USA > Vermont > Washington County > Montpelier > Addresses delivered before the Vermont Historical Society and the Vermont Historical and Antiquarian Society > Part 13
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DUFOUR's plan of operations was founded on the very ANACONDA SYSTEM which has lately been so much decried and even derided in this country. It was successful. He surrounded the territories of the Sonderbund with an immense chain of troops, closing every entrance and exit. Simultaneously, he threw a separate coil around the Can- ton of FREYBURG, partly detached from its confederate sisters. At the same time he struck with the instinctive energy of genius at one of the vital points of the rebel- lion. Like the keen Lammergeyer of the Alps, amid whose embattled ranges he was operating, with huge expanded wings feathered with steel, he swooped down on his quarry, Freyburg. To borrow the language of the gentle sport of Falconry, "unhooded and thrown off, his stoop" was like the levin-bolt, direct and dazzling, unim- peded by the "jesses" of red tape, untrammelled by the electric "signals" of beaurocratic interference. The matur- ed vigor of Dufour's "Forwards" strategy recalls the vivid comparison of Octavio Piccolomini.
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"Straight forward goes the Lightning's, Straight forward goes the cannon-ball's fearful path, Swift, by directest course, it burtles on, Shattering it makes its way, that it may shatter."
The Federal Diet, as soon as it had appealed to arms, committed everything to the grey-haired general to whom they had entrusted the Sword. This was as it should have been, and the result justified their confidence. The mem- bers of the Diet felt the influence of, the Federal Military School of Thun, the "West Point" of the Swiss Confed- eration. The French Emperor Louis Napoleon was a pupil of this institution. There he had made his debut in the Artillery, just as his uncle had graduated at Brienne, to enter the same Arm of the French service. Oth- ers had seen service themselves. All the Members of Diet had the sufficient judgment to appreciate and con- cede, that
" In the Field,
There, must the PRESENT ONE direct, Sapreme,
The Head in Person rule ; his own. eye see .-
If War-Chief needs all Nature's greatest gifts,
Grudge him not then, to live in all the vast
Proportions of her greatness. He, alone,
The living oracle, indwelling, must consult
No: orders old, dead books, or musty papers."
Nor had the Swiss general, himself forgotten the ADAGE of the Great Captain under whose eagles he had made his first campaigns, that " he, who yropes (or moves irresolute- ly) loses." He knew that at this crisis, to "amuse him- self at Gembloux" would ruin his country. Dufour was imbued with the spirit of those hero-bards evoked by the War of 1812-'13, for the Deliverance of Germany, whose poetic gems like
"· Sparks of noble spirits flew,"
struck out by the clash between Tyranny and Avenging Freedom. A wonderful generation that of KORNER, bro- there, in race and instincts, of ZWINGLI, they poured forth
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their blood and their song with equal courage and fire for their country. Sword in hand, the minstrel-martyr thun- dered the vital question :--
" WHAT would the Singer's Fatherland ?- Strike to her feet the servile race, Forth, from her soil, the bloodhound chase, FREE, bear FREE SONS (upon her face) Or bed them, FREE, beneath her sand ; THAT would my Fatherland!
And, in trumpet tones KORNER responded, a few hours before he fell upon the field of Gadebush, singing his Sword-Song while the wing of the death-angel beat chilly upon him :-
"What rapture thus to be The Guardian of the Free. Hurrah !"
Such were the Germans of 1812-'15 under BLUCHER ; such were the Swiss of 1847, under DUFOUR, who proved "SKILL, mixed with WILL, is he that teaches best."
DUFOUR doubtless determined to commence his active operations with the capture of Freyburg, for several reasons: morally, because it had long been a centre of Ultramontane intrigue and Secession conspiracies ; physically, because the season was late for campaigning in a mountain region, and neither politics nor strategy could permit any unnecessary delay ; militarily, because it lay separate and unsupported. He selected FREYBURG just as a good General falls unexpectedly on a dislocated corps or division en aire. The result showed that Dufour's plans had been digested with consummate discretion.
The Canton of Freyburg is very peculiarly situated. Its capital, Dufour's object, even more so. Although completely embraced by the Liberal Cantons of Berne and Vaud, it has always been noted for its intolerance. Bisected by the Saane, or Sarine, the southern half is
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mountainous but rich in pastures, while the northern embraces some of the finest agricultural ground in Swit- zerland. Portions of the latter are said to resemble districts in England, pleasant to the eyes of the farmer. Moreover this northern district is one of the few of the Confederation which produces corn in sufficient quantities to render it independent of foreign supplies. Between its animal and vegetable productions, the Canton is self- sustaining. Consequently as the harvest had been gath- ered, it should have made a protracted defence.
Three languages are spoken in this Canton. Notwith- standing, the feelings of the people were not divided as a rule, for the proportion of Protestants is very small and generally confined to particular localities. French is the predominating dialect towards the North, West, and in the towns, German in the North-east, and Romansch, a corruption of the Latin, in the South.
"A Babylonish dialect,
Which learned pedants much affect ; It was a parti-colored dress Of patch'd and piebald languages."
The capital is even more singular, physically, morally, and relatively, than the canton. The upper town is French, the lower is German, both were behind the times, exclusive, opposed to new men and new ideas. SIMOND says "this town is so exactly on the limits of the Gallic and Germanic idioms, that one half of the inhabitants do not understand the other." Its site resembles that of Constan- tine in Algeria ; Civita Castellana in Viterbo, States of the Church; and Vicksburgh. Just as the two former are seated on scarped rocks and the latter on a bluff, in Ox-bows of the Oued-el-Kebir, Rio Maggiore and the Mis- sissippi, just so Freyburg is situated on an elevated tongue of soft sand-stone rock, perforated with caverns, and bare of vegetation, washed on three sides by the turbid Saane,
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flowing without beauty, in its profound gloomy chasm. Before it, to the north, stretches as stated, one of the finest agricultural districts in the XXII Cantons. Behind it tower the Bernese Alps and mountain citadels of the Valais. With the latter it is connected by only a single good road, while five grand routes diverge from its gates to Berne, the Lakes of Bienne, Morat, Neuchatel and Geneva. The territory embraced between them, resembles a Fan, of which the Roads represent the Ribs, having a radius of fifteen miles. Of this fan, Freyburg city con- stitutes the knob or handle, grasped by the rapid Saane, rushing around and beneath the town, overhung by quaint buildings which seem to need only a gust of wind to topple them over the precipice into.the gulf below. It is strange that while thus united, to the cast, north and west with the land of Progress and Liberality, by easy and fine roads and, to the south, the citadel of Romanism by only one circuitous route, Freyburg has lain buried in the sleep of apathy or worse. The population seemed willing to receive nothing beneficial by the many channels from the north, and any amount of prejudicial influences through the single one to the rear. They admitted they were behind the time, but consoled themselves that other Romanist Swiss were still more so. They were now destined to realize the truth of VICTOR HUGO's remark that "the North and the People are the reservoirs of humanity."
"Yet, FREEDOM ! yet thy banner, torn, but flying, Streams like a thunder-storm against the wind : Thy trumpet voice tho' broken now and dying, The loudest still the tempest leaves behind; Thy tree hath lost its blossoms, and the rind Chopp'd by the axe seems rough and little worth, But the sap lasts,-and still the seed we find Sown deep, even in the bosom of the NORTH; 80 shall a better spring less bitter fruit bring forth."
Seated aloft and looking out in every direction
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apon scenery unexceeded in beauty and sublimity, in full view of the majestic Alps, the birthplace of the Freyburgher resembles, in its glorious elevation and sur- roundings, the cradle of Zwingli. Notwithstanding, the former seemed to have derived therefrom ideas diametri- cally opposite to the celestial influences which nature infused into the expanding mind of the Reformer of Zurich. Prior to its capture by Dufour, in 1847, it was the stronghold of the Roman Catholic priesthood. Pre- vious to that date the education of its population had been in the hands of the Jesuits, and their College in this city had been the chief nursery of the Society out of Italy. This may account for the fact, that down to 1782, the government of Zurich was the closest aristocracy or oli- garchy, even among those Cantons whose people in "the middle ages, vegetated under the cudgels of their lords and the crosiers of their bishops." In the administration of its public affairs, it was styled the Venice of Switzer- land. Nor does the comparison between Freyburg and the Queen of the Adriatic cease with the consideration of its government. Just as the latter is almost unique in its peculiar natural position, architecture and other objects of curiosity, just so Freyburg greets the curious traveller with an unwonted display of medieval constructions and feudal remains. "The dirt, the Madonnas, the colossal crucifixes, strongly recalled Italy." "Striking and roman- tic," and "possessing so many attributes of the pictur- esque" it has an exterior "with which the meanness of the interior does not correspond." "Even in these days (1841) it contained five convents for men and four for women, within its walls. One of these is a college, on a very large scale, 'a staring, modern building, like a manufactory, with five stories,' for the Jesuits." "On the whole, the place is like no other in Switzerland."
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Long lines of embattled walls climb its steep heights and plunge into the gloom of the Sarine. Watch-towers shoot up from space to space, and mediaval bastions de- fend its gates, specimens of the first steps of scientific engineering. The massive constructions might almost laugh to scorn a siege undertaken with the ordinary field artillery of sixteen years since, and would have done so had the spirit of Freyburg's men equalled the solidity of its walls.
It has been remarked that Dufour's plan of operations had been digested with consummate discretion. It was now carried out with equal ability.
The chief command of the Secessionists in this district, had been confided to Gen. MAILLARDOZ. This officer had served with distinction under the same master in the Art of War, Napoleon, as DurouR; likewise under the Bour- bon Restoration in France. Yet how inferior did he prove himself in the application of the rules, learned under the same ensigns. Dufour completely outwitted him. Maillardoz had been led to expect that he would be attacked from the east. He anticipated that the prin- cipal forces of the Confederation would invade Freyburg by Laupen, the scene of a wonderful victory of the repub- lican Bernese over the league of the imperialist Nobles, in 1339,-Neueneck, and Schwarzenburg, all three on the river Sense, the boundary between the cantons of Berne and Freyburg. From that quarter patriotic OCH- SENBEIN, who commanded the Free Corps, which had been beaten back from Lucerne in 1845, was indeed advancing. This movement, however, was more to attract the attention of the Rebel General than intended as a real attack, although capable, if necessary, of becom- ing one. Ochsenbein's march of about 18 miles, had to
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be made through long, deep and narrow defiles, susceptible of murderous defence, by the main route from Berne to Freyburg. This road emerging from the Bear's Gate of the Capital of the Confederation, passes through a diffi- cult but magnificent country, crosses the Sarine by a splendid suspension bridge 941 feet long, at an elevation of 180 feet, and delivers the traveller, at once, by a breach through the old houses, in the very heart of Frey- burg. Previous to the erection of this bridge, it required an hour of difficult descent, detour, and ascent, to cross the gorge of the Sarine, which is now accomplished in two minutes.
While thus the attention of the Freyburghers was fascinated by the approach of Ochsenbein from the East, the other Federal divisions had been massed to the northward, in the loyal district of Morat, and, to the westward, in the Canton of Vaud, which sweeps round, beyond the head of the lakes of Geneva, to St. Maurice on the Road to Sion. On the 9th and 10th November, five days after promulgation of the Decree of the Federal Diet for the forcible dissolution of the Sonderbund, twenty thousand loyal troops invaded Freyburg. Relatively, this Canton occupied the same position in regard to the Sonderbund League that Virginia held to our own Rebel Confederacy. The frontier towns were occupied without a shot being fired. The capture of Staffis or Estavayer, on the Lake of Neuchatel, presents a perfect parallel to the capture of Alexandria on the Potomac. The Federals were astonished to meet with no opposi- tion. This was the more surprising since the whole canton of Freyburg, the district of the capital city espe- cially, was strongly defended by nature and art. This simultaneous closing in, would be exactly exemplified by
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the act of pushing in one of those Fans, whose size can be reduced, at once, one half, by their ribs shutting into themselves like the joints of a telescope. From the north and west, strong columns advanced upon four of the five roads which come together at Freyburg. The 1st, most easterly, the direct connection between the beleaguered town and nucleus or main body of the Sonderbund, was already closed by Ochsenbein's occupation of Neueneck. The positions of Morat and Estavayer, on the 2d and 3d, now precluded all access to the lakes of Bienne and Neuchatel, by which the Rebels hoped to receive supplies from France, as well as smuggled assistance from "Cop- perhead" Neuchatel itself. The capture of Romont, on the 4th, and Chatel St. Denis, on the 5th, road, cut off all hopes of aid from sympathizing Savoy, across the lake of Geneva, through traitors in Lausanne and Vevay. Finally, the occupation of Bulle, at the junction of the road to Vevay, the 5th, and the main route to the Valais, severed that, the last source of supply. From Bulle, like- wise, the mountain road through the same valley, but on the opposite shore, of the Sarine, could be completely su- pervised and commanded. On the 11th November, the Federals resumed their advance and, driving the rebels before them, huddled them in upon a centre incapable, under the circumstances, of maintaining such numbers. On the morning of the 12th November, Freyburg found itself completely surrounded on the west or left side of the Sarine, by an army of upwards of twenty thousand men, ready to move to the assault. Ochsenbein's division, meanwhile, observed the other side. Completely isolated, Freyburg had now to make good its boasts, and stand or fall alone.
The population of this capital were commanded by officers considered skillful, and had themselves a good
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military reputation. "It was announced in foreign coun tries that the Catholics of Freyburg would renew the wonders of the heroic defence of Saragossa." The natu- ral position of the Spanish city was by no means as strong. All that was required was a like determination in the people. This did not exist and, before a shot was fired, the mere sight of the environing masses had engen- dered ideas of submission. From his headquarters at Avenches, about six miles to the north, on the 12th, Dufour had addressed a proclamation to his army and on the 13th, had despatched a flag of truce to the authorities of the beleaguered town to convince them of the futility of defence. The Council of State convoked a Council of War, and the latter were sufficiently intimidated at the aspect of affairs to request a suspension of arms. This was granted, conditionally, till the morning of the 14th. Meanwhile the Federal Colonel RILLIET, commanding the 1st Division of Dufour's army, was either ignorant of this armistice or unwilling to accept it, unless his troops were permitted to occupy the Wood of Dailliettes. This wood appears to have been the key-point of the Freyburgher's line of defence, on the North of the Sarine. It had been fortified with care and occupied by eleven hundred Reb- els, with orders to hold it to the last man. Rilliet's sum- mons to evacuate. this post was refused. This was on
the evening of the 13th. Thereupon the works were attacked, and the fiery Liberals of Vand carried the main redoubts of Bertigny. The fighting continued after night- fall. Amid the darkness the Vand troops charged through the abatis and ditches and drove the Frey- burgher's out of the wood. Had daylight lasted another hour, the Federals would have taken the City by storm. The struggle had been fierce and bloody, but it rendered farther sacrifices needless .. The Inspiration of Liberty
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proved too powerful even for the Fanaticism of a Relig- ious Education, whose cardinal principle is blind and absolute obedience. At S A. M., on the 14th, Freyburg capitulated and withdrew from the Sonderbund.
General MAILLARDOZ, the rebel commander, was obli- ged to seek refuge in the Federal headquarters against the outrages of his own troops, furious at their defeat, which they attributed to him while due to their own feeble resistance. Accused of betraying his associates in treason, he subsequently died in obscurity and misery. The Jesuits were expelled, the Canton militarily ocen- pied and thoroughly subjugated, and, amid tears of joy, the incarcerated Unionists welcomed their deliverers. To carry out the comparison in our own case, witness the reception of BURNSIDE in Eastern Tennessee. Thus satis- factorily the curtain fell on the first act of the Grand Drama of Coercion. Its action embraced a period of six days.
Meanwhile, despite the loyal successes and their own disparity of forces, the Rebels were enabled to make in- cursions into Loyal Cantons bordering on their own terri- tory. just as Maryland and Pennsylvania have suffered from Rebel invasion, and Ohio from Secessionist inroads. The efforts of the Swiss Sonderbundists, however, were repelled and chastised with a celerity and loss which did not occur in our own country.
The fall of Freyburg did not make a decided impression on the more violent partisans of the Separate League .- " Matters would be very different," they said, "in Lu- cerne and in the Primitive Cantons." "The Sonderbund General DI SALIS SOGLIO had at his disposal 30.000 men, at present entrenched behind impregnable positions. With such advantages he would be able." it was added, "to ar- rest for years the progress of General Dufour's 60,000
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men." Lucerne was still proud of its victory over the "Free Companions" or Free Corps, in 1844 and 1845, and as for the Forest States, they were set down as uncon- querable. A slight success gained at Dietwyl, in Argovia, on the 10th November, by the Secessionist forces of Schwytz had confirmed all these hopes. Nevertheless, on the 20th November, ZuG, the Georgia, as to location, of the Sonderbund, "terrified by the very appearance of the Federal flag, and somewhat lukewarm moreover, in the cause of rebellion, offered to capitulate, and on the 21st abandoned the Sonderbund. This alarmed even the most ardent Fire-eaters at the very headquarters of resistance to law, although the discouraging intelligence reached Lucerne at the very moment when the Imperialist Prince Schwartzenberg was tendering his sword to the Ultra- montane League, to which Austria had renewed her pro- mises of pecuniary aid and other assistance. The oppor- tune submission of Zug was doubly satisfactory. Its people received the Federals with rejoicing, and relieved them from the danger of a flank attack, not only through- out their advance, but at the very moment of their colli- sion with the enemy. What is more, it enabled the Federals to completely turn the strongest works upon which the safety of Lucerne depended. It likewise obvi- ated delay almost as dangerous to the Loyal party as a check or partial defeat, for the leaders of the Sonderbund had positive assurances of foreign intervention in their favor, if they only could hold out a few days longer.
In the selection of their leaders both the Loyal and Rebel Swiss presented a marked contrast to the action of our own people, whose infatuation leads them, too often, to entrust the direction of military affairs to civilians of little or no experience in such matters.
Another error into which we have fallen is the idea
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that young officers are, per se, superior to old officers, because a few examples of precocious generalship have startled the world. People forget that Alexander, Gusta- vus, Frederic, and even Napoleon, were surrounded by experienced officers of the highest merit, and a veteran or excellent soldiery. DUFOUR, as was stated, was sixty. His opponent, DI SALIS-SOGLIO, was fifty seven. He belonged to the old aristocratic SALIS family, which even down to the year of his birth 1790, ruled alone, like sovereigns, in the democratic Grisons, with an influence indirectly abso- lute. He had served with distinction against Napoleoil, so that he and Dufour commenced and ended their careers in opposing camps. Morally, however, each had changed sides. In 1813-'14, di Salis-Soglio was fighting for the Lib- eration of Germany from the curse of a tyranny, which Dufour, and this latter's defeated antagonist, Maillardoz were assisting to maintain. In 1847, di Salis-Soglio, al- though a Protestant, was commanding in behalf of the Jesuits, while Dufour was the champion of Free Thought and Liberty in general. It has been remarked that in the Swiss conflicts since the XVI century, the pedantic Protestants and the Jesuits, for their own interests, always joined hands with the Foreign Powers against the Lib- erals. Ochsenbein, aged thirty six, must have been a man of more than ordinary ability. He had been chief of the Federal Staff, President of the Berne Cantonal Administration, and, through that position, Presiding Offi- cer of the Federal Diet. Afterwards he was a general in the service of Napoleon III. The other Division com- manders justified the confidence of the nation.
After the conquest of Freyburg, DUFOUR's next great object was the capture of LUCERNE. Even there, despite the apparent unanimity of Rebel sentiment, an element of loyalty existed, suppressed however with the greatest
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severity. Moreover, while the Federal columns were concentrating for decisive action, many of the necessaries of life were already wanting in the main Rebel stronghold. Dufour now displayed as much Practical Strategy in his movements against this hot bed of seditition, as he had shown in his previous operations. Nor was the Swiss Federal Secretary of State less equal to his position than the gray-haired General.in-Chief. His course was the direct opposite of that pursued by our own high official in the same relative position. He would not allow the French Embassy. to communicate with the traitor autho- rities in Lucerne, or afford any moral support to the Rebel main-army, strangling in the coil of the loyal Anaconda.
On the 16th November, Dufour transferred his headquarters to AARAU. This town lies on the Aar, about thirty miles N, N. W. of Lucerne. It is situated at the apex of an ellipse, whose butt is marked out by the curve of the Emme and Reuss. Opposite the centre of this convex, stands LUCERNE, at the foot of the lake of the Four Cantons. It is useless in this connection, to go into a detailed description of this city. It was the residence of the Papal Nuncio; since 1845 one of the headquarters of the Jesuits ; con- tained, according to Murray, a population of eight thousand one hundred and fifty-nine Roman Catholics and one hundred and eighty Protestants ; and had distinguished itself, during the two preceding years, by the persecution of its citizens opposed to the majority or dominant party. Of these prosecutions Zschokke remarks "No page in the history of Switzerland is stained with blacker sins in the administration of public justice." Lucerne not only resembled Charleston in the ultra-intolerance of its institutions but likewise in its military position. Just as that stronghold of Slavery, Nullification and Secession was formerly extremely defensi- ble in itself, just so this centre of Ultramontanism or spiritual Serfdom and Sonderbundism was, a century since, a place of mili- tary importance, Even as the South Carolinian metropolis trium- phantly repulsed a British attack in 1776, and was only captured after a sharp siege by Sir Henry Clinton in 1780 ; so the Swiss cita- del, centre or pivot of the successive "Separate Leagues" had held its enemies at bay with its circle of massive feudal watch-towers, gothic battlements and walls. Both are no longer tenable in these days of improved artillery after their advanced works have fallen. Lucerne demonstrated and Charleston is now exemplifying that their safety depends on the maintenance of an exterior line of great natural strength. This line of defence, a little concave towards the Swiss town constitutes the shortest diameter of the egg-shaped district embraced within the most eastern and western of the five main roads, diverging from Aarau and converging to Lucerne, which band it like meridian lines. The principal positions which protect Lucerne, together, form a flattened arc having a chord of
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