page_title: First Battle of Komárom (1849)
section_title: Battle
hierarchical_section_title: First Battle of Komárom (1849) / Battle
caption_attribution_description: English: A cuirassier officer heavily wounded in the Battle of Komárom
context_page_description: The First battle of Komárom was one of the most important battles of the Hungarian War of Independence, fought on 26 April 1849, between the Hungarian and the Austrian Imperial main armies, which some consider ended as a Hungarian victory, while others say that actually it was undecided. This battle was part of the Hungarian Spring Campaign. After the revolutionary army attacked and broke the Austrian siege of the fortress, the Imperials, having received reinforcements which made them numerically very superior to their enemies, successfully counterattacked, but after stabilising their situation, they retreated towards Győr, leaving the trenches and much of their siege artillery in Hungarian hands. By this battle the Hungarian revolutionary army relieved the fortress of Komárom from a very long imperial siege, and forced the enemy to retreat to the westernmost margin of the Kingdom of Hungary. After this battle, following a long debate among the Hungarian military and political leaders about whether to continue their advance towards Vienna, the Habsburg capital, or towards the Hungarian capital, Buda, whose fortress was still held by the Austrians, the second option was chosen.
context_section_description: During the night of 25/26 April, at 2 o'clock in the morning, the Hungarian I, III and VIII corps (this latter being the garrison of the fortress) crossed the Danube on the raft bridge they had constructed, and launched a dawn attack against the enemy entrenchments around the fortress on the south bank of the river, occupying them after heavy fighting. Kiss’s brigade occupied the Sandberg, capturing the enemy siege artillery, destroying the Hohenlohe battalion which was defending it, and capturing 4 officers and 350 men. Sulcz’s brigade occupied Újszőny, and when Guyon’s troops followed on behind them as planned, Lederer’s Imperial brigade conducted a fighting withdrawal to behind the Concó creek. Dipold’s brigade also did its duty, pushing back the imperials towards Mocsa. During these actions two Austrian rearguard companies were also taken prisoner by the Hungarian Coburg Hussar. The three brigades of Simunich’s corps were forced to retreat on every front.
  At 6 o'clock, thecommander-in-chief Hungarian army, General Artúr Görgei arrived on the battlefield, and ordered his troops to continue the advance. He himself commanded the right wing advancing in the Ács, forest, while the left wing led by General György Klapka advanced between Mocsa and Ószőny. After the Klapka’s troops had advanced to Ószőny, pushing back Liebler’s brigade, the latter, reinforced by Lieutenant General Franz Schlik’s cavalry, launched a counterattack. This made the Hungarians retreat, but when it came within range of the Hungarian guns in the fortress of Komárom, the cannonade from these caused heavy losses to the Imperial brigade, forcing it to fall back to its initial position. The center commanded by General János Damjanich had to advance across the open fields around Herkály and Csém, but could not start its assault until 9 o'clock, because before doing so it had to cross an area criss-crossed by the imperials’ trenches, which slowed its advance.
  At this point Simunich was on the verge of suffering a heavy defeat, but he was saved by the intervention of the Imperial II and III Corps. These had retreated from Buda and Pest, as ordered by Welden five days before, after the battle of Nagysalló. Schlik, the commander of III Corps, took overall command of the Imperial army, and at noon he ordered a general attack. Until that moment the Hungarian and the imperial forces had been roughly equal (around 14,000 troops of the Hungarian I and III Corps against similar numbers from Simunich's besieging army), but the addition of Schlik’s III Corps created a 2:1 superiority for the Austrians.
  Damjanich reported the arrival of Schlik's troops to Görgei, who therefore stopped his troops’ advance and retreated fighting to the Monostor height. Görgei ordered Damjanich to retreat slowly into the Austrian siege trenches around Komárom that had been taken by the Hungarian dawn attack, and to resist there at all cost. 
  On the Hungarian left wing, the Hungarian advance covered by the fortress artillery was stopped by the enemy cavalry, and pushed back to the so-called Star Fort of Komárom. Liebler’s brigade’s retreat was pursued towards Nagyigmándby two regiments of Hungarian hussars led by Major General József Nagysándor, supported by the 47th battalion and a 12-pounder battery. These were attacked from two sides by 4 enemy heavy cavalry regiments, and the Hungarian cavalry were in danger of being obliterated, but the infantry battalion quickly formed square and stopped the imperial cavalry. The infantry of the Hungarian left wing retreated in square formation while firing towards the center. The 26th Hungarian battalion carried out a bayonet charge which forced the imperial heavy cavalry to retreat, saving the 47th battalion from a difficult situation, and holding out until Damjanich sent the Ferdinánd Hussars to help them. With this the Hungarians managed to halt the powerful imperial advance on their left wing, so the battle here continued as an artillery duel until they ran out of cannonballs. One of the adjutants of the Hungarian headquarters, Kálmán Rochlitz
caption: An Austrian cuirassier officer heavily wounded in the Battle of Komárom
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