The Twenty-Second Bulletin

Hungary. 18 February 1849
Hungary.
No. 225, 18 February 1849.
Supplement
Neue Rheinische Zeitung.
* The 22nd “victory bulletin” of the imperial forces has appeared. It is the drollest of all those published so far.

“Owing to the greater distance of the theatre of war, which, as a result of the retreat of the rebels across the Theiss, has now been pushed back as far as Transylvania, we are only now again in a position to give some news of the progress of the army of His Serene Highness Field Marshal Prince zu Windischgrätz.”

It is still a good 40 miles and more from the Theiss to Transylvania. No Austrian has yet crossed the Theiss. If Schlick stands on the Hernath and Windischgrätz at Szolnok, unable to advance a step further, that means in the imperial-royal rodomontade language: the theatre of war has been pushed back as far as Transylvania.

What then are the “progresses of the army of His Serene Highness Prince Windischgrätz”?

First “progress”:
“After the retreat from Pesth, a part of the rebels went in the direction of Grosswardein and Debreczin, the other under Görgey to Schemnitz, and after plundering the mining towns, turned via Neusohl, initially towards Rosenberg, but there, in consequence of the earlier occupation of the passes at St. Marton and Turany by the detachment of Major-General von Götz, moved to the Zips, where it encountered a battalion of Nugent Infantry under Major von Kiesewetter, with which engagements took place at Kirchdrauf and Korotnok on the 3rd and 4th of February.
Meanwhile the Braniszko Pass was at once more strongly occupied through reinforcements which Lieutenant Field Marshal Count Schlick sent from Eperies, and since another column of the Deym brigade advanced from Kaschau via Margitfalva, the ever-active Major-General von Götz, having arrived with the Prince Jablonowsky brigade via Brisen on the 8th of the month in Telgarth, likewise immediately detached troops towards Leutschau, the rebels, threatened on all sides in the Zips, are likely to be the more enclosed, as from Tarnow, under Lieutenant Field Marshal Vogel, all roads along the Galician frontier from Neumarkt, Kroscienko, Biwniczna, Tylicz to Dukla have at once been more strongly occupied, and the Landsturm has been called out along this whole stretch.”

The “direction of Grosswardein and Debreczin” is merely an exaggerating euphemism of Mr. Welden for the fact that the Hungarians have gone to the Theiss. He might just as well have said: they had retreated “in the direction” of the Black Sea.

Welden then reports to us that Görgej “after the retreat from Pesth went to Schemnitz.” We have known that for a long time, and Mr. Welden should be reporting to us precisely how he was driven out of there. Earlier it had been boasted that Görgej had been thrown back in the direction of the Theiss, indeed almost annihilated. Now the victory report suddenly admits to us that he has occupied the Zips, already “cleansed” several times by Schlick, and is operating in Schlick’s rear. The extent to which Görgej in this position threatens the imperial forces is evident from the hurried reinforcements sent against him. The Götz corps could never achieve anything against him (the Csorich corps has vanished from the scene, so the Magyar “ridiculous boastings” are probably right after all when they relate that Windischgrätz summoned it post-haste to Pesth); Schlick had “from Eperies” (i.e., 4 weeks ago) sent a column towards the Braniszko Pass against Görgej; furthermore a second column “from Kaschau”, thus also from Schlick’s corps, has been detached against him; and despite all these reinforcements, Görgej in the High Carpathians is so terrible to the Austrians that Vogel in Galicia, from Tarnow, along a stretch of 20 miles, has all positions reinforced and the Landsturm called out!

In other words: Görgej, instead of being “threatened on all sides in the Zips,” is himself threatening not only Schlick’s position on the Hernath, but also Galicia. And that is precisely the worst thing for the imperial forces. An incursion into this purely Polish part of Galicia, given the peasants’ disillusionment with the imperial-royal promises, could have very unpleasant consequences for the Austrians.

Second “progress”:
“The heavy ice drift on the Theiss has hitherto made the crossing of the column of the first army corps, which has advanced as far as the right bank, very difficult both at Tokaj and at Szolnok. This has given the enemy time, after a vain attempt on Arad, to turn more towards Transylvania, in order to unite there with that column under the rebel chief Bem, who, as we said earlier, was pushed back out of the Bukovina, moved via Bistritz, Maros-Vasarhely to Hermannstadt, and was there thrown back so vigorously by the commanding general Baron Puchner.
The column of rebels which moved from Grosswardein towards Klausenburg has turned to Karlsburg, where they attempted to occupy Mühlenbach on the 5th. In this region, between Deva, Hatzeg and Szaszvaros, there stands a detachment of 3,000 Romanians under the command of Captain Czernovich, which protects this stretch against the rebels – the strong castle at Deva is also well garrisoned.
Meanwhile, the commanding general in the Banat, Lieutenant Field Marshal Baron Rukawina, has formed a division under Lieutenant Field Marshal von Gläser and Major-General Baron Mengen, composed of detachments from the Thodorovich corps, which is to operate in the valley of the Maros against Transylvania and at the same time threaten Grosswardein.”

So the Austrians are still not across the Theiss; their progress consists in the fact that here, at the decisive centre of the war, they have not advanced a single step for three weeks.
The “ice drift” is supposed to have allowed the Magyars to turn “more” towards Transylvania. Splendid “more”! If the Magyars were able to detach a column from Debreczin against Arad and Klausenburg, that is proof that they have more troops than are needed for the defence of the Theiss line. Or does Welden want to make us believe that the Magyars would use an ice drift, which can be over in 8 days, to denude the most important position and send the troops urgently needed on the Theiss on a stroll to Transylvania, which there and back takes at least 4–5 weeks?
The Hungarian column that bombarded Arad came, according to an earlier bulletin, from the Banat. So besides it, a second column has gone “from Grosswardein” to Transylvania. We shall soon be hearing from Bem after these reinforcements.
And what is the situation in Transylvania? The Magyar reinforcements have advanced as far as Karlsburg and Müllenbach. But have no fear that things are going badly for the imperial forces! For there are, to be sure, 3,000 Romanians at Hatzeg, Deva and Szaszvaros “which protect this stretch against the rebels.”

Which “stretch”? Why, the stretch from Hatzeg, etc., namely a “stretch” that lies completely off to the side of the Magyars’ route, and where it will not occur to them to march! The Magyar column is marching from Karlsburg towards Hermannstadt to join up with Bem, i.e., in an easterly direction; the 3,000 Romanians are standing to the south-west, in the remotest corner of Transylvania, and will probably remain there until the second Magyar column advances up the Maros from Arad and disperses them.

But besides that, the newly formed Banat division Gläser is to “operate in the valley of the Maros against Transylvania and at the same time threaten Grosswardein.”

”At the same time!!”

In order to “threaten Grosswardein”, this division – assuming it were already on the Maros, whereas it is only on the Temes – would have to make a march of 20 miles (in a straight line) to the north, cross the Maros, the White, the Black and the swift Körös and a threefold line of swamps. In order to operate against Transylvania in the valley of the Maros, the same division would have to march about 30 miles to the east. These two movements, the northern and the eastern, it is supposed to make “at the same time”!!

Third progress:
“The two brigades of Major-Generals Ditrich and Count Palffy, which belonged to the corps of Feldzeugmeister Count Nugent, have advanced, the one via Bolly to Mohacs on the left, the other via Siklos-Baranyavar to Essegg, which fortress is surrounded by the imperial-royal troops up to the foot of the glacis, and has already made proposals for capitulation.”

Important progress, which was already reported a fortnight ago as accomplished by Nugent himself, and still has not been accomplished, for the “two brigades” are still not before Eszek!

Fourth progress:
“At Mohacs the insurgents under Nemegye crossed the Danube, but there in the defile between Bezdany and Zombor they fell into the hands of the Serbs stationed there, who had advanced thither along the left bank of the Danube from the Römerschanze, on which occasion the greater part was cut down and dispersed by the Serbs.”

Assuming this to be correct, it could at most be a question of a small guerrilla skirmish. The Austrians have long been trumpeting that the Magyars driven from the Drau are said to have retreated as far as Szegedin, i.e., as far as the Theiss!

Fifth and last “progress”.
“After the surrender of Leopoldstadt, the division of Lieutenant Field Marshal von Simunich received the order from the Field Marshal to advance along the Waag towards Comorn, in order to effect the closer investment of that fortress. – During this advance, on the 8th of this month, not far from Neuhäusel, an engagement took place with a detachment of rebels which had crossed the Neutra via Naszvad from Comorn, to plunder the surrounding areas, and above all to bring salt into the fortress, which is running short of it, and where diseases are already gaining the upper hand. – In this engagement four companies of Archduke Wilhelm Infantry and one squadron of Banderial Hussars attacked an enemy detachment of some 1,200 men so bravely that its commander, an officer and 90 honvéds were taken prisoner and a considerable number of dead and wounded were left on the field.”

Here the “progress” consists in the fact that Simunich, in a region already “pacified”, “cleared” and “cleansed” three or four times, where a “good spirit” was already beginning to revive, has advanced exactly seven miles in more than 14 days – half a mile a day; in addition, constant engagements, and one understands why the hero Simunich has still not covered the ten-mile distance from Leopoldstadt to Komorn.

Such are the “progresses of His Serene Highness Prince Windischgrätz”: pompous repetition of the earlier bulletins, boastful asseverations of what is to happen, and as a result of all that, that in reality nothing has happened. The bulletins are faring just like the great Schwanbeck with the Prussian Chamber: over a “bygone past” and a “distant, perhaps never attainable future”, they “lose the present”!