The Sun.
London, England, 1849-08-09 00:00:00

A USTIUA.

The Wiener Zeitung of August 3 contains an
anncuncement to the inhabitants of Austria that, in
consequence of
,the thinning of the ranks of the re-
serve battalions by the war in Hungary, a fresh levy
of troops will be made, to the extent of about fifteen
recruits from every 10,000 inhabitants.
The above-mentioned journal also contains the
official news of the junction in Transylvania of the
Russian and Austrian corps under the Generals
Luders and Clam Gallas. This junction took place
at Cronstadt, on the 12th and 15th of July, and on
the 15th General Luders advanced with the two
armies to Hermannstadt and the defiles of Rothen-
thurm. The latter position was first attacked and
forced, in spite of the obstinate resistance of the
Hungarians who defended it. Nine hundred of them
were forced to fly into Wallachia, were they were
disarmed. The Imperialists took three hundred pri-
soners and twelve pieces of artillery. On the 21st
inst. General Luders took possession of Hermann-
stadt, after routing the three hundred Hungarians
who held that place. It was
_expected that General
Luders would march upon Marosh Vasarkely, where
General Bem has taken up a formidable position, and
where the Imperialists intend to surround him.
General Bern, however, has, in the course of this
war, always managed to get surrounded, and when it
was thought no escape was possible, he suddenly
found means to foil his enemies, and to do them
more harm than they could ever have hoped to do
to him.
The city of Csongrad, the inhabitants of which
aided the Hungarians, has been sacked and burned by
flaynau.
A recent letter from the seat of war in Hungary
describes in considerable detail the formidable
auxiliaries the Magyar armies have found in the
wild population scattered over the vast steppes and
forests of the interior, particularly the horseherds,
or tenders of the troops of wild horses of the plains,
the swineherds, and fishermen. The first-named
of these are especially dreaded by Austrian troops,
on account of the extraordinary weapon they carry
and use with deadly skill. It is simply the whip
with which they select and catch any horse of the
herd they wish to tame and dispose of. The ap-
plication of it in war is quite a novelty. It has a
handle not more than two feet in length, while the
thong measures from fifteen to twenty ; a leaden
ball is fixed to the end of it, with smaller ones at
different distances from it, like shot on a fishing line.
When thrown it acts like a lasso, curling round man
or horse, or it strikes either to the earth with a
crushing blow. The horseherds (or Chykosz) are
so skilful in the use of this weapon, that at full
gallop they will strike an enemy with unerring cer-
tainty, on any part of the body they please. In skir-
mishes any isolated foot soldier, if he fires his musket
andj misses, is lost before he can attempt to reload—
the wild horseman rushes past, and with the sweep of
his ball-loaded thong stretches him lifeless on the
earth by a blow on the head. There are some thou-
sands of these men in the Hungarian armies, and
I, they are generally mixed with the light hussars and
sent against the heavy Austrian cavalry. They often
strike the officers from their horses with incredible
t dexterity. The wounds this weapon inflicts are

described as frightful. Before it was known
that these horseherds were serving in the
Hungarian ranks a great number of Cu-
rassiers were brought into l'esth, wounded in a
manner the military surgeons could not explain. The
injury was neither a cut nor a puncture, nor a gun-
shot wound, and the soldiers were for a long time
ashamed to own that it was caused by so ignoble a
weapon as a whip. Fortunately, it can only be used
where the horseman has ample space; in anything
like " close order" it would be as dangerous to friends
as foes. One of these men was lately taken pri-
soner at Wieselburg, and, probably to obtain an
exact power of the knowledge of his arm, he was
ordered to display his skill in the camp. A stuffed
figure was set up, the Austrian officers pointing out
the parts he was to strike while in full career. Twice
he did as directed, hut the third time introduced a
startling variation ; swinging his whip in a wide
circle he dashed his horse at a point of the line of
soldiers round the place of exercise, broke through
it, and was far on his way to the open fields in an
instant, untouched by" the volley of balls sent after
him. These swineherds (or kanasz) are generally
Servians; their weapon is a small axe, with a rather
long handle, called " fokosch," and they throw it with
such dexterity that at 80 or 100 paces they rarely
miss a man, and the blow is almost always fatal, as
the Austrian army surgeons can testify. The fisher-
men are employed in constructing bridges in their
own manner, on a sort of tubs, in a style which the
Austrians at first ridiculed accordingly ; ibut, though
rude, they were effective, and put together in a very
short time, and have proved of the greatest use in
the. Hungarian operations.