Artúr Görgey

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Artúr Görgey (January 30, 1818–May 21, 1916), was a Hungarian military leader.

He was born at Toporcz (present-day Toporec, Slovakia), in Upper Hungary, of a Saxon noble family who were converts to Protestantism. In 1837 he entered the Bodyguard of Hungarian Nobles at Vienna, where he combined military service with a course of study at the university. In 1845, on his father's death, he left the army to study chemistry at the University of Prague, after which he retired to the family estates in Hungary.

On the outbreak of the revolutionary War of 1848, Görgey fought on the side of the Hungarian government. Entering the Honvéd army with the rank of captain, he was employed in the purchase of arms, and soon became major and commandant of the national guards north of the Theiss. Whilst he was engaged in preventing the Croatian army from crossing the Danube, at the island of Csepel, below Pest, the wealthy Hungarian, Count Eugène Zichy fell into his hands, and Görgey caused him to be arraigned before a court martial on a charge of treason and immediately hanged.

After various successes over the Croatian forces, of which the most remarkable was that at Ozora, where 10,000 prisoners were taken, Görgey was appointed commander of the army of the Upper Danube, but, on the advance of Prince Alfred Windischgratz across the Leitha, he resolved to fall back, and in spite of the remonstrances of his political superior, Lajos Kossuth, he held to his resolution and retreated upon Waitzen. Here, irritated by what he considered undue interference with his plans, he issued (January 5, 1849) a proclamation throwing the blame for the recent want of success upon the government, thus virtually revolting against their authority.

Görgey retired to the Hungarian Erzgebirge and conducted operations on his own initiative. Meanwhile the supreme command had been conferred upon the Pole Dembinski, but the latter lost the Battle of Kápolna, at which action Görgey's corps arrived too late to take an effective part, and some time after this the command was again conferred upon Görgey. The campaign in the spring of 1849 was brilliantly conducted by him, and in a series of engagements, he defeated Windischgratz. In April he won the victories of Gödöllő, Isaszeg and Nagy Sarlo, relieved Komorn, and again won a battle at Ács or Waitzen. He failed to follow up his successes by taking the offensive against the Austrian frontier, contenting himself with reducing Buda, the Hungarian capital, in which he desired to re-establish the diet, and after effecting this capture he remained inactive for some weeks.

Meanwhile, at a diet held at Debrecen, Kossuth had formally proposed the dethronement of the Habsburg dynasty and Hungary had been proclaimed a republic. Görgey had refused the field-marshal's baton offered him by Kossuth and was by no means in sympathy with the new regime. However, he accepted the portfolio of minister of war, while retaining the command of the troops in the field. The Russians had now intervened in the struggle and made common cause with the Austrians; the allies were advancing into Hungary on all sides, and Görgey was defeated by Havi-rau at Perorl. Kossuth, seeing the impossibility of continuing the struggle, resigned his position as regent-president, and was succeeded by Görgey as military dictator with emergency powers, who had been fighting hard against the various columns of the enemy. Convinced that he could not break through the enemy's lines, he surrendered, with his army of 20,000 infantry and 2000 cavalry, to the Russian general Rudiger at Világos.

Görgey was not court martialled, as were his generals, but kept in confinement at Klagenfurt, where he lived, chiefly employed in chemical work, until 1867, when he was pardoned and returned to Hungary. The surrender, and particularly the fact that his life was spared while his generals and many of his officers and men were hanged or shot, led to his being accused of treason by public opinion. After his release he played no further part in public life. In 1885 an attempt by a large number of his old comrades to rehabilitate him was not favorably received in Hungary. After some years work as a railway engineer he retired to Visegrád, where he lived in retreat. For decades he had been considered a traitor, often humiliated in public places - but in the last years of his life, his very important role during the War and unique military talent became widely acknowledged by his compatriots.

General Görgey wrote a justification of his operations (Mein Leben und Wirken in Ungarn 1848-1859, Leipzig, 1852), an anonymous paper under the title Was verdanken wir der Revolution? (1875), and a reply to Kossuth's charges (signed Joh. Demar) in Budapesti Szemle, 1881, 25-26. Amongst those who wrote in his favor were Captain Stephan Görgey (1848-1849 bol, Budapest, 1885), and Colonel Aschermann (Ein offenes Wort in der Sache des Honved-Generals Arthur Görgey, Klausenburg, 1867).

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