My life and acts in Hungary in the years 1848 and 1849

Preface

The resistance of Hungary to Austria and Russia was broken, Kossuth and Szemere and their partisans saved themselves, like the Poles, on a neutral territory. I rejected flight ; and the majority of the unfortunate combatants for Hungary against New Austria followed my example.

Hereupon I was pardoned, and meanwhile banished to Carinthia. The decision on the fate of my companions, however, was left to the Master of the Ordnance, Baron Haynau.

The striking contradiction between my pardon and the subsequent executions might have induced the relatives of some of those who were awaiting the decision of their case to suppose that it would be possible for me, by some means, to save these unfortunate men ; for, immediately after the first executions at Arad and Pesth, I was requested by letters from various quarters to exert my presumed influence with the government of Austria in favor of one or other of the politically compromised persons who had come into the power of Baron Haynau.

The failure of these applications needs scarcely to be mentioned. I had positively no influence at all to exert. I had, on the contrary, to perceive that it was my duty to suppress even the anxious cry for pardon, so long as Baron Haynau remained the absolute master of life and death to my companions in war. My intercession could but kindle still higher the pious zeal of the Baron.

PHEFACE.

Not Tintil there was a pause in the execution of the capital sentences pronounced at Arad and Pesth, and it seemed to be indicated by this circumstance that Baron Haynau no longer ruled with unlimited sway in my country, could T venture to beg attention to the logical consequences of my being pardoned, without having to fear at the same time that my intercession would completely endanger the lives of those whose deliverance it implored.

I was on the point of handing my petition, addressed to his Majesty the Emperor of Austria, to the local military authority of Klagenfurt to be kindly forwarded, when the rumor that the Monarch would perhaps visit Carinthia also on his state -progress in May, 1850, roused in me the desire, as will easily be conceived, to make my request orally to his Majesty.

The rumor, indeed, was well founded ; but an audience was refused me, and I was referred with my petition to the Minister of the Interior. Re-encouraged in some degree by the assurances with which Herr von Bach dismissed me, I thought it best to present through him my petition to the Monarch. This T did in the following letter :

To his Excellency the Minister Alexander von Bach.

" Your comrades will not be deceived, if they expect the clemency of his Majesty" — were the last consolatory words with which your Excellency was pleased to dismiss me yesterday.

How deeply they penetrated into my afflicted soul, how quickly they revived my well-nigh extinguished belief in the prevalence of forgiving sentiments in the breast of the offended earthly dignities, let the inclosure declare to your Excellency.

^t is a feeble attempt to implore the pardon of his Majesty for those who are not in the fortunate position of being able to do so for themselves.

But I know not the language which has power to reach the heart of his Majesty; your Excellency, on the contrary, can not be a stranger to it.

My words are perhaps too bold ; perhaps the use I make in the inclosed document of the reminiscences of a mournful past is calculated to thwart my purpose.

It can not be concealed from your Excellency's sound judgment, whether both are fitted to be of use to my unfortunate companions, or whether the

PREFACE. iii

mischief of a contrary effect may perhaps threaten them from my ignorance of the bearing of this step.

And thus my anxious uncertainty about the consequences of the inclosed most submissive petition will excuse me for daring once more to approach your Excellency with the respectful prayer, that your Excellency would be pleased most kindly to decide, on a humane consideration of that which it was not permitted me personally to lay before his Majesty whether the petition most respectfully inclosed in the original is worthy to be presented to his Majesty by your Excellency's gracious intermediation.

Klvigenfurt, 21st of May, 1850.

My petition to his Majesty the Emperor of Austria, was as follows :

Your Majesty !

When, on the 13th of August last year, I laid down our arms before the troops of his Majesty the Emperor of Russia, 1 begged that my unfortunate companions might be spared, as well as the deeply distressed people of Hungary, freely giving up myself in expiation of what had been done. I despised flight, and purposely avoided, after as well as before the laying down of our arms, any expression or action tending to my own safety; for I wished at least to share the fate of my companions, if my prayer should not be granted ; since my companions were guilty of no act for which they deserved a more rigorous fate than myself.

The laying down of our arms was resolved upon in a military council, at which I was not even present. I merely undertook to execute this resolution : and nevertheless, I was pardoned, while a part of the members of this military council lost their lives, another part their property and liberty.

I it was especially whose independent acts,~ favored by the fortune of war, so long hostilely delayed the realization of your Majesty's great idea of a united free Austria : and notwithstandiij^g, your Majesty was pleased to grant pardon to me, while my former inferiors — the tools of my daring hand — ^were given up to the inexorable severity of, the courts-martial.

In vain I sought for a point of view, regarded from which my fate and that of my unfortunate companions might be made to agree. I found none ; and abandoned myself to the torturing thought that the act of Vilagos, by its consequences speedily and bloodlessly terminating the Hungarian revolution, had been accounted meritorious in me exclusively, and had been rewarded with my pardon.

Deeply afflicting as this supposition is to me, I firmly cling to it because it has become to me the ground of hope, that those of my former companions who are still alive might not much longer be deprived of your Majesty's most high pardon, if my ingenuous words were permitted to re-echo in your Majesty's soul.

The surrender at Vilagos, with all its consequences, would have been impracticable without the magnanimous co-operation of all those on whom your Majesty's courts-martial have since either inflicted death, or the severest imprisonment.

TIk; dead — they rest in peace ; neither affected any more by fear or hope.

PllEFACE.

ut the living — they still hope. The pardon which has been extended to/ne, their leader, continually encourages them to hope.

For them I venture my prayer, w^hose boldness the sacred interests of umanity may justify, the oppressive burden of my grief may excuse.

Mercy for them implores the man who could never hope or pray for mercy for himself, although sacred duties forbade him to reject it when freely offered.

Mercy for those whom death has not yet removed beyond the influence of your Majesty's clemency.

For all, who, by love to their country, in the midst of great bewildering events, enticed from the path of duty, partly too late entered on the honorable way of return, partly could not again enter on it through insurmountable obstacles ; and whose faithful love to their fatherland justifies the sure expectation, that they would repay with threefold interest their sacred debt to the great common fatherland by a devoted co-operation in healing the wounds they had once helped to inflict.

The gloomy prisons, unbarred at your Majesty's gracious nod ; the purification-commissions relieved from their melancholy duty by the merciful words, '•'forgiven and forgotten" — would restore to thousands their liberty, their home, their respectable position in society — to the common fatherland a great number of intelligent faithful citizens — to the state many a capable tried servant.

The .apprehension of a shameful abuse of your Majesty's pardon is contradicted by every trait in the general national character of the Magyars ; and even in the non-Magyars among my unfortunate companions, this apprehension vanishes at the remembrance of their voluntary submission.

A single stroke of the pen would gain for your Majesty millions of thankfully devoted hearts — a secure refuge at any time — and thousands of millions of timorous, though voiceless, complaints would become most joyously-sounding wishes for blessings on Francis Josenh the magnani-

Four or five weeks later, several of my companions in arms were pardoned ; those, namely, who, like myself, belonged to the category of the so-called '' quitted" officers, that is, those who had quitted the rank of officers in the Austrian army before the breaking out of the war between Hungary and Austria, bat on their departure had given a written promise never to fight against the armies of his Majesty the Emperor of Austria.

The publication of this act of mercy induced me to address the following letter to the Minister of the Interior :

To his Excellency the Minister of the Interior, Alexander von Bach.

His Majesty's recent act of mercy, to which all those officers owe their deliverance from the dungeons, who as "quitted" royal imperial officers

PREFACE. V

had taken service in the revolutionary Hungarian army, and were for this reason condemned by the courts-martial, has surprisingly revealed the beautiful meaning of those consolatory words with which your Excellency dismissed me. The hearts of those who have now been given back to their families and to their friends overflow with loud blessings for those men who put tlfe thought of mercy into the Monarch's heart, and made it there germinate to a noble action. None of the public voices announces their names ; but nevertheless I am constrained firmly to believe that the pardon of a considerable number of my companions has certainly been most decidedly promoted by your Excellency ; not, perhaps, in consequence of the hopeless steps which I dared, but rather in spite of them ; for I can very well conceive that all I urged verbally and in writing, believing it to be in favor of my companions, was more fitted to incite than to conciliate. It came, however, from me, the living evidence, the irrefutable reproach, that punitive justice has by no means been dealt out in equal measure to the participators in the Hungarian revolution.

On a first superficial glance, this disproportion seems now to be equalized — let us leave the dead in peace — for I also belong to the category of the quitted royal imperial officers. But he who, on the one hand, does not overlook the limited political horizon of the soldier, and, on the other, the events of the summer of 1848, standing somewhat isolated in history, can hardly free himself from the apprehension, that the reproach of inequality in punishing and forgiving has gained but a broader basis by pardoning all quitted officers, in face of the still condemned active ones.

The Monarch, whose will is law to the army, was represented in the summer of the year 1848 by two executive powers, crippling -each other, and nevertheless legitimate ; the army was divided between both by distinct military oaths. Publicly disavowed by both, but secretly supported by one of them, a third national military power arose, and with fatal haste first hurled the fire-brand of civil war from the south into the heart of the monarchy.

In the midst of this general confusion, only a few succeeded in guessing for which of the two legitimate executive powers the Monarch would declare himself, simultaneously disavowing the other ; for the proclamations — which were calculated to explahi to many an isolated body of troops, to which they came direct, the true will of the Monarch — were either not communicated to the others at all, or too late, and moreover in such a manner as to weaken their effect. The first steps of the soldier ordered to Hungary for the maintenance of the Hungarian executive power, already nullified in Vienna, were made consequently under the moral influence of the recent military oath, out of obedience, the fundamental principle on which the existence of every regular armed force depends.

The quitted officers already pardoned were not subjected to this influence. They broke their promise, given in the reciprocal bond when they quitted — never to serve with arras in hand against the troops of his Majesty the Emperor of Austria — from a free, independent resolve.

By the pardon of these men, the execution of the condemnations of the active officers, still proceeding, gains an expression of rigor, which causes it not only easily to be forgotten that these also have already been mitigated in the way of mercy, hut which moreover might even raisse the natural compassion of the masses for those who are punished to a kind of martyrvi PREFACE.

worship, with all its traditional consequences, especially to be regretted by Austria.

The modest expression of a deeply felt thanks, which I wished to give to my words, has by degrees been changed, from continually looking at so many still- unbarred prisons, into the almost avowed one of a substantiated intercession ; and while I am aware of this, the doubt again ari^fes, whether I do not thereby perhaps injure where 1 wish to benefit. This doubt would silence me forever in behalf of my companions, were it not counteracted by the conviction, that your Excellency, recognizing in all its greatness the irresistible effect of clemency ixpon the human heart, and disregarding the contradictory views of parties, will successfully conduct to its consummation that work of reconciliation which has already been so nobly begun.

Klagenfurt, 30thofJune, 18.50.

I give these documents in the Preface, because I think their contents may be calculated to serve as a pledge beforehand to the reader of the frankness of the subsequent records of my life and acts.

Those historical documents of value which accidentally remained in my possession appear in their proper places, partly given i)P.rj^atim. partly faithfully translated from Hungarian into Grerman.

The surprisingly small number of documents is explained by the circumstance, that I never expected to survive the revolution.

ARTHUR GORGE I.

Klagenfurt, 15th of August, 1851.

Note.— The reader is requested to observe that wherever miles are mentioned, the German long niile ( = nearly 5^ English miles) is meant. In some instances the word ' (German)' has been inserted before 'miles,' but it is feared not uniformly.— TVansJ.

Chapter I

Enter the Honv^ds. Occupations out of Hungary. Advanced to Honv6d major.

Szolnok; the Volunteer Mobile National-guards. Political confession of faith 13

Chapter II

Detached to the island of Csepel. Nominated commander-in-chief of the southern militia, and simultaneous extension of my military mission. Count Eugene

Zichy arrested ; examined, condemned, and executed by court-martial 17

CHAPTER HI.

Three days' armistice after the battle at Pakozd, Velencze, and Sukoro. Vasarhelyi. Recommencement of hostilities. Perczel my commander-in-chief. The militia. Opening of the expedition against Major-general Roth. Skirmish at Tacz. Disarming of a Croat column. Philippovich in Perczel's head-quarters. Retreat of Major-general Roth. Dispute between Perczel and myself. Disarming of the Roth

corps at Ozora 35

Chapter IV

Advanced to Honved colonel, and recalled from the Perczel corps. Kalozd. Take possession of some jewels belonging to the late Count Zichy. Vasarhelyi. Pestli.

Deliver up the jewels 48

Chapter V

A consultation at Kossuth's. His want of confidence in Moga. Secret object of

my recall from the Perczel corps and mission to Parendorf 51

Chapter VI

The command of the van-guard of the army of the upper Danube transferred to me. Ladislaus Csanyi. Our outposts on the Lajtha. First crossing of the frontier. The head-quarters at Parendorf, and my secret mission. The troops of the van-guard. Second crossing of the frontier 55

Chapter VII

First proclamation of Prince Windischgratz, and its consequences. A deliberation beforehand at Moga's about the impending third crossing of the frontier. Some light on the first two crossings of the frontier. The military council in Nikelsdorf. Kossuth in Parendorf. His ultimatum to Prince Windischgratz. The agitations in the camp for the offensive A Hungarian tmmpet made prisoner in the hostile camp, and its consequences 60

CHAPTER VIH.

Third and last crossing of the frontier. The battle at Schwechat. Remarks upon it . 68

Chapter IX

A conference with Kossuth. His experience on the flight from Schwechat. Count Guyon named colonel of the national guard and commander of the expedition against Field-marshal Lieut. Simunich. The chief command of the army of the upper Danube transferred to me. The expedition against Simunich fails. The two meetings between Bern and myself 79

Chapter X

Reasons which had determined me to accept the chief command of the army. I demand the evacuation of the frontier ; Kossuth its occupation. Kossuth's dependency. Nevertheless I desire him for Dictator. My reasons. My letter to the Committee of Defense in reference thereto. Controversies between Kossuth, the Committee of Defense, and Meszaros on the one part, and myself on the other. Proofs of it 85

Chapter XI

Reasons why I was not removed from the chief command when in Presburg. Why I did not, of my own accord, resign. Whether I did or did not aspire to the dictatorship and why. A private letter. Establishment of defensive works at Presburg, Wieselburg, and Raab. The state of Hungary in autumn, 1848, and the regular troops 100 viii CONTENTS.

Chapter XII

Prince Windischgratz crosses the frontier. It is evacuated. Presburg abandoned. Great losses. Beginning of the retreat toward Raab. Combat at Wieselbiirg. Continuation of the retreat as far as Raab. Patriotic devastations. An end put to tliem.

Troops believed to be lost unexpectedly saved 108

Chapter XIII

Raab evacuated without drawing a sword. Combat with the rear-guard at Babolna. Vertesi Hegyelc. Plan of defense. Undeceivings. General Perczel defeated at Moor. Offensive disposition against Perczel's conqueror. Retreat toward Ofen. 112 CHAPTER XIV.

Perczel's views about his defeat at Moor. The last resolutions of the Diet at Pesth. Kossuth demands a decisive battle before Ofen, and at the same time the army to be saved and the capitals spared. The impracticability of this. Kossuth at Debreczin. Military council in Pesth. Its resolutions. Battle at T6t6ny. Evacuation of the capitals 118

Chapter XV

The state of Hungary and the regular troops after the evacuation of the capitals. The proclamation of Waizen. The regular troops get out of the rain and under the

spout 125

Chapter XVI

The corps d'armee of the upper Danube. Offensive against Field-marshal Lieut. Simunich. Its interruption by Field-marshal Lieut. Csorich. Characteristics of Colonel Count Guyon. I insist on prosecuting the offensive against Simunich. The chief of the general staff proposes to save the corps of the upper Danube in the mountain-towns, and prevails 132

Chapter XVII

The district of the mountain-towns. Position of the corps d'armee of the upper Danube before the retreat thither. Position of the hostile corps. The plan of retreat. Its execution. Position of the corps d'arm6e of the upper Danube in the mountain-towns 137

Chapter XVIII

The enemy attacks the mountain-towns. Zsarnocz. Turning column of Colonel

CoUery. Conflict at Hodrics (22d of January) 141

Chapter XIX

The defeat of the Guyon division at Windschacht (21st of January), and its retreat from Schemnitz as far as Bucsa (22d of January), subsequently becomes known. Critical situation of the Aulich division. Saved from it. Still more critical situation of the Guyon division and that of the left wing. Final junction in Neusohl of the corps d'armee of the upper Danube. A previous order to retreat by the war-minister is afterward taken into consideration. Our lines of retreat from Neusohl toward the upper Theiss. Plan for retreating as far as the Zips. A train of heavy-loaded wagons as rear-guard. The retreat commences. A tempter. Disposition of the population ^ 150

Chapter XX

Arrival of the corps d'armee of the upper Danube in the Zips. Sudden attack at Iglo (between the 2d and 3d of February). Dangerous situation of the corps d'armee of the upper Danube. A possible outlet. Reasons against making use of it, and for the offensive against Field-mar.shal Lieut. Count Schlick. Offensive begun. Positions of the corps under Klapka and Schlick. The combinations deduced from it very unfavorable for the corps d'armee of the upper Danube. Importance of the battle at the Branyiszko. A reckoning with the past 158

Chapter XXI

Report on Guyon's victory at the Branyiszko (5th of February')- Essentially changed -situation of the corps d'armee of the upper Danube. Count Schlick abandons the basis of his operations. Conjectures occasioned thereby as to his next intentions. Measures against them. Surprising defensive measures of the enemy. Direct news from Colonel Klapka. Their influence on our dispositions for attack. The enemy evacuates Kaschau without striking a blow. Junction of the corps d'armee of the upper Danube with the Hungarian forces on the Theiss. Klapka's last operations against Count Schlick. Offensive concerted between Klapka and myself. The Klapka corps undertakes the pursuit of the Schlick corps. Lieut.-general Dembinski orders the Klapka corps from Kaschau to Miskolcz. The corps d'armee of the upper Danube undertakes the pursuit. Its results 166

CHAPTER XXII, Dembinski becomes Hungarian commander-in-chief. New classification of the Hungarian forces. The corps d'armee of the upper Danube receives the name, Sev-

CONTENTS. ix

enth Army Corps. Antipathies therein against Dembinski's being commander-in-chief. Causes and consequences. Measures taken against the consequences. Dem-

binski recognized as commander-in-chief 173

Chapter XXIII

Dembinski rejects the plan of operations concerted between Colonel Klapka and myself. The seventh army corps ordered to Miskolcz. First encounter with Dembinski. Dembinski's first acts as Hungarian commander-in-chief 177

Chapter XXIV

Dembinski's dispositions assume an offensive character. His dissatisfaction with Klapka and the government. His dispositions of troops. Encounter with Dembinski in Erlau. The enemy himself assumes the offensive. Dembinski's characteristics . 183

Chapter XXV

Position of the Hungarian army immediately before the two days' battle at Kdpolna. Termination of the first day's battle (26th of February). Dembinski's dispositions for the second day's battle. Circumstances causing delay in forwarding them

to the army corps. Guyon arrives too late at Kapolna 189

Chapter XXVI

The second day's battle at Kapolna (27th of February). The Kmety division arrives too late at Kerecsend. Dembinski's dispositions of troops after the battle. . . 194

CHAPTER XXVH.

Dembinski after the battle at Kapolna declines any ftirther resistance. I disapprove of this measure, but can no longer prevent it. A private misimderstanding between Dembinski and myself. The support of the army 206

CHAPTER XXVni.

Retreat to Mezo-Kovesd. The camp there. Battle at Mezo-Kovesd on the 28th of

February. Guyon's characteristics 210

CHAPTER XXIX.

Dembinski intends to give the army rest. His dispositions to that effect. The army enters the cantonments. Klapka attacked at Eger-Farmos (1st of March). The army quits the cantonments. Dembinski's theory for procuring rest. Character of

the Windischgratz- Dembinski campaign 214

CHAPTER XXX.

The Klapka divisions refuse unconditional obedience to Dembinski. Dembinski

decrees the retreat beyond the Theiss. Klapka effects it with his divisions (2d of

March). I delay the retreat of the seventh army corps. Reasons for it. Dembinski

countermands the retreat of the seventh army corps. Mv written declaration against

it. I effect the retreat (3d of March) 219

CHAPTER XXXI.

The staff-ofiicers of the army demand Dembinski's removal from the chief command. The government commissary Szemere undertakes to execute it. Dembinski's unsuccessful objections. Kossuth's arrival at the army. Interrogation of the staff-ofllicers. Vetter appointed commander-in-chief 224

CHAPTER XXXH.

Colonel John Damjanics victorious at Szolnok. Dembinski allows us subsequently

to discover his plan of operations 230

CHAPTER XXXni.

The new (Vetter-Dembinski) plan of operations. The interregnum in the army.

My acts during it 234

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Kossuth and his political opponents 238

CHAPTER XXXV.

My journey to Debreczin. Termination of the interregnum. Vetter commander-in-chief 241

CHAPTER XXXVI.

Independent operations of the seventh army corps. The Vetter-Dembinski plan of

operations abandoned. Advance of the united army as far as Gyongyos and Hort. . 244

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Vetter falls sick. The chief command provisionally transferred to me. Our plan

of attack. The seventh army corps conquers at Hatvan (2d of April), and thereby

renders possible the execution of the plan of attack 247

CHAPTER XXXVHI.

The first, second, and third army corps separate from the seventh corps, and be-

X CONTENTS.

gin to turn the enemy. One half of the third army corps defeats the enemy at Tapi6- Uicslte, after the latter had previously defeated the whole first corps (4th of April). Continuation of the turning-mancEUvre 250

CHAPTER XXXIX.

Battle at Isaszeg (6th of April) 258

CHAPTER XL.

On the state of affairs in Hungary 268

CHAPTER XLI, Delayed advance against Godolo after the battle of Isaszeg. Retreat of Prince Windischgratz toward the capital. The seventh army corps before and after the battle of Isaszeg 271

CHAPTER XLH.

Kossuth in Godollo 274

CHAPTER XLHI.

The new plan of operations. Its execution, by storming Waizen, begun on the 10th of April, 1849. The sudden attack on Lossoncz (end of March), and its probable consequences , 279

CHAPTER XLIV.

Details of the battle at Waizen. Continuation of operations as far as the river Gran

at L6vencz. The resolution of the Diet at Debreczin, 14th of April, 1849 283

CHAPTER XLV.

Crossing the Gran. Damjanics conquers at Nagy-Sarlo on the 19th of April. My views on this combat. Continuation of the operations. The battle at Kemend on the 20th of April. Relief of the fortress of Komorn on the left bank of the Danube on the 22d of April 288

CHAPTER XLVI.

Preparation for the relief of the fortress of Komorn on the right bank of the Danube. Sudden attack on the hostile trench in the night between the 25th and 26th of April. The relief on the right bank also effected on the 26th of April 294

CHAPTER XL VII.

Retrospective glance at my helpless situation as commander of the army, after the first news of the declaration of independence. How events assisted me. Situation at that moment, and my proclamation of Komorn ^02

CHAPTER XL VIII.

The theatre of war after the 26th of April. Instead of the uninterrupted prosecution, as at first intended, of our offensive operations against the hostile main army, the siege of the fortress of Ofen comes into the fore-ground 311

CHAPTER XLIX.

My appointment as war-minister. Damjanics becomes unfit for service. Klapka leaves the main army in order to act as my substitute in the war-ministry. Changes in the army 320

CHAPTER L.

Poltenberg occupies Raab. The main body of the army invests Ofen. The range of the investment. The fortress of Ofen. The disposition of our batteries. The over-hasty attack. Its cessation. My letter to Major-general Hentzi. His answer, A letter from Klapka, in which he dissuades from the operations against Ofen 322

CHAPTER LI.

The siege of Ofen 329

CHAPTER LH.

Criticism on the siege and defense of Ofen 342

CHAPTER LIII.

The events of the war on the upper Waag. Condition of affairs in the district of the operations of the main army at the time of the taking of Ofen. Klapka's plan of defensive operations, and my disposition of the troops, immediately after the taking

of Ofen 345

CHAPTER LIV.

A meeting between General Klapka and myself. Its consequences. I refuse the distinctions which the Diet had intended for me, and in consequence of this enter into communication with the parliamentary opponents of the declaration of independence . 349

CONTENTS. xi

CHAPTER LV.

Account of the circumstances which, on the one hand, bound me to the chief command of the army, and on the other hand determined me to undertake personally the management of the ministry of war. Plan for the offensive against the Austrians. Origin of the central office of operations 355

CHAPTER LVI.

My meeting with members of the peace-party in Debreczin 358

CHAPTER LVII.

Kossuth and the declaration of independence. My relation to Kossuth after the 14th of April, 1849 364

CHAPTER LVni.

The seat of government, notwithstanding my counter-representations, transferred from Debreczin to Pesth. Commencement of my activity against the existence of the declaration of independence. Two captured Honved officers executed by order of the new commander-in-chief of the Austrian army, Baron Haynau 367

CHAPTER LIX.

Significance and consequences of the executions mentioned in the preceding chapter. Continuation of my endeavors hostile to the existence of the act of independence. The final aim of these endeavors. The peculiarity of my relation to the peace-party, to Szemere, to Kossuth. Supplementary facts from my duties as war-minister 371

y^ CHAPTER LX.

Events on the theatre of war of the Hungarian main army from the taking of Ofen to the middle of June. Reciprocal position of the Hungarian and Austrian main armies at that time. My suppositions about the enemy's plan of operations. Uncertainty as to the strength and the serious commencement of the Russian intervention. The influence of this uncertainty on my resolves as commander-in-chief of the army. The causes. >f the delay of our offensive. Dispositions for the retreat and other preparations in the event of a serious commencement of the Russian intervention 379

CHAPTER LXI.

The opening of our offensive against the Austrians (on the 16th of June) miscarries. I fix the 20th of June for a second more energetic attempt at the offensive. General Klapka dissuades from it, and proposes again instead his plan of defensive operations, but in vain 387

CHAPTER LXIl.

The events of the war on the 20th, 21st, and 22d of June 392

V • CHAPTER LXHI. ~ The first news of the serious commencement of the Russian intervention. Their confirmation, and influence on my resolutions. The ministerial council of the 26th of

June. Loss of Raab (28th June). Retreat into the fortified camp at Komorn 414

CHAPTER LXIV.

Differences between the government and myself 424