ABSTRACT
Both Lucerne's government and the Sonderbund's War Council had effectively ceased to function. Guillaume Henri Dufour had thought that the canton would quit the war without any need for military action, and he was proved right. The terms of the capitulation agreement of November 25 were as clear-cut as any: Nidwalden assented both to the dissolution of the Sonderbund and to being occupied by federal troops. The occasional incidents that did take place were caused by the occupying troops or their sympathizers and not by any die-hard Sonderbund supporters. Some discharged Sonderbund soldiers, anxious to have a look at what was going on, put on federal armbands so that they might pass unmolested. And the bulk of the troops had been demobilized well before that; as early as November 17—or a full week before the fall of Lucerne—Dufour had begun to release units he thought were no longer needed.
