The Struggle in Hungary

Cologne, February 2. The war in Hungary is coming to an end. “Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.”  
Thus spoke the Kölnische Zeitung some days ago. It had allowed itself to be fooled by Welden into believing that the Diet at Debreczin had dissolved itself and the army, and Kossuth was on the point of fleeing with the remnants of his following to Grosswardein.

No. 212, February 3, 1849  
Neue Rheinische Zeitung.

The mountain in labour this time was none other than the Kölnische Zeitung itself.

The seventeenth army bulletin, to which Welden appended the above lie, reported two new operations by the Imperial forces: first, the departure of a corps from Pesth via Gyöngyös to Miskolcz, and second, Schlick’s plan to operate in two columns, one via Kaschau, the other via Hanusfalva and Varanno, towards Tokaj. Both were concentric movements towards the Theiss, behind which the Magyars had taken up position.

The Theiss describes a semicircle from the Transylvanian frontier to Szegedin, the centre of which is Grosswardein: this semicircle forms the defensive line of the Magyars. It is covered on the upper Theiss by the fortresses of Sziget and Munkacs, on the middle Theiss by the impassable swamps, which begin a few miles from Munkacs, accompany the Theiss on both sides as far as its mouth, and greatly impede attack from the north and west. In the south, the Körös and its tributaries offer a defensive line likewise covered by continuous swamps and moreover by the advanced fortress of Temeswar. Thus defended on three sides by swamps and rivers, the Debreczin heath stretches up to the Transylvanian heights, and offers the Magyars an excellent point for concentrating their armies; all the more excellent since Bem, by subjugating Transylvania, has freed their rear.

As long as the Magyars still hold out on the Drave and in the Banat, the centre of their operations, Debreczin, can only be attacked from the north (Schlick) and the west (Windischgrätz), and both the movements mentioned above were intended to introduce this attack.

Miskolcz and Tokaj, the two towns to which the Imperial troops are first marching, lie scarcely six miles apart. Tokaj is one of the most advantageous crossing points on the Theiss; Miskolcz is near enough to allow the troops sent there, according to circumstances, either to cross the Theiss at Tokaj united with Schlick’s corps, or else to cross alone somewhat further down, and if this succeeds, to advance on Debreczin.

This plan of the Imperial forces, which the 17th Bulletin has trumpeted forth to the world with such great pomp, is, however, not so easy to carry out. From Pesth to Miskolcz is over thirty miles, through a desolate heathland, almost entirely uninhabited or inhabited only by enemies. From Eperies to Tokaj is likewise thirty miles, through country equally decidedly hostile and poor. The provisioning of the two advancing corps alone would greatly delay their march; the bad roads, which in the present thaw are becoming completely impassable, really make it impossible for them to arrive at their destinations in less than fourteen days. And when they arrive there, they find themselves facing the Magyar army, entrenched at the Theiss crossings, among swamps, in positions with covered flanks, where the Imperial forces cannot deploy their superior strength, where on the contrary a couple of regiments can hold up an entire army. Indeed, should they even succeed in forcing the crossings over the Theiss, the Austrian artillery and heavy cavalry would be completely lost among the swamps, on marshy ground in which they get stuck at every moment.

How grand the successes of these two columns have been so far is evident from the fact that the eighteenth army bulletin, which we communicated yesterday, is entirely silent about them. Where they are, how far they have advanced, what successes they have achieved — Welden does not breathe a syllable to us about this — and for good reason.

But, says Welden, “according to the communications arriving from Hungary, our arms are everywhere enjoying brilliant success” — and the Kölnische Zeitung believes Herr Welden in this.

Let us take a closer look at these “brilliant successes”.

Four “successes” are reported. Of these, three in areas where no decisive battle is being fought, but where the Magyars merely seek to keep the Imperial forces occupied at secondary points and thereby divide them. Only the fourth “success” is won on the Theiss, there where Hungary’s fate is being decided.

In the northwest, between the Waag and the Gran, in the southwest, between the Drave and the Danube, and in the south in the Banat, three Hungarian corps have so far kept a considerable part of the Imperial forces occupied and thereby prevent Windischgrätz from advancing in significant mass to the Theiss. Against these three corps the Imperial forces have, as they say, achieved “brilliant successes”. Voyons.

First success. In the northeast, which is now being dubbed “Slovakia”, Baron Csorich has defeated General Görgey before Schemnitz and taken Schemnitz. When one considers that Görgey’s corps is a pure outpost sacrifice, destined to hold out as long as possible in the rear of the Imperial army, when one considers that Görgey is operating not on Magyar but on purely Slovak soil, one sees that this success is already not very “brilliant”.

In addition to this: Csorich was supposed to be supported by the columns of Götz and Sossay. But Sossay was urgently summoned to Neutra “to assist there in the pacification of the already occupied part of the country (a purely Slav Comitat)”, and Götz had his hands full “maintaining his position at Mossocz and protecting the Turocz Comitat from the insurgents who had been defeated and dispersed (!!) by Feldmarschall-Lieutenant Csorich!”

“The finally hoped-for (thus still far from realisation) capture of Leopoldstadt and the occupation of Neuhäusl ... might suffice to strengthen the good spirit which is beginning to develop everywhere (!) in the Trentschin Comitat ... and to contribute to the restoration of legal order.”

What brilliant successes! The finally hoped-for capture of a fortress not yet taken gives hope that the hoped-for good spirit of a territory long since occupied will hopefully not always remain a pious wish, and that legal order may possibly at least partially approach realisation!

A fortress not taken, a defeated army which is meanwhile threatening an entire Comitat and holding several army corps in check, a hoped-for good spirit here, a bad spirit only too real there, threatening uprisings everywhere, and all this on Slovak, not Magyar territory — that is the first “brilliant success”!

Second “brilliant success”. A second outpost sacrifice of the Magyars stands in the southwest, between the Danube and the Drave, under the guerrilla chief Damjanich. Here the brilliant success consists in the fact that Count Nugent has ordered Kaposvar occupied in order to take his opponent in the flank. What brilliant success lies in this is not yet apparent. The capture of Eszek by the Imperial forces is indeed reported by various newspapers, but the 18th Bulletin knows nothing of it yet and does not even expect it.

Third “brilliant success”. General Theodorowich has captured Werschetz in the Banat and “vigorously pursued” the Magyars as far as Moravicza. From Werschetz to Moravicza is exactly three miles, and the position at Moravicza between the Alibunar marsh and the mountains is far more advantageous than that at Werschetz. It is well known, moreover, that the Banat lies so far from the centre of operations, and that here the attacks against the Magyars have always been carried out so fitfully, that even the most brilliant successes of the Imperial forces here would be of absolutely no importance.

Fourth “brilliant success”. Hitherto we have seen the Imperial arms operating on terrain of little decisiveness, but we have seen them operating with some appearance of success. Now we finally come to decisive territory — and here the success consists of a defeat of the Imperial forces.

General Ottinger had advanced from Pesth to the Theiss, as far as Szolnok. The road was fairly good; there is a railway from Pesth to Szolnok, and one only had to follow the line. The Imperial vanguard had already occupied the bridge at Szolnok. The crossing over the Theiss seemed secure for the Imperial right wing. The left wing under Schlick advancing from Tokaj, the centre from Miskolcz, the right wing under Ottinger from Szolnok, were to force the Theiss crossings and converge concentrically upon Debreczin. But the Imperial gentlemen had reckoned without their host. The Magyars crossed the frozen river, drove Ottinger back as far as Cegled, a distance of four miles, and only gave up the pursuit when Ottinger had drawn reinforcements to himself at Cegled and taken up a strong position. According to the Bulletin, the Magyars are said to have withdrawn back across the Theiss, but in any event they now command the crossing, and Herr Ottinger, who withdrew so hastily, will probably not force it very soon.

These are the “brilliant successes” of the Imperial arms against the dissolved, demoralised, dispersed army of the Kossuth rebels.

A glance at the map shows that the decisive battle will be fought at the crossings of this river, or, if these are forced, on the Debreczin heath. And even if the Magyars are crushed here, the guerrilla war in the lowland Hungarian heaths and swamps, and in the Transylvanian mountains, will only begin in the same way as it has already begun, to the great sorrow of the 18th Bulletin, in the “already occupied parts of the country”. What such a war can achieve in a sparsely populated country and on suitable terrain has been proved by the Carlist bands in Spain, and is being proved again by Cabrera just now.

But Kossuth is not at that point yet. Although the Kölnische Zeitung, in its childish naivety, had him taken prisoner yesterday, he is still free and commands a considerable army. For him the issue now is no longer to hold out for months; he needs to offer resistance only three or four weeks more. In three or four weeks at most the tide will have turned in Paris: either the restoration will triumph there for the moment, and then Hungary may fall too, so that the counter-revolution becomes completely overweening — or the revolution will triumph, and then the Austrian gentlemen will hastily march to the Rhine and to Italy, only to be chased back from there to Hungary by the red trousers.

Let us note, finally, the most brilliant success of all of the Imperial arms: Herr Welden’s bulletins have at last found one believer who swears by them — and that one is the Kölnische Zeitung.