quieter times.
The troops whose identity Corporal Pfiffer had ascertained were some
battalions of Egloff’s and König’s brigades. These were Appenzellers
under Benziger, and Aargauers under Häusler. The former could not face
the storm of grape with which they were received, and took shelter in
some gravel-pits. Häusler’s men, with whom the Brigadier-Colonel Egloff
was himself riding, began in their turn to waver. At this moment Major
Scherrer, whose own battalion was also unsteady, seized the colours,
and fixing them into the ground, cried out: “Switzers, do you know what
that means?” Thus encouraged, Häusler’s men held their ground, and,
presently, through the personal efforts of Egloff and his staff, the
fugitives were rallied, and the line restored. Meanwhile, the Lucerne
and Unterwarden companies had pressed too far in the direction of the
Rooterberg, allowing the Federal skirmishers to penetrate between them
and the artillery, so that the earthworks were denuded of all covering
infantry. Egloff at once ordered up three batteries, and under the
fire of these, combined with that from others on the other bank, the
intrepid Mazzola, after nearly an hour’s duel between his one battery
and five or six of the enemy’s, was compelled to withdraw, and abandon
Gislikon. General Salis, too, who had taken up his position in the
battery, had been severely wounded in the temple by a grape-shot,
though he made light of his wound, and refused to leave the fight.
König’s brigade, meanwhile, to which had been assigned the duty of
clearing the west slopes of the Rooterberg and sheltering Egloff’s left
flank, had met with a sudden resistance. Again and again they had to
fall back, until Ziegler himself, dismounting and leading the right
wing, succeeded in pressing the enemy so far up the hill as to secure
Egloff from a flank attack, and set part of his own main force to
operate against Mazzola. König, with the left wing, attempted to force
the position of Michelskappel, on the crest of the ridge, but could
not succeed in dislodging the troops from Schwyz who held it. Gmür’s
division, meanwhile, had captured Meyerskappel, on the eastern side of
the ridge, and was advancing upon Lucerne by the road between the hills
and the lake.
But the retreat from Gislikon had decided the battle. At 3 p.m. General
Salis gave the order to retire upon Ebikon, a village not more than
three miles from Lucerne. In the city itself men had been listening
all day long, with painful anxiety, to the thunder of the cannon, but
no news of the fight had reached them. At four, arrived an orderly
from the General, bringing a message couched in the form usual with
defeated commanders, to the effect that he had been compelled to retire
temporarily upon Ebikon, but hoped to maintain his ground there for a
time. He added, however, that the loss of Gislikon had rendered the
position of Lucerne very precarious. A steamer had been in readiness
all day, and on the receipt of this news, the Council-of-War, with
Siegwart and Meyer at its head, went on board, taking the military
treasury and all documents, papers, etc., with them, and steamed up
the lake to Flüelen, leaving orders to General Salis to arrange for
an armistice. The General himself arrived about 8 p.m., suffering
from his wound, and after giving the requisite instructions, departed
to Unterwalden. As an old soldier, he doubtless knew that further
resistance meant useless bloodshed. Colonel Elgger, his Chief of the
Staff, had been for two days maintaining a stout resistance in the
Valley of Entlebuch, west of the city, to the seventh Federal division,
under Colonel Ochsenbein--who had his former defeat on almost the
same ground to avenge--and had hastened back to Lucerne, when night
put an end to further fighting on the 23rd. He was at first in favour
of defending the city; but was soon convinced of the hopelessness of
the situation, and agreed to communicate with Dufour. At 9 in the
morning of the 24th came the reply that it was too late to countermand
the advance, but that if the Federal troops were allowed to enter
peaceably, and the Federal flag was displayed, no warlike measures
would be taken.
[Illustration: “RUST’S BATTERY GALLOPED THROUGH
HONAU” (_p._ 144).]
Accordingly, at midday on the 24th, the Federal forces marched into
Lucerne by all the gates. Twenty days had finished the civil war. The
total losses were, on the Federal side, 60 killed and 386 wounded; on
that of the Sonderbund, 36 and 119. Dufour attributes the smallness of
these figures to the fact that the fighting took place in a broken and
thickly-wooded country, where cover was plentiful. Something was, no
doubt, also due to the inexperience of the gunners.
Great care was taken to prevent any excesses on the part of the
victors. The Bern division, between whom and Lucerne bitter feelings
had existed ever since 1845, was not allowed to take part in the entry
into the city, but had to remain, by Colonel Ochsenbein’s orders, in
the suburbs. Dufour ordered a joint “Church-parade” to be held, the
Catholic troops attending Mass in the chief church of Lucerne, while
a service was held in the open-air for the Protestants. Subsequently
he wrote, “The troops on both sides showed by their conduct that every
Swiss is a born soldier.”
The Confederation had had a narrow escape. On the day when war had been
declared, M. Guizot had, on behalf of France, proposed to the other
Great Powers that a joint note should be sent to the Swiss Diet calling
upon them to submit the questions at issue to foreign arbitration.
As it was hardly doubtful that the proposal would be rejected, this
meant armed intervention, with the certainty of an ultimate partition
of Switzerland. The Continental Powers were ready enough, but Lord
Palmerston, then English Foreign Secretary, who had, as he said, “no
wish to see Switzerland made a Poland of,” managed, by objections and
suggestions, to postpone the delivery of the note till November 30th.
By that time the Diet was able to reply that there was no longer any
Sonderbund. In the course of the following year, Prussia, Austria, and
France had matters enough of their own to attend to; and the Swiss were
able to proceed unmolested with the revision of their Constitution into
the form under which the country has prospered ever since. Formerly a
Confederation of States, they have since 1848 been a Confederated State.
The conflict left--except, perhaps, among a few of the Sonderbund
leaders--no ill-feeling behind. Some years later Dufour could write:
“The citizens of the old cantons (I.E. the Forest Cantons)
nearly all have pipes with my picture on them, and call me ‘Our little
Dufour.’” His long and useful life ended in 1875.
[Illustration: LAKE ZUG.]
[Illustration: INSANDHLWANA
BY C. STEIN]
About ten miles from the Buffalo river, which forms the eastern
frontier of Natal, rises conspicuous a tall, rocky, precipitous hill,
called in the language of the natives “Insandhlwana,” or “The place
of the little hand,” from a fancied resemblance in its form to an
outstretched hand. Near this hill was fought, on the 22nd January,
1879, one of the most desperate actions ever engaged in under the
British flag. Here, overwhelmed by numbers, an English force suffered
a complete and most disastrous defeat, and here, bravely facing
inevitable overthrow and death, English soldiers sternly answered to
the call of duty and fell with honour, grimly defiant to the last.
Of the actual details of the battle there are no complete records. The
men who could have furnished them lie under the shade of the hill, and
the veldt grass grows green over their silent and glorious bed. But
sufficient is known, as much from the subsequent testimony of their
gallant foes as from the words of the few survivors of the fatal field,
to tell us how determined, though unavailing, was the courage, how
great the self-abnegation, of the warriors who then maintained the
honour of our country.
Let us tell the story as far as it can be gathered, and if it ends with
no shout of victory, at least we can impress on our minds that the
heroic dead left a memory of which we may be sadly proud, and that they
were not found wanting in carrying on the noblest traditions of the
English people.
The Zulu kingdom was a military power that, under a line of despotic
and warlike sovereigns, had long been a standing menace to the English
colony of Natal and to the Transvaal, the Dutch Republic, which in
1878 was annexed by England. The first king of Zululand, Chaka, had so
organised his realm that it was always ready for war at short notice,
and his system was maintained by his successors--Dingaan, Panda, and
finally Cetewayo, who became monarch in 1872. Every able-bodied Zulu
was enrolled in one or other of the king’s regiments, and no one was
allowed to marry without the king’s permission. The permission to marry
was generally given as a mark of favour to a whole regiment at once for
long or good service, particularly if it had “bathed” its assegais--or,
in other words, had covered them with blood in conflict. The discipline
of the Zulu army was the sternest. Implicit obedience was required, and
every fault was punished with death. Cowardice was unknown, for the
coward dare not meet the vengeance and wrath of his king. The saying
of each man was, “I am the king’s ox”--meaning, I accept life or death
as the king may award, and my only business is to carry out his orders
without question. The burden of one of their war-songs was, “If I go
back I am killed; if I go on I am killed. It is better to go on.”
With such feelings, added to their natural fierceness and hardihood,
influencing a peculiarly powerful and athletic race of men, it may be
conceived how formidable was the Zulu array, and with how much truth it
came to be called “a very perfect man-slaying machine.”