Battle of Temesvár

date	August 9, 1849
place	near Temesvár , Kingdom of Hungary (now Romania )
output	Victory of the Austrians

Parties to the conflict
Austria	Hungary
Commander
Julius von Haynau Franz Schlik Franz de Paula from and to Liechtenstein	Józef Bem Henryk Dembiński
Troop strength
initially 28,000 (including 12,000 Russians), later reinforced to 60,000 men	54,000 men, 108 cannons
losses
36 dead, 172 wounded	about 500 dead, about 6000 prisoners and deserters

The battle of Temesvár ( Timisoara ) took place on August 9th (Julian: July 29th) 1849. The decisive battle of the Hungarian Revolutionary War took place in the run-up to Neubeschenowa . First, 28,000 men (and 12,000 Russians ) of the Austrian main army (later reinforced to around 60,000 men) under the leadership of FZM Baron Julius von Haynau met 54,000 men and 108 cannons of the Hungarian army under the command of Generals Henryk Dembiński and Józef Bem . The city of Temešvár , which was surrounded by Hungarian troops , was appalled by the imperial authorities after a 107-day siege after bypassing the opposing front via Sanktandres . This last “great” battle of the Hungarian War of Independence consisted largely of cannon fire on both sides. The effects of the Austrian victory could not be clearly foreseen at the moment of the fight, but caused the Hungarian insurrection troops to soon drop their arms . The Banat was again Austrian post-war crown land .

prehistory

The leaders of the Hungarians: Jozef Bem, Henryk Dembinski and Lajos Kossuth

At the beginning of August, the rivers Maros (Mureş) and Tisza formed a natural line of defense for the Hungarian insurrection, which was forced into the Banat . The fortress of Arad fell into the hands of the Hungarian revolutionary army at the beginning of July 1849, and strong contingents of militias and land forces gathered in the retreat area of western Transylvania to support the main army, which had been pushed to the south.

After the defeat in the Battle of Szőreg (August 5th), the Hungarian southern army was pursued by the victorious Austrian army from the Szegedin area to Temesvar. While the Italian Legion under Alessandro Monti was covering the retreat of the defeated Hungarians, an order from Kossuth was implemented in the camp on August 8th : the previous commander Dembinski was replaced by General Józef Bem , whose troops for the upcoming conflict were due to the approach of the 15th. Division under General Kmety was reinforced by 5500 men. Dembinski had organized the defensive position in front of Temesvar for defense purposes before he handed over the command to General Bem on August 9th.

The siege of Temesvar was at the same time maintained by the Hungarian 5th Corps under Vecsey . In the fortress, under the leadership of FML Rukavina, there were still about 1200 men and 365 horsemen. The initially 8,600-strong imperial garrison had already been severely decimated by epidemics.

course

FZM Haynau on a hill near Kis-Becskerek

In the morning the Hungarian army awaited the enemy on the wide plain in front of Kleinbetschkerek in a defensive order of battle. After General Bem appeared at the Temesvar Siege Corps that morning and brought General Vecsey instructions for the coming battle, he went to the battlefield, where the two armies were facing each other in long lines and the guns had already opened fire.

On the other hand, the day before the Austrian I. Corps Schlik had received orders on the one hand to cover the left wing of the army of the imperial commander-in-chief Haynaus and to advance with his avant-garde division to Winga and on the other hand to block the road between Arad and Temesvar. Also on the left wing, the IV Corps under FML Franz Liechtenstein had to occupy the villages of Hodon and Mercydorf and then proceed directly to Temesvar. General von Ramberg had in the middle with his III. Corps Kleinbetschkerek and Sackelhausen to be occupied. On the right wing the cavalry under Major General von Lederer covered . The allied Russian division under General Panjutin was left by Haynau as a reserve in the center's second meeting. The position of the Hungarian army in the northwestern apron of Temesvar was poorly chosen, but because of the need to maintain the siege it could not be changed. The Hungarians concentrate four corps (each in division strength) between Nyarad and Berezges Bach, 108 cannons were deployed to protect the first meeting, which were intended to delay the enemy action as much as possible. The division under Kmety was in Sackelhausen on the left flank, in the northeast was the 10th Corps of Colonel László Gál , Major General Richard Guyon with his 4th Corps was in the center and the 9th Corps under Major General Aristide Dessewffy was on the right. The center and the left flank were largely stationed in the forests of Csóka and Vadász.

The Hungarians were able to deploy 54,000 men with 120 guns, while the Austro-Russian troops were able to unite around 60,000 men and 350 cannons on the battlefield before the reinforcements arrived (only in the afternoon). The battle began on August 9th at 8:30 a.m. when the Austrian cavalry under the command of von Wallmoden-Gimborn attacked the Hungarian rearguard, which withdrew after a short skirmish behind the Nyárád brook. The Russian division Panyutin and the Imperial artillery reserve were brought forward from their previous storage position in Bescherek in the slaughter line and right of the Reserve Artillery was formed on the heights of Neubeschenowa, on the left flank, the Cavalry Brigade covered Simbschen . Bems artillery kept Haynau's battalions at a distance, but then suffered heavier losses due to the stronger fire control of the Imperial forces, which was led by Major General Hauslab . The Russian division under Panyutin, which remained steadfast in the enemy artillery fire, played a considerable part in the looming victory of the imperial arms. Haynau launched a successful attack by the heavy cavalry brigade under Major General Lederer against the threat to his right flank from Hungarian hussars.

At 4 p.m., the Liechtenstein corps attacked the Hungarians head-on on their right flank via Sanktandres. The Hungarian army then had to withdraw towards the Nyárád brook. General Bem ordered Kmety to move forward on the left flank while moving himself to the right flank. General Dessewffy tried in vain with his troops to stop Liechtenstein's attack with fire from three cannons, but the 4th and 9th Corps were already beginning to withdraw. Dessewffy's column also had to withdraw to prevent him from being cut off by the enemy.

The Austrian army immediately followed the Hungarians. At around 4.30 p.m. on the southern edge of the fortress, 24 artillery pieces from the Herzinger division hit Sanktandres and decimated the line of the Hungarian militia. Bems army began to disband without a major infantry battle, the remaining troops fled in the direction of Lugosch. The rest of the rebels were quickly defeated and the imperial garrison under Rukavina, besieged in Temesvár, was liberated. The Hungarian general Mór Perczel arrived at the retreating Hungarian rearguard to attack the pursuing Austrian army, he tried to counterattack with his 9th division on Neubeschenowa , but then also withdrew without a fight over the Nyárád. The Hungarian 9th Corps, hardest hit by desertion, had shrunk to 7,000 men. Haynau made between 6,000 and 7,000 men prisoners, the largest number of opposing prisoners that could be brought in since the winter campaign. The bloody losses in the battle were small on both sides, about 36 dead and 172 wounded for the imperial and 500 men for the Hungarians, and soon there were over 6,000 prisoners of war and deserters .

consequences

After the battle it was no longer possible for the Hungarians to continue the revolution militarily. General Dembiński maneuvered the remnants of his army between Maros and Szőreg and cleared all positions when the Austrian army blocked its route at Újszeged and could have advanced towards the river Tisza at any time. During the retreat, the Hungarian Southern Army quickly disbanded and only half of them reached the Lugosch area , where they soon had to surrender. Görgey's main army, meanwhile pursued by the main Russian forces, tried to unite with the defeated Bem and Dembinski near Lugosch at Temesvár . Count Schlick's troops, however, thwarted this plan by driving back the Hungarian avant-garde sent out from Arad at Dreispitz on August 10th . The Russian division Panjutin already received orders to leave the Austrian main army and to bring his division to Arad to meet with the III. To unite corps under Count Rüdiger. After Haynau's victory at Temesvár, the Banus occupied Pancsova and on August 16 reached a connection with Haynau's main army in Neupetsch .

Although the Hungarians wanted to continue their defense, after Haynau's Tisza crossing near Újszeged, the arms were extended. The defeat also brought the Hungarian main army under Görgey in the Arad area into a hopeless situation, so that it surrendered to the Russians under General Rüdiger at Vilagos on August 1st (13th) 1849 .

literature

Rudolph Kiszling: The Revolution in the Austrian Empire 1848 to 1849 , Volume 2. Vienna 1949.
Wilhelm Raming: The campaign in Hungary and Transylvania in the summer of 1849 . Pest 1850, pp. 299-364
Rikhárd Gélich: Magyarország függetlenségi harcza 1848–1849 (Hungary's struggle for independence 1848–1849), Budapest 1882–1889, Volume 3, pp. 812–840
Mihály Horváth: Magyarország függetlenségi harczának története 1848–1849 [History of the Hungarian struggle for independence from 1848 to 1849]. 2nd ed. Pesth 1872. Volume 3. pp. 411-421, 442-452
Francesco Conte Bettoni-Cazzago: Gli Italianinella guerra d'Ungheria 1848-49 . Storia i documenti. Milano 1887. pp. 137-142, 145-54