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Battle of Letenye

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Coordinates: 46°27′53.2″N 16°59′39.3″E / 46.464778°N 16.994250°E / 46.464778; 16.994250
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Battle of Letenye
Part of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848
Date17 October 1848
Location
Letenye, Zala County, Kingdom of Hungary
Result Hungarian victory
Belligerents
 Hungarian Revolutionary Army

Austrian Empire

Commanders and leaders
 Mór Perczel Lazar Mamula
Strength
3409+? men
297 horses
8 cannons[1][2]		 ~2400 men
2 cannons[3]
Casualties and losses
3 dead
4 wounded[4]		 743 captured[4]

The Battle of Letenye was a battle in the Hungarian War of Independence of 1848-1849, fought on 17 October 1848 between the Hungarian Revolutionary Army under the command of General [[Mór Perczel] and the Croatian troops under Colonel Lazar Mamula defending the Muraköz/Međimurje region. Perczel, the leader of the Hungarian brigade which attacked Muraköz, split his troops in two, and his detachment defeated the Croatian troops defending the line of the Mura River. As a result of his victory, together with the victory of the leader of the other column, Major András Gáspár in the Battle of Kotor, Perczel liberated Muraköz from the Croatian troops.

Background

At the beginning of October 1848, after the liberation of Nagykanizsa, Zala County and the southwestern border of Hungary were threatened by two K.u.K. and pro-Habsburg groupings. [5] The corps, under the command of Field Marshal Laval Nugent von Westmeath, who was now in his 72nd year, was then practically a strong brigade of about 2,500 men, and usually consisted of the battalions with the number 4 of each infantry regiments stationing in Styria. There is no information on the composition and number of its artillery.[6] The total number of these troops was hardly more than 5,000, and the revolutionary movements in Styria, especially the unrest in Graz, prevented them from taking offensive action on the Hungarian border.[7]

The number of Croatian border guards and imperial troops along the Mura and Drava rivers in Croatia was much larger.[7] Including the units received from the Styrian brigade, it must have numbered between 14 and 15 000 men and had at least 24 guns.[7] A serious disadvantage, however, was that the personnel of the corps was made up mostly of militias and reserve battalions, which were very poorly equipped with small a[7]

Four companies of the Hungarian volunteers from Zala County went to Zalaegerszeg for equipment, while the Sándor Hussars also camped near the town.[8] The Somogy County National Guards, together with part of the Zala County Popular Uprising, kept an eye on the Mura from Légrád to Letenye, trying unsuccessfully to retake the bridges from Kakonya, Légrád, and Letenye from the Croats at 9 am on 7 October. During the attack, both the Somogy and Zala county companies (with one exception) were retreating rather than advancing.[8] Profiting from their victory, the Croats crossed the Mura, ransacked the castle of Letenye, and threatened to burn the whole region.[8] Major Jakab Palocsay, the commander of the Somogy National Guards, did not trust his own forces and even had Kiskanizsa (today is part of Nagykanizsa) surrounded with ramparts in order to repel the enemy who, he feared, might attack again. So he was also sincerely and pleasantly surprised to hear that the enemy had destroyed the bridge and retreated to the Muraköz (the region between the Drava and the Mura rivers, today part of Croatia, called Međimurje County).[8] However, rumors such as that Nugent had crossed the Drava at Dombom with 4000 men and was preparing to attack Nagykanizsa from the Muraköz, gave cause for concern.[8] On the other side, there were similar concerns. On 9 October, Lieutenant General Dahlen, the commander-in-chief of the Zagreb commandment in chief, received news that the Hungarians had crossed the Drava at two points and rushed here, but the news proved to be wrong.[9]

Prelude

After the victory at Ozora on 7 October, Colonel Mór Perczel's Hungarian army rested for a few days and then set off for Veszprém.[10] He was originally supposed to move to support the troops pursuing Kuzman Todorović's Croatian troops which were sent home by Lieutenant General Josip Jelačić after the Hungarian army defeated him on 29 September in the Battle of Pákozd, forcing him to retreat from Hungary towards Vienna.[2] On arriving in Veszprém, however, Perczel decided not to join the main army with his troops, but to march to Nagykanizsa. He justified his decision by the fact that, according to the news he had received, another attack by Colonel Albert Nugent, who had been driven out of Nagykanizsa, was expected at any moment.[10] At the time, Perczel believed that the Croatian troops led by Major General Todorović, were also trying to return to Croatia through Vas and Zala counties, and he wanted to prevent this as well.[10] Perczel arrived in Tapolca on 13 October, in Keszthely on 14 October, in Kiskomárom (Zalakomár) on 15 October, and in Nagykanizsa on 16 October.[2] Perczel concentrated his troops here and then moved to liberate the Muraköz.[10]

Perczel divided his troops into two columns. The column he led was made up of the Hunyadi troop, the volunteers from Szabolcs and Zala counties, the national guards from Nagykanizsa, from the Alexander and Nicholas hussars a company each, and the newly formed 6-pounder battery (with eight guns).[2] This crossed the Mura at Letenye. The other column was led by András Gáspár, who was promoted to major after the success at Ozora.[2] The infantry of this column consisted of the Zrínyi troop, the volunteers from Sopron, the Somogy and the Szepetnek national guards led by Királyi Pál, the cavalry of one company of Nicholas Hussars, and the artillery of 6 guns.[2]

References

  1. ^ Hermann 2004, pp. 114.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Hermann 2001, pp. 157.
  3. ^ Hermann 2001, pp. 157–158.
  4. ^ a b Hermann 2001, pp. 158.
  5. ^ Hermann 2001, pp. 155.
  6. ^ Hermann 2001, pp. 155–156.
  7. ^ a b c d Hermann 2001, pp. 156.
  8. ^ a b c d e Hermann Róbert: Kanizsa felszabadítása 1848. október 3-án Zalai Múzeum 7. Zalaegerszeg, 1997, pp. 135
  9. ^ Hermann 2004, pp. 91.
  10. ^ a b c d Hermann 2004, pp. 108.

Sources

  • Bóna, Gábor (1987). Tábornokok és törzstisztek a szabadságharcban 1848–49 ("Generals and Staff Officers in the War of Freedom 1848–1849") (in Hungarian). Budapest: Zrínyi Katonai Kiadó. p. 430. ISBN 963-326-343-3.
  • Hermann, Róbert (2001), 1848-1849 a szabadságharc hadtörténete ("Military History of 1848-1849") (in Hungarian), Budapest: Korona, ISBN 963-9376-21-3
  • Hermann, Róbert (2004). Az 1848–1849-es szabadságharc nagy csatái ("Great battles of the Hungarian War of Independence of 1848–1849") (in Hungarian). Budapest: Zrínyi. p. 408. ISBN 963-327-367-6.
  • Hermann, Róbert (1997), "Kanizsa felszabadítása 1848. október 3-án ("The Liberation of Kanizsa on 3 October 1848")" (PDF), Zalai Múzeum 07 (in Hungarian)
  • Schmidt-Brentano, Antonio (2007). Die k. k. bzw. k. u. k. Generalität 1816-1918 ("Officers of the K.K and K.u.K. Army") (in German). Budapest: Österreichisches Staatsarchiv. p. 211.

46°27′53.2″N 16°59′39.3″E / 46.464778°N 16.994250°E / 46.464778; 16.994250

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