Hungary. February 21, 1849

Hungary. No. 227, February 21, 1849. _Neue Rheinische Zeitung_.

The Olmütz papers bring the news that Bem has entered Hermannstadt and set up his headquarters there. In the _Breslauer Zeitung_ we read the following report, headed: “Victories of General Bem” and dated “from Hungary, February 12”:

I have before me a number of the _Közlöny_, the monitor published in Debreczin, containing a detailed report by General Bem on his victories near Hermannstadt. In it, Bem pokes fun at the 100-year-old method of the Imperial Aulic War Council employed by the Imperial Field Marshal Lieutenant Puchner. The latter had wanted to encircle Bem, who grouped his troops in masses with masterly use of the terrain. Puchner already believed he could capture the band of rebels, when Bem threw himself with all his strength on the enemy’s centre, dispersed it, and, supported by the terrain, took the right and left wings in the rear. A very large part of the Imperial forces were taken prisoner. Hermannstadt itself, which, when Bem first advanced, had his troops fired on from the windows, was plundered by the enraged soldiers. Bem himself entered the town on January 26. He deliberately delayed the entry, which was to have taken place as early as the 23rd, in order to allow the fury of the soldiery against the people of Hermannstadt to abate somewhat. However, the Szeklers did perpetrate some cruelties, which Bem deplores in his report. If the Viennese papers are silent about the capture of Hermannstadt, you may nevertheless regard it as an undeniable fact. You well know how long the capture of Klausenburg was kept secret in Vienna. – From a reliable source I can inform you that the Imperial forces have again been defeated near Zibackhaz on the Theiss. The cannonade was heard as far as Czegled, and individual dragoons fled as far as Pesth. Eye-witnesses relate the affair thus: that the Imperial forces wanted to burn down the solid Theiss bridge at Zibackhaz, but the Hungarians prevented this with such force that the Imperial forces finally had to take to flight. It is noteworthy that the bulletins are also silent about this seven-hour engagement. – Besides the already named Polish generals Dembinski and Bem, the Polish staff officers Sierakowski, Kaminski, and others are also with the Hungarians. A French general presides over the Hungarian war council in Debreczin. We learn from Pesth that, as a result of the defeat at Zibackhaz, the greater part of the garrison has marched away. Many wounded soldiers are being brought to Pesth from Gran. The Hungarian garrison of the fortress of Komorn dominates the greater part of the county of Gran and carries on skirmishes against the Imperial troops almost daily. Prince Windischgrätz has resorted to a new source of revenue. He has issued a proclamation according to which every Jewish community is to pay 20,000 florins C.M. for each individual from its midst who is proven to be in complicity with the rebels. A letter from Tokaj of February 9, brought by a Silesian coming from that area to the relatives of the writer living in the county, contains the following account of the atrocities committed there: “We had occasion the day before yesterday (February 7) to become tragically convinced of the appalling fury with which the war of the Austrians against the Hungarians is being waged. A band of 150 Austrians had forced their way into the great Miskolcz wine cellars. In their usual manner, they not only caroused inhumanly, but also smashed the casks so that the wine ran out, whereby some of the most drunken lost their lives. Not content with that, the daughters and maidservants of the neighbouring farms, having been dragged there and had their clothes torn off their bodies, were forced to dance in that state, not to mention the abominations that followed. A beardless Austrian lieutenant was so dehumanised as to slash open the belly of one of the unfortunate girls with his sabre. – While this horde, exhausted by the misdeeds they had committed, abandoned themselves heedlessly to slumber, a detachment of Hungarian troops came up and, outraged at what had happened, took the most cruel revenge. They bound the fast-sleeping Imperial soldiers and, in the literal sense of the word, hacked them to pieces while still alive with their sabres. The agonised howling of the wretches was horrifying. Wherever the Austrians go, the property of their hosts is done for; everything is demolished, the beds are slit open and the feathers poured into the dung pits; women and girls, even children of 6 to 8 years, must flee if they do not wish to be dishonoured in the most revolting manner.” – The journey of the bearer of the said letter, apart from occasional searches, is said to have been fairly free of danger. The Prussian passport was respected everywhere. (As if that were a miracle!) According to reliable private information communicated from Vienna, the Szeklers have taken Kronstadt. According to the _Wiener Zeitung_, Colonel Urban unexpectedly fell upon a Magyar corps near Miroszny and defeated it.