page_title: Battle of Nagysalló
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Nagysalló / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: The region in which the Battle of Nagysalló took place in a map from the middle of the 19th century
context_page_description: The Battle of Nagysalló, fought on 19 April 1849, was one of the battles between the Habsburg Empire and the Hungarian Revolutionary Army during the Spring Campaign in the Hungarian War of Independence from 1848–1849, fought between the Habsburg Empire and the Hungarian Revolutionary Army. Until 1918 Nagysalló was part of the Kingdom of Hungary; nowadays it is a village in Slovakia, its Slovakian name being Tekovské Lužany. This was the second battle in the second phase of the campaign, whose aim was to break the imperial siege of the fortress of Komárom and at the same time encircle the Habsburg imperial forces headquartered in the Hungarian capitals of Buda and Pest. The Hungarians routed the imperial corps led by Lieutenant General Ludwig von Wohlgemuth, which had come from the Habsburg Hereditary Lands, to help the imperial army sent to suppress the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and independence.
context_section_description: After the Battle of Vác the Hungarian army continued its advance in accordance with the plan for the second phase of the Spring Campaign as developed on 7 April.  According to this plan the Hungarian army was to split: General Lajos Aulich with the Hungarian II Corps, and Colonel Lajos Asbóth's division remained demonstrating in front of Pest to make the imperials believe the whole Hungarian army was there; this would divert the Imperials’ attention from the north, where the real Hungarian attack was to start with I, III and VII Corps moving west along the northern bank of the Danube via Komárom, to relieve it from the imperial siege. Kmety’s division of VII Corps was to cover the three corps’ march. After I and III corps had occupied Vác, Kmety was then to secure the town while they and the two remaining divisions of VII Corps were to advance to the Garam river, then head south to relieve the northern section of the Austrian siege of the fortress of Komárom. After this, they were to cross the Danube and relieve the southern section of the siege. In the event that all of this was successfully completed, the imperials had only two choices: to retreat from Middle Hungary towards Vienna, or to face encirclement in Pest and Buda by the Hungarians. This plan was very risky (as was the first phase of the Spring Campaign too) because if Windisch-Grätz discovered that there was only one Hungarian corps left in front of Pest, he could attack and destroy Aulich's troops, thus easily cutting the main Hungarian army's lines of communication, and even occupy Debrecen, the seat of the Hungarian Revolutionary Parliament and the National Defense Committee (the interim government of Hungary), or alternatively he could encircle the three corps advancing to relieve Komárom. 
   Although the president of the National Defense Committee (interim government of Hungary), Lajos Kossuth, who went to the Hungarian headquarters at Gödöllő after the battle of Isaszeg, wanted a direct attack on Pest, he was finally convinced by the Hungarian commander-in-chief, Artúr Görgei that his and the other generals’ plan was better. To help to ensure the Hungarian army's success, the National Defense Committee sent 100 wagonloads of munitions from Debrecen. In the Battle of Vác on 10 April the Hungarian III Corps under General János Damjanich defeated Ramberg's division led by Major General Christian Götz, who was mortally wounded. Even after this battle, the imperial high command under Field Marshal Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz was unsure whether the main Hungarian army had in front of Pest or had already moved north to relieve Komárom. They still believed it was possible that only a secondary force had attacked Vác and moved towards the besieged Hungarian fortress. When Windisch-Grätz finally seemed to grasp what was really happening, he wanted to make a powerful attack against the Hungarians outside Pest on 14 April, then to cross the Danube at Esztergom and cut off the force which was marching towards Komárom. However, his corps commanders, General Franz Schlik and Lieutenant Field Marshal Josip Jelačić refused to obey his orders, so his plan which could have caused serious problems for the Hungarian armies was never realized.
  Windisch-Grätz sent the order to Lieutenant General Ludwig von Wohlgemuth to use the reserve corps formed from available imperial troops from Vienna, Styria, Bohemia and Moravia to stop the Hungarian army's westward advance to Komárom. But by the time this happened, Windisch-Grätz was no longer in Hungary, because in the meantime on 12 April he was relieved of his command by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria Feldzeugmeister Ludwig von Welden, the former military governor of Vienna, was designated to replace him but until Welden arrived, Windisch-Grätz had to hand over to Lieutenant Field Marshal Josip Jelačić as interim commander-in-chief of the imperial armies in Hungary. But this change at the head of the imperial forces brought neither lucidity nor organization to the imperial high command, because the first thing Jelačić did 
caption: The region in which the Battle of Nagysalló took place in a map from the middle of the 19th century
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