Hungary. 11 February 1849 (Second Edition)

* Finally, official Austrian reports from Siebenbürgen have arrived again. They confirm Bem’s rapid advance to the very gates of Hermannstadt, which was heavily threatened by him, and report on a battle that took place on 21 January between Hermannstadt and Mediasch (Medgyes), in which the Magyars are said to have been defeated. They, it is said, were pursued as far as Stolzenburg and a part of them already took the road to Thorda (Thorenburg, in the direction of Klausenburg). 5 cannon and 4 ammunition wagons fell into Austrian hands under Puchner. The resistance of the Magyars is described as very stubborn. Whether this “victory” is really so “brilliant” we shall await further reports. The Austrians give their own losses at 60–70 dead and 98 wounded.

How things stand with the credibility of Austrian reports in general is shown by the Siebenbürgen documents published on this occasion in the Wiener Zeitung.

Bem’s army is called, in a speech to the Hermannstadt civic guard of 19 January, “the Hungarian troops, having to flee into Siebenbürgen after being driven back by the victorious army in Hungary.” Puchner, too, boasts in his order of the day of tremendous victories in Hungary, which have, of course, long since been reduced to their true worth for us by later news.

The Romanians are said to have brought 25,000 Landsturm to Hermannstadt. On the other hand, little reliance can be placed on the Szeklers and Hungarians in Siebenbürgen; Puchner in his order of the day and the Siebenbürgen papers agree that the Imperial-Royal black-and-yellow spirit finds absolutely no ground among them, and that wherever Bem appears, they join the movement.

In Hungary itself, the peasant uprisings in the rear of the Imperialists are beginning to assume a serious character. Gran on the Danube, above Pesth, occupied and subdued by the Imperialists on 15 January, was abandoned by them again on the 26th. They withdrew to Ofen because Windischgrätz urgently needed them after the battle of Szolnok. Immediately the Imperial-Royal flags and eagles were torn down, Madarasz’s insurrection placards were pasted up, and “Eljen Kossuth” was shouted. The peasants from the left bank of the Danube, who had not yet surrendered their arms, came into the town, shot at the Oberstuhlrichter Koller, dragged the jurat Biro off to Komorn, deposed the county jurisdiction and appointed the chief notary Palkovicz as president. The Imperialists sent orders to set up the pontoon bridge; Simunich wanted to cross the Danube here in order to march at once to Pesth on Wrbna’s orders. But when at the same time a letter arrived from the National Defence Committee in Debreczin ordering the organisation of the Landsturm, the cutting off or destruction of the enemy’s supplies, etc., it was decided not to set up the bridge and to comply with the orders from Debreczin. The county moved to Batorkesz, where it is protected from Komorn. Incidentally, troops are said to have been sent from Ofen to Gran. This news is from the official Wiener Zeitung.

Moreover, a kind of negative confirmation of the Magyar victory reports already arrives in the fact that the Austrians have absolutely no new news from the Theiss. On the other hand, the Magyar correspondence of the Breslauer Zeitung again reports a series of interesting and entirely probable facts. The Imperial-Royal Colonel Montecuccoli is said to have been taken prisoner by the Magyars at Gyöngyös. Kövesd (5 miles this side of Miskolcz) and Keresztur (north of Tokaj) were in the hands of the Magyars. The Imperialists sallying from Temesvar are said to have been almost wiped out by the Hungarians hurrying up from Szegedin. Then it adds: “It causes great indignation in Ofen that the amiable poet and Catholic priest Czuczor, on account of an inspiring war song he composed, has been taken away to six years’ fortress arrest in heavy irons. In general, it is noted that since the last defeats of the Austrian arms the military regime here is exercised much more strictly. Arrests for the most modest expressions are the order of the day. All strangers travelling from Debreczin and the surrounding area are immediately taken to the police, strictly interrogated and discharged with a prohibition on telling anything. Curiosity, however, breaks through all barriers, and people here are fairly well informed. It is believed that the

Hungarian Theiss army will renew its attack on the Imperialists at Szolnok in the next few days. – From Debreczin it is learned that the Hungarian General Moritz Perczel has been appointed commander of Siebenbürgen. Bem will lead the Banat army in Hungary. The Hungarian regular force is stated at 160,000, and when one considers that this force is now commanded by two world-famous generals, Dembinski and Bem, that besides naturally fortified Siebenbürgen and the great Theiss region, the most important and most numerous fortresses are in the hands of the Hungarians, it appears more than ridiculous when in Vienna they issue warrants against Kossuth. One must reckon on a too blind public to deceive it with such tricks.”

Meanwhile, among the little nations liberated from the so-called Magyar pressure, new quarrels are breaking out daily, partly among themselves, partly with the Austrian government. The Constitutionelles Blatt from Bohemia says: “A deputation of Romanians was supposed to arrive in Olmütz to complain about the encroachments of the Serbs from the Banat. – In Istria, where language and customs are predominantly Italian, people are greatly resisting the plan to incorporate this province into Croatia, and complaints about this have been issued and published.”

In the Wojwodowina, the Carlowitz government has declared for Stratimirovich and annulled the arrest warrant issued against him by the Patriarch Rajachich. The Patriarch wants to know nothing of a Voivode; before the Wojwodowina is constituted, the districts of Kikinda and Becse, of Bacs and Baranya must be united with it. Efforts should be directed to this, and the subversive activities and machinations of ambitious people should be resisted, “so that the imperial army does not proceed with the Serbs just as with the Magyar rebels!” The Südslawische Zeitung is already beginning to complain significantly, but these visionaries’ eyes, of course, only open when it is too late and military rule has established itself among them. It is, by the way, clear to everyone that all these dissensions can only be most advantageous to the Magyar cause.

How these Serbs wage war, just a sample, confirmed by two South Slav papers, the Vestnik and Napredak of 27 January. Weisskirchen in the Banat wanted to surrender and therefore sent a deputation to General Todorovich. Todorovich had previously heard that the people of Weisskirchen had beaten all the Serbs in their town to death and asked the deputation: Who among you deputies is a Serb? The Germans shrugged their shoulders. Go, replied

Todorovich, I will enter into no negotiations with you. The Serb army then stormed Weisskirchen and took it. Only two Serbs were found in the town, and both had their eyes gouged out. Todorovich then, as travellers relate, had 50 main culprits selected and all 50 hanged. The rest he had placed in a line and every fifth man shot. In this way, it is said, 400 were shot.

These are the chivalrous heroes with whom the Kölnische Zeitung sympathises!