A thousand years of the Hungarian art of war

CHAPTER XI

HUNGARIAN SOLDIERS IN FOREIGN ARMIES

Our review of the Hungarian art of war would not be complete if we did not mention the role of Hungarian soldiers and generals in the service of foreign armies. Undoubtedly they were mercenaries. The word "mercenary" today carries a certain stigma; it is associated with words like dishonest, cruel, inhuman, murderous, criminal. It would be a mistake and unfair to accept these negative epithets as va1id characteristics of a mercenary soldier. A mercenary soldier is simply a professional, a skilled worker. Like a carpenter or plumber, he has the necessary tools to perform his job; he has skill to do it professionally and sells his time and know-how to customers, as a plumber does. Of course, his profession includes the goal of defeating the enemy.

Cruelty, inhumanity, characterize all human beings and not only mercenary soldiers. Regrettably, the citizen armies, the political1y conscious, fanatical amateurs produced in modern wars the most despicable atrocities and crimes /1/, while the professional and mercenary armies continued to respect the unwritten honor code of every front-line soldier.

The endurance, courage and natural military instincts of the Hungarian fighters were qualities which made Hungary an ally to be desired in international conflicts. In times past, foreign rulers gladly hired Hungarian generals and soldiers to organize and train for their armies famous and exclusive Hungarian light cavalry units, called hussars (huszar)./2/

The nomadic light cavalry of the Hungarian tribes fought as mercenaries, or allies, on the side of Byzantium, of the Bulgarian emperor, and of the German emperor./3/ With the adoption of Western medieval strategy and armament, Hungarian light-cavalry traditions survived in the banderia army organization, but became unimportant in the wars against Turkish invaders. Light cavalry units were revived in the Hungarian Army in the 16th and 17th

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centuries and became known worldwide during the Rakoczi rebellion./4/

HUNGARIAN HUSSARS OF FREDERICK THE GREAT.

During and after the Rakoczi rebellion, many Hungarians were forced to serve in the Habsburg army. Located in garrisons far away from Hungary. they deserted the Austrian army and joined up with Prussia's King Frederick I (1701-l713) and Frederick William I (1713-1740) welcomed the Hungarian deserters and in 1721 two Hussaren Corps were organized in the Prussian Army.

When the War of Austrian Succession began between Frederick II (later called "The Great") and Maria Theresa, the Prussian King recognized even in 1740 the superiority of the Empress' Hungarian hussars over his own traditional heavy cavalry. He sent his agents to the Habsburg empire, where they lured away a great number of hussar officers and enlisted their services for Frederick. Within two years the Prussian Army organized two new hussar regiments from these volunteers. These hussars wore the traditional Hungarian hussar uniform, richly decorated with braid and go1d trim. Frederick also recognized some national characteristics of his Hungarian hussars: extreme pride, integrity, sense of justice and dignity. In 1759 he issued a royal order which warned the Prussian officers never to offend the self-esteem of his Hungarian hussars with insu1ts and abuses. At the same time he exempted the hussars from the usual disciplinary measures of the Prussian Army: bodily punishment and cudgeling.

Frederick used his hussars for reconnaissance duties and for surprise attacks against the enemy's flanks and rear. A hussar regiment under the command of Colonel Sigismund Dabasi-Halasz won the battle at Striegau on May 4, 1745, by attacking the Austrian combat formation in its flank and capturing its entire artillery.

Still, Frederick learned the greatest lesson for the deployment of large hussar units from two hussar officers who served in Maria Theresa's army. In the battle of Kolin on June 17, 1757, 100 hussar squadrons mounted a mass attack. They won the battle for the Empress with their strong cavalry charge under the command of General Ferenc Count Nadasdy./6/ Four months later, in October, hussar General Andreas Hadik raided the capital city of Frederick the Great, and returned unopposed to the Habsburg lines, with the tribute collected from the burghers in Berlin./7/ Such experiences convinced Frederick to increase to ten his own Hungarian hussar regiments.

How effective was the performance of the Hungarian hussars in Frederick's army can be judged by the promotions and decorations

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he showered on the officers. Generals Pal Werner and Ferenc Koszeghy received the highest Prussian military order, the "Pour le Merite"; General Tivadar Ruesh was awarded the title of baron; Mihaly Szekely was promoted from the rank of captain to general after less than fifteen years of service./8/

Hungarian hussars in the armies of Frederick and Maria Theresa, although fighting on opposite sides had the great 1uck or the sagacity of their supreme commanders not to fight directly against each other. Thus their victories were achieved without involvement in fratricide.

THE HUNGARIAN SWORD IN FRENCH SERVICE.

After the defeat of Rakoczi's armies, entire hussar companies following their prince into exi1e received political asylum in the court of Louis XIV. To their surprise they were not the first Hungarian soldiers in France. Western military entrepreneurs, condottier generals, had already employed Hungarian hussars for messenger service and reconnaissance duties in the first years of the Thirty Years' War./9/ Since contemporary military principles stressed the importance of heavy cavalry and of infantry, large hussar units were not organized. Cardinal Richelieu /10/ was the first statesman to recognize the great strategic and tactical value of the Hungarian light cavalry. In 1635, he ordered the organization of the first hussar regiment under the name Cavallerie Hongroise. The regiment participated in the campaign in Franche-Comte and in 1637 played a key role in the conquest of Landrecies. /11/

The strategic successes of larger hussar units lay in their speed. They led raids deep into enemy territories where they were not expected to penetrate, interrupting communications, destroying depots, attacking enemy columns or the rear of combat formations, routing unsuspecting enemy troops and pursuing them to fina1 victory. Their only weapon was a long and wide-bladed bent sword. They fought their hand-to-hand combats on horseback.

After l686, when the forces of Emperor Leopold I (King of Hungary, l655-1705) liberated Hungary from the Ottoman occupation and the next year reconquered Transylvania, the Viennese court began an undeclared war against Hungarian Protestants and the suspected collaborators with the Turks./12/ The Neoacquistica Commissio deprived many landowners of their estates by refusing to recognize the legality of their title-deeds. Even if the owners were legal1y recognized, they were required to pay an extortionate reinstatement fee.

Leopo1d's po1icy triggered a wave of emigration. Many of the soldiers who fought for the liberation of their homeland but now were disenchanted with the Habsburg rule ended up in the court of

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Louis XIV. The French king welcomed the soldier-refugees and gave his consent to the organization of a hussar regiment./13/ With the arrival of the Kuruc soldiers of Rakoczi, new hussar regiments were organized, a total of twelve. The most famous hussar commanders who were promoted to the rank of general or higher in the French service were Gyorgy Rattky (campaigns in Spain, Lorraine, Italy, Bohemia); and offspring of old Hungarian families like Bornemissza, Berzeviczy, Dunay, Eszterhazy, Hevesy, Szogyeny, Almassy, Bezeredi, and so forth./14/

The founder of the modern French cavalry, according to today's French tradition, was Laszlo Count Bercsenyi (Bercheny in French spelling), the son of the famous general of Rakoczi. Bercsenyi was promoted to the rank of general for his heroism in the War of Polish Succession. During the War of Austrian Succession (1741 1748) the hussar regiment of Bercsenyi covered the retreat of the French Army from Bohemia. For his services in this campaign he was appointed by Louis XV (1723-1774) to Inspector General of the French cavalry. In 1756 Bercsenyi, already 67 years old, was promoted to the highest rank of the French Army: Marshal of France. After receiving amnesty from Empress Maria Theresa, he went back to Hungary for awhile, but, disillusioned, returned to France where he died in 1778 at the age of 89.

It would take 1ong pages to list the names and heroic deeds of the Hungarian hussars in France, but that is not the aim of this chapter. We would like only to call attention to the fact that not one or two but hundreds and thousands of Hungarian soldiers served in the French Army, enhancing the reputation of the Hungarian art of war all over Europe. One noteworthy difference between the mercenaries of other nations and those of Hungarian ethnicity was that, while others hired themselves out for campaigns or wars, the Hungarian soldiers entered the service of the French kings preferably for a 1ifetime, took up French citizenship, married and settled down in France. Thus their status changed from mercenary to that of professional career officers and soldiers.

HUNGARIANS IN THE AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE.

One hundred forty-one Hungarians fought for American independence./15/ But this number is not exact, since many Hungarians fought on the American side as members of the French forces Louis XVI sent to he1p the Americans against the British. The best-known of the Hungarian soldiers who came to America from France was the hussar officer, Michael de Kovats. He joined the Pulaski Legion in 1777. One year later, as Colonel Commander of the Legion, he led a Hungarian-style 1ight cava1ry unit which, according to British military experts, was "the best

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cavalry the rebels ever had."/16/ The Americans did not forget his services and the sacrifice of his life. They erected monuments in his memory in Washingtonn D.C. (Charleston's Citadel) and in New York. The U.S. Iight cavalry manufactured and used the equipment and arms of the hussars. The light saddle they used was offcially called the "Hungarian saddle."

After the War of Independence, Hungarian immigration continued to the United States, but during this peaceful period no soldiers were among the immigrants. A new wave of mass immigration started again after the combined Austro-Russian forces defeated the Hungarian Revolution and freedom fight in 1849. The majority of the immigrants were young soldiers of the former Honvedseg. With their military skill and experience, many of them offered their services to the Union Army as volunteers during the American Civil War.

AMERICAN CIVIL WAR.

One of the goals the Hungarians were fighting for in 1848-49 was the liberation of serfs. No wonder that slavery disgusted them. Records mention only one Hungarian, a hussar colonel, who fought on the side of the Confederacy. On the other hand, in the Union Army there were over 800 volunteers, of whom 80-100 served as officers./17/ At that time, about 4,000 Hungarians lived in America. Their proportion of participation in the war, twenty percent, was the highest among a1l ethnic groups. Many Hungarians were promoted to higher ranks: 1 LieutenantGeneral, 2 Major-Generals, 5 Brigadier-Generals, 10 Co1one1s, 2 Lieutenant-Colonels, 13 Majors and 10 Captains./18/

Let us mention here the names of those Hungarians who reached high (general) rank and those of lower rank who were praised by their commanders for their extraordinary heroism and merits.

Lieutenant-General Gyula Stahel (Szamwald) organized an infantry regiment. In the Battle of Bull Run on July 2, 1861, on his own initiative he took command of the rear guard, and made possible the withdrawal of the main forces./19/ President Lincoln personally expressed his appreciation for this action. By the summer of 1864, Stahel was commander of a cavalry division with the rank of Lieutenant-General./20/ For his extraordinary courage and bravery in leading his division to attack although he was seriously wounded in the Battle of Staunton, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. After the War, he was appointed U.S. Consul to Japan. In 1912 his remains were placed in Arlington National Cemetery./21/

General Sandor Asboth, who was previously general in the

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Honvedseg, was appointed Chief of Staff to General John C. Fremont. Seriously wounded three times during the war, he was appointed to the rank of general in l864. /22/ After the war he served as U.S. Ambassador to Argentina./23/

Two famous units, the Lincoln Regiment and the Garibaldi Guards, were also organized by Hungarians. The "Chicago Lincoln Riflemen" was organized by Geza Mihalotzy out of Hungarian and Bohemian immigrants. The company was later incorporated into the 24th Illinois Infantry Regiment, with Mihalotzy as Colonel Commander. He died in the Battle of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The New York Garibaldi Guard was organized by George Utassy who became the first commander of the unit with the rank of colonel. The Guard was allowed to display three flags: the Union flag and Garibald's flag were joined by the Hungarian tricolor, since half of the rank and file of the Garibaldi Guard were Hungarians./24/

The famous "death ride" of Major Charles Zagonyi was celebrated in poems, paintings and articles. Zagonyi, a former hussar officer, commanded General Fremont's light cavalry guard. His rank and file came exclusively from Kentucky. On October 25, 1861, Zagonyi convinced General Fremont to allow him to attack the Confederate troops 1,700 infantry and 2,000 cavalry in Springfield, Missouri. Fremont hesitated because of the overwhelming superiority of the Confederate forces, but gave his consent after Zagonyi insisted that he could clear the vi1lage with his light cavalry. His surprise attack, a complete success, left over 300 enemy casualties. The monument commemorating this event in Springfield, Missouri describes it as one of the "most daring and brilliant cavalry charges of the Civil War."/25/

Hungarians fighting in the Civil War were not mercenaries. They fought for their convictions against a slave-holder enemy. For example, Lieutenant Alexander Jekelfalussy submitted his resignation to protest the standing order requiring regiments to arrest and extradite runaway slaves hiding in their camp. His resignation was not accepted, and the 24th Illinois Regirnent, with the approval of Colonel Mihalotzy,/26/ and the tacit consent of President Lincoln, refused to obey this outdated order.

Hungarian officers, enlightened, liberal, and experienced as leaders in war, successfully organized and commanded "Colored" regiments. Ladislaus Zsulavsky, commander of the 51st Colored Regiment, also organized, trained and commanded the 82nd Colored Regiment./27/ Hungarian officers held lower ranks in the 25th, 82nd and 86th Colored Regiments in 1863. Eugen Kozlay fought in the 54th New York Infantry Regiment, nicknamed the Black Jaegers. In 1864, he was appointed Colonel Commander of

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the Regiment, and one year later was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General./28/

Hungarian soldiers fought well with sword and rifle in hand. They helped to preserve the Union while receiving the love, admiration and respect of soldiers of different religious affiliations, ethnic origins and race. After the Civil War, the Hungarian soldiers of the U.S. Army continued to contribute to the life of their new country. Only a few of them returned to Hungary after the 1867 Austro-Hungarian compromise which granted amnesty for the participants of the Hungarian freedom fight of 1848-49./29/

HUNGARIAN LEGION IN GARIBALD'S ARMY.

The revolutions of 1848 in Hungary and in the North Italian territories created a rapprochement, later a natural alliance, between the Sardinian kingdom and Hungary, against the common enemy, the Habsburgs. Many Hungarian soldiers of Radetzky's army deserted instead of fighting against the Italian revolutionaries. Italian volunteers, organized in a legion, went to Hungary to fight in the Honvedseg against the Habsburgs. The defeat of the Italian forces and of the Hungarian Revolution did not end this comradeship. Louis Kossuth, the self-exiled president of the Hungarian Republic, found asylum in Turin, where the government of King Victor Emmanuel II (1849-1878), King of Piedmont (in l86l to become the first King of Italy), trated him as the real representative of Hungary.

In 1858 Emperor Francis Joseph fell into the carefully-prepared diplomatic trap of the Piedmontese prime minister, Count Camillo Cavour, and declared war on Piedmont./30/ Cavour counted on the alliance of Napoleon III. in this war. Napoleon and Francis Joseph, however, coming to an understanding at Villafranca,/31/ thwarted the plans of the Piedmontese. The King was ready to accept the conditions imposed upon him by the Villafranca agreement, but Cavour vehemently protested: ". . . this peace will never be made! This treaty will never be executed! . . . I will turn conspirator! I will become a revolutionist! But this treaty shall not be carried out. No, a thousand times no! Never, never! . . The emperor of the French is departing. Let him go. But you and I, Monsieur Kossuth, will remain. We two will do what the Emperor of the French did not dare to accomplish. By God, we will not stop halfway." /32/

Cavour's confidence in Kossuth was justified by the common interest of Piedmont and Hungary, as well as by the active he1p of Kossuth in the preparation of the unification of Italy. Besides a good chance to incite a revolt in Hungary against the Habsburgs

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during the Italian war, Kossuth offered military help in the form of a legion organized from Hungarian emigrants living in Italy. The legion's effective force reached 5,200 soldiers organized in five battalions under the leadership of well-known Hungarian freedomfighter generals such as George Klapka and Moritz Perczel./33/

In 1859 the Legion had to be dissolved according to the provisions of the Treaty of Zurich (November 10, 1859). Many of the rank and file went back to Hungary, but the generals and officers who were sentenced to death by Habsburg military courts in absentia (such as Count Alexander Teleki, General Gyorgy Klapka and Antal Vetter) remained./34/ With the help of Kossuth, who by December, 1859 had renewed his contacts with Garibaldi and Count Teleki (a friend of Garibaldi since they met in Nice in 1849), Hungarian officers volunteered to join the Piedmontese Army as well as the army of the Sicilian revolutionaries./35/ The Hungarians were we1comed. Their number began to grow in Garibaldi's division as news arrived from Hungary that those members of the Hungarian Legion who returned to Hungary confident in the amnesty announced by the Viennese Court after the l858 war were mistreated upon their return./36/ Political developments in Italy once again required the military ski1l and help of Hungarian soldiers.

Garibaldi in the spring of 1860 hurried to the aid of the Sicilian revolutionaries. The famous "1,000" fighters of Garibaldi/37/ included several Hungarians, among them Colonel Istvan Turr, who was appointed division commander during the Sicilian operations. By the time Garibaldi invaded the kingdom of Naples, the Hungarian brigade led by General Ferdinand Eber numbered 3,200 men, with a cavalry unit 200 hussars strong./38/ The brigade and hussar units played a key role in the Battle of Capua (October l, 1860) which decided not only the fate of Naples but also the entire campaign. Garibaldi recognized the heroism of the Hungarian Legion with the following words:

The Hungarian legion, that I had the honor to command, proved its glorious, brotherly devotion toward the 1,000 of Marsala with brilliant bravery which is the quality, of the heroic Hungarian nation./40/

On October 21, King Victor Emmanuel entered Naples with the Piedmontese Army. On November 8, Garibaldi resigned. His troops, which by that time numbered over 23,000, were dismissed. General Turr and several of his officers were accepted in the royal army as career officers. The legion also became an integral part of the Italian forces until 1866 when it was officially dissolved and integrated into Italian units. The flags of the Legion were deposited in the royal armory of the Italian kingdom of Turin. The heroic

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deeds of the Hungarian soldiers were preserved on the pages of Italian military history books

.

Only six years after the dissolution of the Hungarian legion in Italy, General Gyorgy Klapka, the famous general of the 1848/1849 Hungarian freedom fight, organized a Hungarian legion in Prussia on the eve of the Austro-Prussian War in 1866. The legion entered Hungary through Moravia, but, unable to secure popular support against the Habsburg forces, it withdrew without influencing the outcome of the war.

After the Austro-Hungarian compromise of 1867 the outflow of political emigrees stopped. Hungarians, like other European nationalities, were able to migrate to the U.S. if they were unhappy with the political or economic conditions at home. In Hungary the newly organized Honvedseg provided an opportunity for those wishing to pursue a military career in the national army. Although individual Hungarians in small numbers continued to serve in foreign armies (example: fourteen Hungarians fought in the Boer War in South Africa in 1899-1902), no groups participated in armed conflicts./41/

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A thousand years of the Hungarian art of war