General Dufour was born at Constance, of a family of Genevese origin.  Having acquired his early education at Geneva, where he devoted his attention chiefly to mathematics, he entered the Polytechnic School at Paris, was commissioned two years afterwards in the corps of Engineers, and served in the later campaigns of Napoleon, where he rose to the rank of captain.  He afterwards entered the Swiss Federal service, in which he became colonel, chief of the general staff, and quartermaster-general.  At later periods he has held the less active, but equally responsible and honorable positions of superintendent of the triangulation of Switzerland on which the topographical map of the country is based, and chief instructor of engineering in the principal military school of the Republic, at Thun.

When, in 1847, the Swiss Diet determined to dissolve the Sonderbund, which had at length committed the overt act of treason, General Dufour was appointed commander-in-chief of the Federal army.  A few days after the call for troops was issued, he found himself at the head of an army of one hundred thousand men, and immediately entered actively upon the work before him.  His dispositions were skilful and his movements rapid.  He adopted with success the “anaconda” system of strategy, and hemmed in the insurgents at every point, closing in the mountain-passes, and completely isolating them.  After six days of active campaigning the Canton of Freyburg was subdued; nine days afterwards Luzerne submitted; the other rebellious cantons were quick to yield; and in eighteen days from the commencement of active operations, and twenty-three days from the issue by the Federal Diet of the decree of coercion, the rebellion was extinguished so completely that no murmur of treason has since been heard in the Republic.  So rapidly was the whole accomplished, that foreign powers had not time to intervene; and it is said, that, when the French messenger went to seek the insurgents with his proposals, they were already fugitives.  In honor of his services in this contest, the Federal Diet voted General Dufour a sabre of honor and a donative of forty thousand francs.

General Dufour’s “Strategy and Tactics” is evidently the fruit of an attentive study of the best examples and authorities of all ages.  He has avoided mere theories and fine writing, and has aimed to present a work practical in its treatment and application.  The lessons of history have been his guide; his precepts are fortified by pertinent examples from the campaigns of the best generals, and we may study them with confidence that when put to the actual test they will not fail.