page_title: Battle of Pered
section_title: Prelude
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Pered / Prelude
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the region in which the Battle of Pered took place
context_page_description: The Battle of Pered, fought on 20–21 June 1849, was one of the battles which took place in the Summer Campaign of the Hungarian War of Independence from 1848 to 1849, fought between the Hungarian Revolutionary Army and the Habsburg Empire helped by Russian troops. The Hungarian army was led by General Artúr Görgei, while the imperial army by Lieutenant field marshal Julius Jacob von Haynau. After several preliminary minor battles of the Hungarian and Austrian troops along the Vág river, in which the attacking Hungarians could not achieve a success, Görgei took the command of his troops, and after receiving reinforcements, at 20 June, put his troops to attack again towards West. Although the II. Hungarian army corps occupied in heavy fights the village of Pered, the other two corps were unsuccessful, and could not advance. The angered Görgei removed the commander of the III. corps, General Károly Knezić because of his inactivity, and Colonel Lajos Asbóth, the commander of the II. corps who, in contrast to Knezić, was the only commander who successfully accomplished his duties.
context_section_description: Görgei had at his disposition the following troops to attack the imperial army: the I., II., III. corps and a part of the VIII. corps, which were totally 32,907, or according to other sources 31,348 soldiers, with 143 batteries. The plan was to attack along the Vág river, on a terrain fragmented with hills, woods, rivers, marshes, which did not make possible a quick advancement of the Hungarians, but prevented the enemy to use its numerical superiority, hoping also to force the Austrian troops south to the Danube, to stop their attack there towards Győr and Komárom. 
   
   First the II. corps had to start the attack, crossing the Little Danube at Guta, than building a bridge across the river at Aszódpuszta, than advancing across the Little Danube and the Vág, to build two bridges on the latter at Farkasd and Negyed. After this the III. corps will cross too the Vág river advancing towards Galánta. The left wing of the attacking corps had to be covered by the Kosztolányi brigade of the VIII. corps. The I. corps had to show activity before Sempte and Szered divert the attention, thus preventing the imperial brigades to help their attacked comrades from South. This plan was had many problems. The officers from the Central Operational Bureau which elaborated it, were not aware of the fact that between the Vág and the Little Danube, the terrain is very marshy, and because of this only the ramparts could be used to go from one village to another. This made the task of the attacking army almost impossible to fulfill. The other problem of the plan was that it put all the responsibility of the success of the military actions on the II. corps "shoulders", because in the case of an unsuccessful attack of them against Királyrév and Zsigárd condemned the III. corps to inactivity.
  On 16 of June, the II. corps commanded by Colonel Lajos Asbóth started their attack, and occupied Zsigárd, Királyrév and Negyed, but than the imperial counterattack with superior troops forced them to retreat on their initial positions. One unit of the II. corps managed to build a bridge across the Vág at Negyed, and defended it against the enemy attacks. This could have been an occasion to the III. corps led by General Károly Knezić to cross Vág and to try to fulfill their tasks according to the battle plan, but the Hungarian General refused to move, despite the demands of his officers. The attack of the I. corps against the imperials entrenched on the Eastern banks of the Vág at Sempte resulted in a grave defeat. The Hungarian Kosztolányi division which was in Csallóköz advanced to Patas, where it took position. So the Hungarian attack of 16 June ended mostly unsuccessful. Hearing this, Görgei decided to order another attack on 20 June.
  In the meanwhile at 19 June, Haynau ordered to his troops to cross the Danube for the general attack on the southern bank of the Danube against Győr, but in order to hide his plans, ordered to his troops which were still on the northern banks, to repulse the Hungarian attack on the Vág's valley. So the II. corps together with the reserve (IV.) corps to occupy the banks of Vág, making a bridgehead at Sempte. In the same time he sent the Panyutyin division, from Szenc to Diószeg to support the reserve corps. On 18 June the Pott and the Theissing brigades of the II. corps received order to do a reconnaissance-in-force towards Alsószeli, than on 20 Wohlgemuth planned with these two brigades to advance towards Negyed and Királyrév, when the Hungarian attack started. Lieutenant General Ludwig von Wohlgemuth was named the commandment of the Austro-Russian forces which faced Görgei's troops.  On 19 April that year Wohlgemuth suffered a severe defeat from the Hungarians in the Battle of Nagysalló, so at 21 June he could repair his former mistake.
caption: Map of the region in which the Battles of Zsigárd and  Pered took place
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