Sándor Asbóth

Alexander Asbóth

Sándor Asbóth , anglicized Alexander Asboth (born December 18, 1811 in Keszthely , Hungary , † January 21, 1868 in Buenos Aires , Argentina ) was a Hungarian-American revolutionary and general of the United States Army in the Civil War .

Youth, Revolution and Emigration

Asbóth studied engineering at the Selmecbánya Mining Academy and at the Institutum Geometricum in Pest , as his parents prevented him from pursuing a military career, as his brother had already embarked on. From 1836 to 1848 he worked first in Buda and later in Temesvár as an engineer for the local building authorities.

During the revolution of 1848 Asbóth joined the Hungarian freedom fighters under Lajos Kossuth and took part as a captain in several battles against Austrian and Russian troops. After the suppression of the revolution, he accompanied Kossuth into exile in Istanbul and in 1851 on a trip to the USA, where he finally settled. In America, too, Asbóth worked as an engineer and landscape architect and was involved in the planning of New York's Central Park .

Civil war

Asbóth joined the army of the Union in 1861, because he saw his freedom ideals threatened by the confederation and its advocacy of slavery . In the summer of 1861, the Republican politician John C. Frémont , a retired surveyor and explorer, was appointed supreme command of the disputed Missouri by President Lincoln . Frémont appointed Asbóth, with whom he had already known before the war, as his chief of staff and promoted him to brigadier general. Frémont was relieved of his command in the autumn because he had made himself unpopular with the pro-southern population by his resolute advocacy for the liberation of slaves in his area of ​​command. The promotions he pronounced were not recognized by the Washington government. Asbóth was finally promoted to brigadier general with effect from March 21, 1862, because he had distinguished himself in the battle of Pea Ridge under the new commander Samuel Curtis by personal bravery and was badly wounded.

After a temporary assignment as garrison commander in Kentucky and Ohio , Asbóth was appointed commander in West Florida in the fall of 1863 . From his headquarters in Fort Pickens , he conducted several expeditions into the Confederate-ruled hinterland. On September 27, 1864, Asbóth's troops were able to capture the small town of Marianna on the border with Alabama after a brief skirmish with the enemy militia . The general suffered two more serious wounds from a volley of rifles from ambush: a double bullet break in the left arm and a bullet in the left jawbone. Although the latter bullet could not be removed from his head for the time being, Asbóth resumed service in early 1865 and remained in Florida until he was retired in the summer. In January 1866 he was retrospectively rewarded with the rank of major general.

post war period

After the war, Asbóth traveled to France and had the bullet removed from his jaw by the respected surgeon Auguste Nélaton , who had already operated on Garibaldi who had been shot in 1862 . However, the wound healed poorly and tormented Asbóth during his subsequent work as US envoy to Argentina and Uruguay , to which he had been appointed in 1866. On January 21, 1868, he died in Buenos Aires of an infection caused by his old wound. Asbóth's remains were initially buried in Argentina, but after a testamentary decree became known in 1990, they were transferred to Arlington National Cemetery .

literature

• Earl J. Hess: Alexander Asboth. One of Lincoln's Hungarian Heroes? . In: Lincoln Herald . Volume 84. No. 3. 1984: pp. 181-191.

Web links

Commons : Alexander Asboth  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Biography ( Memento from May 28, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
• Sándor Asbóth in the database of Find a Grave (English)