ABSTRACT
Albert Heer and Gottlieb Binder, in their history of the Sonderbund that appeared in 1913, offer a description of Lucerne that present-day visitors will still appreciate. The fortified positions that Lucerne's defenders had hastily erected lay well outside the city itself, behind the line formed by the river Emme. Lucerne, was overrun with defeated and demoralized troops and faced anarchy. Others, using less graphic language, refused as well, until in the end a first lieutenant from Lucerne, Carl Laurenz Mahler, reluctantly agreed to act as emissary. Acting on Dufour's instructions, Colonel Ziegler of Zürich, commander of the Fourth Division, ordered his troops to advance on Lucerne. With emotions running high, several officers sided with Elgger, urging continued resistance. Giving up without a fight, they argued, would come close to "heinous treason," as one of them put it—treason that for years to come would "bring disgrace to the name of Lucerne".
