The Autumn Campaign refers to the series of military campaigns and revolts during the autumn of 1848 in the Kingdom of Hungary, Principality of Transylvania (1711–1867), Lower Austria, Duchy of Styria, and Syrmia during the Hungarian War of Independence of 1848–1849. In the fall of 1848, the Hungarian army successfully repelled the Croatian offensive led by Lieutenant General Josip Jelačić at Pákozd. The Hungarians then attempted to support the revolution in Vienna, but they were defeated by the Austrians at Schwechat. Meanwhile, the Serbian uprising in southern Hungary continued, and Austrian troops led by Lieutenant General Anton Puchner revolted in Transylvania. With the support of the Romanian rebellion, the Austrians drove the Hungarian units out of the province. However, these battles reinforced the combat value of the Hungarian troops and the experience of the young Hungarian officers. This greatly contributed to stopping the Austrian winter offensive that began in December.
Background When the Batthyány cabinet took power in April 1848, Hungary had no army.. The April Laws did not improve this situation, and the imperial army stationed in Hungary remained under Vienna's control. Local Austrian high commandments, such as the one in Buda, ignored the Hungarian Government's orders until May, when royal decrees formally subordinated them to the Hungarian government—though their loyalty remained doubtful.
Prime Minister Lajos Batthyány sought to replace foreign troops with Hungarian regiments serving abroad, but Vienna blocked the return of the Hungarian troops, keeping in Hungary the foreign units, loyal to the emperor.. Meanwhile, the 12 Points of the March 15 revolution demanded a Hungarian National Guard, which was created and by summer numbered 350,000–380,000 men, though most were poorly trained and their service time was very short. To build a real force, the government had to create real military battalions, which, by autumn, together with the few Hungarian units from abroad that had returned, formed the basis of the Honvéd (Defenders of the Homeland) Army. By the year's end, there were 66 honvéd battalions, many led by former imperial officers, foreign volunteers, and Hungarians..
Ethnic tensions complicated recruitment. The Serbs in the south, rejecting Hungarian nationhood, declared a Serbian Vojvodina in May and began an armed uprising, supported by volunteers from Principality of Serbia.. The Serb regiments from the Military Frontier joined the revolt. Fighting was brutal, marked by massacres. On 12 June 1848, with the Battle of Karlóca, the war against the Serb insurrection started, but the foreign units and officers, who at the beginning were sent to fight the Serbs, were outnumbered and also unwilling to fight.Vásárhelyi Péter István: A karlócai ütközet. Hadtörténelmi Közlemények 1980 (27. évf., 3 sz.), pp. 455-463 The Serbs set up fortified camps as strongholds against the Hungarian troops.. The most important Serb fortified camp was Szenttamás (Srbobran), which was besieged three times by Hungarian troops, but without success. The first notable Hungarian success was the Battle of Perlasz on 2 September, resulting in the capture of that fortified camp.
At the same time, Croat leader Josip Jelačić, supported by Vienna, refused to recognize the April laws and severed ties with Pest, and prepared for war with Hungary..
In Transylvania, the union with Hungary was proclaimed in June, but Romanians and the Transylvanian Saxons rejected it. Their discontent, combined with imperial support, fueled anti-Hungarian movements..
Despite these conflicts, non-Hungarian participation in the Honvéd Army was significant: Slovak, Romanian, and German units fought alongside Hungarians.. Some of the most famous generals, like János Damjanich (Serb), Károly Knezich (Croat), and Lajos Aulich (German), were themselves non-Hungarian.
Under pressure from the revolutions in Italy, Galicia, Vienna, and Prague, the Habsburg government pretended to support the Batthyány government until August.. Meanwhile, they secretly supported the Serbs who were rebelling against Hungary and encouraged other nationalities to do the same. After the uprisings in the Austrian hereditary provinces were crushed and the Italian troops were defeated in the Battle of Custozza, however, the Austrian government became increasingly hostile towards the Hungarian government.
Actions on the main theater Jelačić’s attack In late August, Lajos Batthyány and Ferenc Deák traveled to Vienna. The Austrian response to the Hungarian government's offers to negotiate was a sharp ultimatum sent to Pest, demanding the abolition of the independent Hungarian ministries of finance, war, and trade. It turned out that Vienna saw the time as ripe for a unilateral and, if necessary, violent revoking of the April laws. As a result of this, the Batthyány government resigned on 11 September 1848.. The crisis caused by the resignation of the government was resolved when Palatine Stephen entrusted Batthyány with the temporary leadership of the executive powers and the formation of a new government on 12 September..
In the early hours of 11 September 1848, the Croatian army of nearly 50,000, led by Ban of Croatia, Lieutenant General Josip Jelačić, crossed the Drava River, which formed the Hungarian–Croatian border. After the occupation of the Muraköz, the Croatian troops crossed the Mura River on 14–15 September and advanced towards the north-west. His troops invaded Hungary not under Croatian, but under Habsburg imperial (black and yellow) banners. The K.u.K. units, consisting of foreign soldiers stationed in Hungary joined immediately the Ban's army. By forcing the Hungarian government to resign, the imperial court hoped that Hungary would be unable to resist the enemy.
General Ádám Teleki, the commander of the Hungarian army in the Dráva region, declared that the resignation of the Batthyány government meant that there was no legal authority in Hungary at the moment, so he refused to confront Jelačić's army. This grave situation was saved by the intervention of a group of Hungarian officers. On 16 September, their delegation visited Jelačić and asked him to show them the imperial decree which authorized him to attack Hungary.. Since the Ban could not provide such a thing, they declared that they would confront him with arms. However, it was uncertain whether it would be possible to gather the necessary armed force to be able to stop his large army. Batthyány and his colleagues, however, did their best to raise a Hungarian army capable of fighting the Croatian army in the few days they had at their disposal.
Unsuccessful negotiation attempts To ensure the loyalty of the officers of K.u.K. service, Batthyány convinced Palatine Stephen to assume command of the Hungarian army on 15 September. The Palatine tried to make contact with Jelačić, but the Ban refused to appear for the negotiations on 21 September, on board the Kisfaludy steamboat at Lake Balaton, the scene of the planned negotiations, thus publicly humiliating the only member of the Habsburg dynasty sympathetic to the Hungarian cause. Thereafter, Palatine Stephen fled Hungary to Vienna, resigning from his dignity.
On 25 September, Emperor Ferdinand I appointed Lieutenant-General Count Ferenc Lamberg as commander-in-chief of all the armed forces in Hungary – both Hungarian and Croatian.. However, the appointed commander-in-chief traveled to the capital, where the National Assembly declared his mission illegal on Kossuth's motion, and on 28 September, the angry crowd attacked and lynched him on the pontoon bridge over the Danube..
Kossuth's recruiting tours Simultaneously, the Hungarian politicians did everything to gather an army against the Croatian troops which were approaching the Hungarian capital.
In the autumn of 1848, for instance, Kossuth made two tours of the Great Hungarian Plain, and in his speeches, called on the people of its towns and villages to rise against the invaders, or join the Honvéd army as soon as possible. During his first recruitment trip, between 24 and 28 September, he visited Cegléd, Nagykőrös, Kecskemét, Abony and Szolnok. Between 29 September and 4 October, he spoke in Csongrád, Szentes, Hódmezővásárhely, Szegvár and Szeged. As a result of his inflammatory speeches, tens of thousands of national guards and popular insurrectionists rose and rushed to guard the left bank of the Danube and prevent a possible Croatian attempt to cross.
Desertions of the Hussar units from abroad, and their return to Hungary The worsening military situation required the activation of all Hungarian weapon-bearing forces to defend the homeland.Kemény Krisztián: „Oh, huszár, huszár! te vagy a magyar szeme fénye.” Huszárok az 1848-49. évi magyar szabadságharcban Ars Militaria, 15.03.2022 This included also the Hussars, the majority of whom were stationed in the Austrian provinces outside of Hungary: Austria, Bohemia, Galicia, and Italy. At the beginning of 1848, only 4 Hussars regiments were stationed in Hungary: the 1st (Imperial), 2nd (Hannover), 3rd (Ferdinand of Este), and 11th (Székely) Hussars. From the beginning, the newly formed Batthyány government sought to bring home the Hussar regiments stationed in parts of the empire outside Hungary and to transfer in return the cavalry regiments of non-Hungarian composition, stationed there. Due to the negotiations, by the end of September 1848, the 6th (Württemberg) and the 9th (Nicholas) Hussar regiments had returned home while 6 companies of the 4th (Alexander) and 4 of the 10th (Wilhelm) Hussars were returned. On 10 October 1848, after the open break between Vienna and Pest, the Hungarian National Assembly, through open proclamations and secret letters sent to the troops, called home the Hungarian soldiers stationed abroad, whose escape it tried to help by sending agents. By the end of 1848, the 6 companies of the 4th and 10th Hussars, still abroad, had escaped, albeit with losses, and under adventurous circumstances had returned home, as had virtually the entire 8th (Coburg) Hussars from Galicia. Of the 12th (Palatine) Hussar Regiment in Bohemia, only the 2nd Major Squadron managed to return to Hungary in adventurous escapes during October.
The Hussars that escaped from Galicia, Bohemia, and Austria, in groups numbering from 25 to 300 men, cut their way through mountains, rivers, and other natural obstacles, avoiding, breaking through, and overcoming the imperial troops that were blocking their way, chased or attacked them, finally reaching often miraculously the Hungarian border.Rédvay, István: Huszáraink hazatérése 1848/49-ben, Vitézi Rend Zrínyi Csoportja, Budapest 1941, pp. 50–111. The most adventurous, and also the most famous Hussar escapes to Hungary, were the 91 Württemberg hussars from Marijampolė, Galicia, led by Captain János Lenkey between 25 and 31 May,Rédvay, István: Huszáraink hazatérése 1848/49-ben, Vitézi Rend Zrínyi Csoportja, Budapest 1941, pp. 54–57. the 60 Palatine hussars led by Captain Lajos Sréter from Slaný in Bohemia between 4–11 October,Rédvay, István: Huszáraink hazatérése 1848/49-ben, Vitézi Rend Zrínyi Csoportja, Budapest 1941, pp. 81–89. and the 203 Hussars led by Lieutenant Gedeon Virágh, from Raudnitz in Bohemia between 21 and 29 October.Rédvay, István: Huszáraink hazatérése 1848/49-ben, Vitézi Rend Zrínyi Csoportja, Budapest 1941, pp. 92–94. These Hussars, who managed to reach Hungary, immediately joined the Hungarian army, and went on the battlefield to fight the invading K.u.K. forces.Babucs, Zoltán: Nyergelj, fordulj! Magyar Hírlap, 2017-03-14.