Spring Campaign (1849)

In December 1848, the Habsburg camarilla decided to attack Hungary and force the Hungarian state back into complete subjugation, as it had been before the March 15 revolution. The forced abdication of King Ferdinand V preceded the outbreak of armed conflict between the Hungarian and the Austrian imperial forces. Since he had sworn allegiance to the Hungarian constitution, Ferdinand could not give the order to attack the country, and because of this, on 2 December 1848, his nephew, Franz Joseph I, ascended the throne without swearing loyalty to the Hungarian constitution. When the Hungarian Parliament heard about this event, it rejected his legitimacy, recognizing only Ferdinand as king and declaring Franz Joseph a usurper. In autumn 1848, Western Hungary was defended by General Artúr Görgei’s 28,000 soldiers against Field Marshal Alfred zu Windisch-Grätz’s 55,000. Meanwhile, Windisch-Grätz broke from the West into Hungary through the River Leitha, forcing Görgei to retreat towards Győr, then towards the capital. After Perczel’s defeat in the Battle of Mór on December 30, Buda and Pest could no longer be defended, so the Parliament retreated to Debrecen. After entering the Hungarian capitals on 5 January 1849, the imperial commander demanded unconditional surrender from the Hungarian delegation that visited him and asked him to negotiate. Because of the Austrian offensive in December and January, the Hungarian forces retreated from Western and much of Central Hungary and regrouped behind the Tisza River. On January 5, Görgei issued the Vác Proclamation, pledging loyalty to the Hungarian constitution while rejecting any other authority. The new Hungarian strategy was to concentrate György Klapka's, Perczel's, and Görgei’s armies along the Tisza. In Northern Hungary, Klapka, who took over the command from Mészáros, successfully repelled Schlik's Austrian army near Tarcal, Bodrogkeresztúr, and Tokaj, while Görgei’s breakthrough at the Branyiszkó Pass on February 5 opened the way for a counter-offensive. At the start of December, no Hungarian troops were present in Transylvania, excepting the Székely resistance in the Háromszék Seat in the southeast. Meanwhile, the Hungarian troops who had retreated to the Western border of Transylvania were taken over by General Józef Bem, a very talented Polish commander, who routed the Austrian troops, and by Christmas, he had retaken Kolozsvár and northern Transylvania. But at the end of January, he suffered some setbacks (First Battle of Nagyszeben, Battle of Vízakna) against the Austrian Lieutenant General Anton Puchner, supported by Romanian insurgents and a 7000-strong Russian troop. But on February 9, he won an important victory at the Battle of Piski, and then he pushed back the Austrian troops, who had broken into northern Transylvania. In the south, after a successful December for the Hungarians (ex., Battle of Jarkovác), the imperial and Serb forces achieved an important victory in the Battle of Pancsova on 2 January. Matters worsened for the Hungarians when the Hungarian military command ordered all troops fighting in the south to retreat behind the Maros River, leaving the entire southern part of the country in enemy hands. They gave this order because they were preparing to launch a counterattack against the Austrian main army, which was led by Windisch-Grätz and reinforced by these troops. By February, however, Hungarian forces had consolidated behind the Tisza and were preparing for a new campaign. Henryk Dembiński was appointed commander-in-chief by Lajos Kossuth in opposition to Görgei, whom Kossuth did not trust. Dembiński prepared to attack the main Austrian army but made several mistakes, resulting in his defeat at the Battle of Kápolna on February 26–27. This forced the Hungarian troops to retreat behind the Tisza River. ==Opposing forces==

Hungarians In the last days of March, four Hungarian corps (I, II, III, VII) massed in Tiszántúl (the region east of Tisza) to launch the campaign against the Imperial main army. The four corps had in total 52,300 men and 184 guns. At the start of March, in Transylvania, together with the Székely troops, Lieutenant General Józef Bem had 17 000 soldiers and 42 guns. In southern Hungary, around Szeged, the IV. (Bácska) corps led by General Mór Perczel prepared to attack the Serbs with 8,500 soldiers and 30 guns. The number of reserve troops in formation at the time was 7,000 and 12 guns. The Komárom siege corps consisted of 14,133 soldiers and 42 guns. In Transylvania, Lieutenant General Anton Puchner commanded 8676 soldiers and 36 guns. In addition, since February there had been 7,000 Russian soldiers and 14 artillery pieces in Transylvania, which Puchner could only rely on for defensive fighting. Besides these, there were some 70,000 Romanian national guards and militias in southern and western Transylvania. In the Banat and Bácska regions, the mobile Serb-Austrian forces (those who were not stationed as garrisons in fortresses) on 14 February consisted of 29 402 soldiers and 92 guns. However, at the beginning of March, the Serbian volunteers, called Servians (6-7000 men) returned to the Principality of Serbia because the Austrian command had forbidden them to plunder. At the same time, not all parts of the Olmütz constitution were in concordance with the Serb national aspirations, and this too contributed to the return of the Serbian volunteers. To make up for the shortfall caused by their departure, the Styrian-Croatian corps was sent to support the Serb troops in the area of Pétervárad. It consisted of 7568 soldiers and 36 guns. This increased the number of Imperial troops in the south, consisting of Serbs, Austrians, and Croats, to about 30,000 soldiers and 128 guns. In addition to these, the following troops were in the castles controlled by the Imperials. In Transylvania: Gyulafehervar's garrison consisted of 2,523 soldiers and 71 guns, and the small hilltop castle of Déva with 80 soldiers and 3 cannons. In the South three castles were in imperial hands: Temesvár, Arad, and Eszék. Temesvár had a garrison of 8851 men and 213 guns, Arad had 1453 defenders and 66 guns, while in Eszék there were 3,000 soldiers and an unknown number of guns. In addition to these troops, new imperial troops were sent to stop the Hungarian army, which had won a series of victories in April. In mid-April, 10,000 troops and 18 guns under the command of Lieutenant-General Ludwig von Wohlgemuth, gathered in Austria, Styria, Moravia, and Bohemia, arrived in western Hungary. At the same time, the Vogel Corps, consisting of 11,000 soldiers and 24 guns, was sent to Northern Hungary from Galicia. Thus, in total, the K.u.K. troops (including also the Serbs from Banat and Bácska) and their nationality and Russian allies were around 119,216 soldiers and 781 guns. The Russian troops from Transylvania were 7000 soldiers and 14 cannons. Around 70,000 Romanian militias also helped the Austrians in Transylvania. So we can say that before the start of the Spring Campaign, the counter-revolutionary camp was much more numerous than the Hungarians. And to these in April added another 21 000 K.u.K. soldiers and 42 guns during April 1849. ==Campaign attempt of Antal Vetter==

After Dembiński's replacement, on 8 March 1849, Kossuth appointed Major General Antal Vetter as commander-in-chief of the Hungarian army. Vetter's operational plan was to send Görgei's VII Corps towards Miskolc, while he with the other three corps wanted to cross the Tisza at Cibakháza and try to attack the enemy's flank. The Hungarian main army crossed the Tisza on the Cibakháza bridge on 16–17 March. In the meantime Windisch-Grätz also moved his troops towards Cibakháza. Meanwhile, Görgei crossed the Tisza at Tokaj, and headed west. At first, Kossuth thought that he would be the commander-in-chief, but the generals dissuaded him. The appointment was not officialized, but after Görgei took over the Ministry of War in May 1849, he remained de facto the commander-in-chief of the Hungarian army until 1 July 1849. ==Capture of Transylvania==

At the beginning of March, Bem again turned against Nagyszeben, the headquarters of the imperial army led by Puchner. On 2–3 March, Bem was defeated by Puchner in the Battle of Medgyes, and retreated to Segesvár. Puchner thought that finally, the opportunity to deliver a definitive blow to Bem had come, and he sent his troops on several routes towards Segesvár trying to cut all the escape routes and close Bem's army in the town. Only the road from Segesvár to Nagyszeben was left unsecured, for a short time. On 11 March, in the Second Battle of Nagyszeben, he defeated the Russian-Austrian garrison led by the Tsarist Colonel Grigory Skariatin, who came out from the city to face him and then started to besiege Nagyszeben, taking it by nightfall. Puchner who understood late, that Bem played a game of cat and mouse with him, rushed with his troops, which were surrounding the empty Segesvár, towards Nagyszeben, but before he reached it, on 12 March in Alzen (Rom. Alțina), he was informed that his headquarters had fallen. The fall of Nagyszeben was a huge psychological blow to the Imperial forces: lieutenant-general Puchner resigned his command in favor of General József Kalliány. The Imperials still had a much larger army than Bem had, and the new commander-in-chief was considering retaking Nagyszeben, but when General Engelhardt, the leader of the Russian troops defending Brassó, warned him that a force of about 10,000 men was approaching from Székely Land, he was forced to abandon this plan. Czetz captured Brassó on 20 March, while Bem drove out the rest of the enemy army through the Vöröstorony Pass. On 27 May, the fortress of Déva also surrendered to the Hungarians, and a siege ring was drawn around the castle of Gyulafehervár. With around 70 000 armed men in total, they posed a serious threat to the Hungarians. However, the Hungarian successes in March led the Romanians to show a willingness to compromise. Ioan Dragoș, a Romanian MP in the Hungarian Parliament from Bihar County, tried to mediate a truce between the two sides, when Imre Hatvani, the new leader of the Zaránd brigade, with 1109 poorly armed national guards and guerillas (some of them had only spears), 52 hussars, and 3 small caliber cannons, appeared on 6 May in Abrudbánya, the center of the Romanians from the Ore Mountains. In response, the Romanians broke off all negotiations, and on the 9th they laid siege to Abrudbánya, from which Hatvani and his troops withdrew, but in the heavy fighting 150 men of the Zaránd Brigade were killed. Hatvani, on Kossuth's orders, repeated the attack on 15 May with 1300 men. He reoccupied Abrudbánya, and then the Romanians' overwhelming superiority forced him to flee again. The Romanians took revenge for Hatvani's attacks by massacring 5,000 Hungarian civilians living in Abrudbánya, Verespatak, and the surrounding villages. The Romanians tried to launch attacks from the mountains. One such attack took place on 30 May against the Hungarian army besieging Gyulafehérvár, led by Avram Iancu himself with 7-8000 men, but was repulsed by the Hungarian troops. ==Capture of Southern Hungary==

At the beginning of March, Serb troops from Bácska launched an attack on Szabadka and Szeged in an attempt to establish a link with the main Austrian army, which was stationed in the Danube-Tisza interfluve. However, they were severely defeated in the Battle of Kaponya on 5 March. At the same time as the capture of Transylvania, the military situation in Bácska and Banat took a favorable turn. On 15 March 1849, General Mór Perczel took command of the Bácska troops, i.e. the IV Corps. After several victorious battles, Perczel first relieved the blockade of Pétervárad from the north and then made an unsuccessful attempt to break the blockade from the south too. Then he turned back and brought reinforcements from Szeged. On 3 April he attacked and captured the Serb fortified camp of Szenttamás, which had been besieged unsuccessfully three times by Hungarian troops. On 7 April, he broke through the Roman Entrenchments. On 12 April he attempted to take the heavily fortified Titel plateau from the Serbs but was repulsed in the First Battle of Titel. Then Perczel brought in new reinforcements and on 22 April he crossed the Tisza at Zenta. The next day Perczel took Nagybecskerek. In the meantime, Bem's army left Transylvania, and on 16 April pushed into Banat from the east. In the meantime, the Imperial Corps, driven out of Transylvania in March, under the command of Lieutenant General Ignaz Malkowski, entered Banat at Orsova. In the battle, the German-Serb Corps from Southern Hungary broke into pieces and retreated in different directions. In the meantime, Bem quickly sent his brigades to outflank Malkowski's corps, which, fearing an encirclement, left the country, back into Wallachia At the same time, there were also major changes in the blockade of the Austrian fortresses from Banat. Meanwhile, at the end of April, Bem's troops took up observation positions around the fortress of Temesvár. From Bem, Vécsey's troops took over the observation of the fortress, and Vécsey put the fortress under regular siege. At the end of May, except the fortresses of Arad and Temesvár -both encircled by the Hungarian forces - all Banat was in Hungarian hands, while, except the Titel plateau, all Bácska was captured. ==Campaign of the Hungarian main army==

General György Klapka elaborated the operational plan of the Spring campaign. According to the plan, the VII. corps, standing at Hatvan, had to attract there the attention of the K.u.K. commander-in-chief, while the I., II., and III. corps tried to get behind the enemy's main army by a southwestern detour. The plan was risky because if the imperialists discovered that only a small part of the Hungarian army was at Hatvan, they could easily crush it and cut off the supply lines of the other 3 corps. Gödöllő-Operation As a prelude to the spring campaign, on 25 March, a Hungarian detachment of 450 soldiers, led by Lieutenant Colonel Lajos Beniczky made a Raid on Losonc, driving the K.u.K. troops out of the town with heavy losses. The leader of the Austrian garrison of Losonc, Colonel Almásy, reported that he was attacked by a Hungarian army of 6000 men, from which Field Marshal Windisch-Grätz concluded that a huge Hungarian army was from the north advancing towards Komárom. Franz Schlik, one of the best generals of the imperial army, was defeated by the VII Corps led by Colonel András Gáspár, creating the belief in the confused Windisch-Grätz that the Hungarian main army would attack Pest frontally. Klapka's troops fled, but Görgei arrived on the scene and restored order, while Damjanich's corps took back the bridge over the Tápió with a bayonet charge, and then drove the border guards out of the village. With the irresponsible attack against Tápióbicske at the start of the battle, Klapka revealed the intentions of the Hungarian army. For this reason, on 5 April he sent the I. (Jelačić) Corps on a forced reconnaissance in the direction of the Zagyva. The imperial troops thus stretched over a very large front, some 54 km long and 30 km deep, which made it impossible to concentrate these troops in a single day in the case of an attack of the enemy. The imperial army still proved to be a serious opponent. Klapka's wavering troops had to be stopped by Görgei again, and it was only through the perseverance of Damjanich's honvéd soldiers and the self-initiated action of Lajos Aulich that the battle between the two main armies brought a Hungarian victory. The essence of this was to leave Lajos Aulich's II Corps behind in front of Pest this force had to be soon joined from the north by the Kmety Division which belonged to the VII Corps, after it covered the departure towards the north, of the I and III Corps and the two remaining divisions of the VII Corps. The I and III Corps had to take Vác, then together with the two remaining divisions of the VII Corps had to march towards the Garam. Meanwhile, the Hungarian main troops led by Görgei was heading north. After several hours, the enemy commander himself, General Götz, died from the wounds received in this battle. On 19 April, in the Battle of Nagysalló, the Hungarians found themselves face to face with a newly organized Imperial corps, which had marched into Hungary from Austria, under the command of Ludwig von Wohlgemuth. But the Honvéds, who had already tasted victory several times, had no obstacle to overcome this, and the enemy was crushed, the Hungarians taking more than 1000 prisoners. Komárom was surrounded in January 1849, and since March it has been constantly besieged and bombarded by imperial troops. Approaching the fortress from the north, Görgei's troops first wiped out the Austrian blockade on the left bank of the Danube, then crossed to the right bank on 26 April on a newly built raft bridge. Proclamation of Hungary's independence After the Hungarian victories in the spring campaign, Kossuth saw the time had come to respond to the Olmütz constitution. On 14 April, the Diet met in Debrecen, and by a public vote, the dethronement of the Habsburg-Lotharingian dynasty and the declaration of Hungary's independence was declared. The Parliament also elected Kossuth as Governor-president, i.e. temporary head of state. The Declaration of Independence formulating these decisions was adopted by Parliament on 19 April. However, the Western powers saw the Habsburg Empire as more necessary to the European balance of power than accepting an independent Hungary. While Józef Bem, the leader of the Army of Transylvania, and Mór Perczel, the commander of the Army of the South, agreed with this, it was greeted with concern and even indignation by some in the Upper Danube Army, the main Hungarian army, which included most foreign-born officers who had only stuck to the Hungarian cause thanks to the Declaration of Vác from 5 January. and the Olmütz Constitution convinced most loyalist officers that the emperor was not willing to sit down at the negotiating table with the Hungarians at any price, so the declaration of independence was a necessary and legitimate step for which the Hungarians were not to blame. When, after the Battle of Isaszeg, Kossuth hinted at this plan to him, Görgei expressed only mild disapproval, but did not take a clear stand against it, nor did the other officers. This encouraged Kossuth to take this step. Even after the Declaration of Independence, Görgei did not express himself clearly against it, although in his later writings, he claims to have protested against it. During May, the Hungarian troops stationed at Győr and on the Rába line fought some small-scale battles with the K.u.K. troops stationed on the right bank of the Danube. Despite their significant numerical disadvantage, in the fights that occurred during the next month between the two sides, the VII Corps was able to hold its positions, and even initiate successful attacks. On 11 May, Austrian troops led by General Franz Wyss consisting of 6 cavalry companies, 3 infantry battalions, 6 guns, and 2 Congreve rocket launchers (around 2500 men) were repulsed by Poeltenberg's 7 hussar companies, 1-2 infantry companies and 9-11 cannons (in total around 900-1000 men) in the Battle of Lesvár, as were the imperial troops attacking the Csallóköz. Austrian attacks continued in the following days, but the Hungarians repulsed them. Klapka put forward two main arguments. The first was that without the forces left under Buda, the Hungarian main army was not strong enough to launch a successful attack. Also, regarding the balance of power, the siege was the best choice, as the imperial army in front of Vienna had almost twice as many soldiers and cannons as the Hungarians had. So Görgei marched to Buda. Hentzi refused the offer, and in the following days, he unjustifiably bombarded Pest several times, even though Görgei's troops did not attack the castle from there. So the Siege of Buda begun. The decisive assault was launched in the early hours of 21 May, and by 6 a.m., the Hungarian flag was flying on the walls. Hentzi himself was mortally wounded in the battle. The capture of the castle was one of the shortest and most successful sieges of the Hungarian War of Independence: it lasted only 17 days, the Hungarians took almost 5,000 prisoners, and brought 248 cannons and thousands of rifles into the hands of the Hungarians. ==Capture of Northern Hungary==

Colonel Lajos Beniczky's detachment of 450 soldiers, who, as seen above, successfully carried out the raid against Losonc on 24 March, in April continued its campaign in the northern Hungarian territories. After capturing Rimaszombat, Beniczky's detachment marched on 5 April to Szepesváralja, and on 7 April it captured Eperjes. On 18 April Ármin Görgey drove the Austrians out of Selmecbánya, and on 21 April he took Körmöcbánya. They were engaged in constant vanguard skirmishes with the imperial troops, which, from time to time, broke into Hungary from the other side of the border. One brigade, under the command of Major General Joseph Barco, advanced towards Munkács, the other two towards Eperjes and Lőcse. The other two brigades were supposed to advance towards Miskolc via Kassa, but due to the order of Field Marshal Windisch-Grätz on 10 April they moved towards the west, and in mid-May, they joined the main K.u.K. Army around Pozsony. The retreaters were pursued by the detachments of Major Ármin Görgey and Major Lajos Beniczky. To prevent similar break-ins, on 19 April Kossuth named Lieutenant General Henryk Dembiński as the commander of the Hungarian troops in Upper Hungary, which would be later organized as the IX Corps. In early May, various units of the Polish Legion, led by Major General Józef Wysocki, were also directed to this area. At the end of May, Dembiński resigned from the command of these troops, but only on 18 June did he hand over command to Wysocki. ==Capture of the Southern Transdanubia==

Since the winter of 1848-49, Southern Transdanubia was under Austrian occupation. As the Hungarian military forces had been sent to capture other areas, Kossuth wanted to capture this region through a popular uprising. He therefore authorized Gáspár Noszlopy to organize a popular uprising to capture Somogy county. Noszlopy was a successful guerrilla leader, who, during Jelačić’s campaign in Hungary, on 26 September at Marcali, crushed a Croatian detachment, capturing 200 soldiers. On 19 April, Noszlopy set out from Baja with 35 volunteers, crossed the Danube in secret, arriving in disguise at Marcali after an adventurous journey, where he started a national insurrection, which, by the joining of the masses, quickly grew in a huge popular uprising. On 1 May, Noszlopy marched into Kaposvár, the capital of Somogy County, which had been previously abandoned by the frightened enemy troops. This victory captured most of Somogy county, and 15,000 people joined Noszlopy's movement. On 5 May the enemy garrison fled from Szigetvár to Pécs, and on the 24th, Noszlopy, with his troops, who had hardly any firearms, defeated the Austrian and Croatian troops numbering 1200 soldiers in the Battle of Barcs, and drove them into Slavonia. Then Noszlopy continued his campaign in Zala County, and on 20–21 May he expelled the enemy brigade occupying Nagykanizsa, which fled to Muraköz. Noszlopy then organized his insurgents into military units, constituting the 127th Honvéd Battalion, a Jäger squadron, and a cavalry company, and even had some cannons founded in Kaposvár. Southern Transdanubia was thus captured. The only area where the imperial troops remained in control was Baranya County. This was only due to the arrival there of Lieutenant General Josip Jelačić's imperial corps, sent to southern Hungary, and against which, of course, a popular uprising had no chance of success. ==Results and evaluation of the Spring Campaign==

At the beginning of March, the Hungarian army held only the eastern part of the country, behind the Tisza- line, while in the south it retreated to the Maros line, holding also the northern half of Transylvania. In contrast, Róbert Hermann argues that such a campaign would have stood no real chance of success, as the Austrians had concentrated 76,633 troops around Vienna, of which 54,443 were combat-ready. Meanwhile, due to the need to monitor the Austrian garrison in Buda and detach forces to Upper Hungary, Görgei could count on significantly fewer troops, making the success of such an offensive highly uncertain. ==Explanatory notes==