[FROM THE THEATRE OF WAR]

Once more the post from Berlin, which has just arrived and which
was due yesterday evening, does not contain any letters or papers
from Vienna. Nor were they received in Breslau. March 8 is the last
date for which we have direct news from Vienna, and that contains
nothing more than rumours from the Hungarian theatre of war.
According to an issue of the Lithographierte Correspondenz, Win-
dischgratz has crossed the Theiss with his troops at Tisza-Fiired.
According to the Allgemeine Zeitung he was totally beaten straight
after that in a great battle.

All the reports from Transylvania agree on the point that Bem and
the Szeklers control the whole country, with the exception of
Kronstadt and Hermannstadt. Schassburg is still occupied by the
Szeklers. Bem is said to have been summoned to the main army at
Debreczin and another audacious Pole, Budinski, to have assumed
his command in Transylvania. Just what is true in all these rumours
one cannot say. However, the total silence on the part of all the
official newspapers does not bode well for the fortunes of the royal
imperial forces.

Reports have been confirmed that Perczel has neither been
captured nor gone to Switzerland, but that he is stirring up the
population of the Tolna comitat in the rear of the imperial troops. He had
just time enough in Pest to pay a few polite visits and escaped to
Tolna just as the military authorities began to search for him.

Whilst the people is thus rising in the Austrians’ rear in the
South-West the same is occurring in the North-West. Reports from
various sides indicate that here, where Gorgey was able for so long to
hold up three whole army corps, once again a corps of 10,000-12,000
men is operating against the Slovak mountain towns and has

completely destroyed the Czech, Moravian and Slovak volunteer
corps under Stir and Hurban. The leader of the Magyar-Slovak
corps (for most of the Slovaks sympathise with the Magyars, and in
these regions, which are inhabited almost entirely by Slovaks and
Germans, it is quite impossible to raise an army corps without
Slovaks) is said to be a certain Clouth. Individual refugees arriving at
Miava on the Moravian border have passed this information on to
the Slovansk4-Lipa™ at Prague.

The following item, taken from the Siebenbiirger Bote, is likewise
entertaining. It is a sample of the “ridiculous exaggerations” of
the imperial forces in Transylvania, and it is now going the rounds
in all the German papers. Whilst the imperial troops were retreat-
ing with all haste to Pest and Losoncz, the Siebenbiirger Bote,
whose military reports are acknowledged as having “an official
character”, had them achieve the following glorious victories:

“‘Hermannstadt, February 22. On the evening of the day before yesterday we
received the news that from February 10 to 12 the combined troops of Lieutenant-
Field Marshal Schlick and Schulzig had fought a murderous battle against the
Hungarian rebels and taken Grosswardein. It was reported that the whole battle-line from
Debreczin to Grosswardein was strewn with the innumerable corpses of those who had fallen in

battle, which were piled up in heaps. The same news arrived here the day after from three
other places”’(!!!).?

Written by Engels about March 14, 1849 Printed according to the newspaper
First published in the second supplement Published in English for the first
to the Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 245, time

March 14, 1849

* “Hermannstadt, 22. Februar”, Der Siebenbtirger Bote No. 24, February 23,
1849.— Ed. :

[AUSTRIAN DEFEATS]

The latest newspapers and letters have just arrived from Vienna
and Bohemia. The official silence continues. On the other hand it
is evident from unofficial reports:

1) that the imperial troops have been beaten at Szolnok. Instead of
crossing the Theiss at Poroszlo, a section of the main Hungarian
army set off down the Theiss, and, having joined forces with other
Magyar mobile columns, attacked the royal imperial troops stationed
outside Szolnok from the rear. At the same time the Magyars who
were positioned on the right bank of the Theiss pressed forward
over the river. The imperial troops were completely beaten, the
railway from Szolnok to Abony was destroyed and the whole area
occupied by the Magyars. Szolnok has therefore been snatched from
the imperial troops for a second time;

2) that things do not look very bright for the imperial troops both
at their centre and on their left flank: on March 5 a huge number of
cannon, Congreve batteries and waggon teams from Kapolna arrived in
Pest and were transported to the fortress of Ofen. And the great
commander Windischgratz—he is said to be slightly wounded—has
moved his headquarters back to Ofen. He has transferred command to
Lieutenant-Field Marshal Schlick, ordering him to advance across
the Theiss without any further delay, to storm Debreczin and put an
end to the affair!

In brief: The imperial forces have been beaten at Szolnok once
more and dislodged from the town; Windischgratz has gone back to
Ofen and his artillery and waggon train have followed him; thus the
imperial forces must also have been beaten there.

One defeat of the Austrians is certain, a second one proba-
ble—Finis Hungariae!

Written by Engels about March 14, 1849 Printed according to the newspaper
First published in the second supplement Published in English for the first
to the Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 245, time

March 14, 1849