A Hungarian War Scenario
"Mount the black horse, 0 Jellacic Ban!
Mount the black horse, and sharpen the sword! With him there marches a troop of our warriors,
Valiant and strong, as our frontiers afford, God guard the life of the hero in battle,
Crown, too, his soldiers; success to their band."
- --- Popular Croat song, 1848
The Battle of Pakozd, September 29, 1848
It was the first battle of the Hungarian War of Independence. At the time, it looked like it would be the last battle. Count Josip Jellacic, the Ban of Croatia, led an army of 50,000 men across the Mygar border. Without any authority, he invaded Hungary and drove for Budapest. The Hungarians could only muster a mixed force of 17,000 to oppose them. They met on the north shore of Lake Velence (Velencei-To). Jellacic had split his army earlier, sending General Roth with 9,000 on a southern march through Pecs, planning to have him join the main army at Pakozd. Roth never made it.
The appearance of overwhelming force was deceiving. Jellacic led an army composed of seasoned troops and large numbers of militia. The Croat frontier guards or Grenz saw themselves as elite troops, and had reason to trust their leader. Baron Jellacic had been the Colonel of the 1st Banal Grenz, but in April of 1848, he had been elevated to Field Marshal and Ban, or Governor of Croatia. The Austrian conservatives had arranged this appointment hoping that he would end the Hungarian play for power within the Empire.
As a Croat military leader, he was almost a tribal chief. Every Grenz regiment in Croatia had two field battalions, one reserve battalion, and two depot battalions, called the 3rd and 4th Territorial Battalions. The last two battalions were not often called up, so while they were trained and armed, they were not regulars and had little in the way of uniforms. On top of this, each Grenz Battalion had a supporting militia called "district companies" which constituted all the ninth and tenth companies in the battalions, as well as a contingent of about of about 200 to 400 "Sereshans." These last were colorful mountain tribesmen, much like their early predecessors, the Pandours. They were superb scouts and skirmishers.
This meant that each Grenz regiment could be between 5,600 and 7,000 strong. The Croat Battalions from five Grenz regiments included their supporting territorial battalions and militia, made up more than half of Jellacic's force. These troops were difficult to control, even for Jellacic. Worse, he had very few officers.
The Hungarians were able to put together a small force of untried and experienced National Guards and regular battalions. Their strength was in their better artillery and excellent hussars. They hurt themselves by spreading out their meager forces on both sides of Lake Velence trying to cover all approaches. Because of that, part of the Hungarian forces would not participate in the battle. The commander, General Janos Moga, had chosen fine defensive terrain for the Hungarians. It would be a Napoleonic contest between a Croat Goliath and a Hungarian David.
The Croats advanced on the Hungarian lines shouting "Zivio Hrvatska!" (Long Live Croatia!) as their screen of Sereshans began taking a toll of the waiting enemy.
The Battle of Pakozd: September 29, 1848 "The Hungarian Valmy"
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© Copyright 2003 Hal Thinglum
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