page_title: Battle of Isaszeg (1849)
section_title: Battle
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Isaszeg (1849) / Battle
caption_attribution_description: English: The situation at 17,30 o'clock. Red - the Austrian troops, Blue - the Hungarian troops.
context_page_description: The Battle of Isaszeg took place in the Spring Campaign of the Hungarian War of Independence from 1848 to 1849, between the Austrian Empire and the Hungarian Revolutionary Army supplemented by Polish volunteers. The Austrian forces were led by Field Marshal Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz and the Hungarians by General Artúr Görgei. The battle was one of several engagements between the Hungarian Revolutionary Army and the Imperial counter-revolutionary main army and was one of the turning points of the Hungarian War of Independence.
  The Hungarian victory precipitated a series of setbacks to the Habsburg Imperial Armies in April–May 1849, forcing them to retreat from occupied central and western Hungary towards the western border and convinced the Hungarian National Assembly to issue the Hungarian Declaration of Independence. Windisch-Grätz was dismissed from the leadership of the Imperial forces in Hungary on 12 April 1849, six days after the defeat.
context_section_description: On 6 April Görgei gave orders for his troops to move and occupy the forming up points ready for the Hungarian attack due the next day. He would be in Kóka, 15 km (9.3 mi) from Isaszeg. When the troops moved to the places where they were supposed to wait, they encountered Austrian soldiers and an encounter battle began; both commanders were surprised, causing haste and confusion. Gáspár moved with his 14,258 troops and 66 guns to Aszód, Tura and Bag on the bank of the river Galga at 12:30 p.m. He sent Colonel György Kmety with a division to occupy Hévízgyörk, where they stumbled on Schlik's cavalry; after the Austrians retreated, the Hungarians halted. Gáspár did not move his troops forward even after hearing gunfire, claiming that he was obeying the orders he had received from Görgei the previous day to remain in that position until the following day, which meant that III Corps, the largest of the four Hungarian corps (I: 10,817 men, II: 8,896, III: 11,592), was absent throughout the battle.
  At the same time, Klapka's and Damjanich's two corps arrived in the vicinity of Királyerdő (King's Forest) east of Isaszeg. Here Damjanich's troops attacked the rear brigade of Austrian I Corps, chasing it out of the forest to Isaszeg and setting fire to the forest in several places. Then Klapka's troops attacked Major-General Franz Adam Grammont von Linthal's brigade, chasing it towards Isaszeg. The Hungarian 34th Battalion (István Zákó) and 28th Battalion (János Bobich) arrived but the superiority of Austrian I Corps, with its three infantry brigades and three cavalry brigades caused the two battalions many losses and forced them to retreat towards the woods. The attack of the Austrian cuirassiers was finally repelled by the fire of Klapka's 44th and 47th battalions, then they were also attacked from the flank by the Bódog Báthory Sulcz's brigade and finally the two Hungarian battalions chased the Austrian kaiserjägers out from Királyerdő woods. The Hungarian troops were prevented from leaving the woods by the fire of the Croatian seressaners, positioned on a height near Isaszeg. At 2:00 p.m. the units of Damjanich's III Corps crossed the wood, and after chasing Daniel Rastić's brigade from the forest, positioned themselves at the western end of it. Rastić retreated across the Rákos creek, where together with Schultzig's division, which had been sent to help by Jelačić, he repelled the attack of Zákó's brigade of Klapka's corps. This event also threw Bobich's brigade of the same corps into disarray, causing them to retreat.
  At this moment Klapka, a very capable Hungarian general and one of the heroes of the Hungarian war of independence, inexplicably lost his head and left his commanders to their own devices. One of them, János Bobich, started an attack but was repelled by enemy fire. Damjanich sent one brigade to reinforce Klapka and another to the northern end of the forest. He then positioned his guns on high ground and his cavalry in the angle of the forest, between him and Klapka in the middle of the Hungarian front. Damjanich intended to attack to relieve the pressure on Klapka but the latter, feeling that his situation was hopeless, started to withdraw his troops before help arrived. Damjanich remained and when he saw the Austrian troops pursue Klapka, sent one of his best units, the 9th Battalion, together with the 3rd Battalion, to help Klapka. Klapka's two brigades (Zákó and Bobich), together with Damjanich's two battalions counter-attacked and pushed Jelačić's troops onto the heights on the right bank of the Rákos creek.
  Aulich's II Corps stood still in Dány and Zsámbok, despite the fact that he had received a message from Damjanich to hurry to the battlefield. Aulich, like Gáspár, insisted on obeying Görgei's orders of the day before to remain in position. After orders from the Chief of General Staff, Lieutenant-Colonel József Bayer, he finally ordered his troops to move towards Isaszeg. At 3:00 p.m. the four Hungarian corps were fighting in an uncoordinated manner; Görgei was still in Kóka, ignorant of what was going o
caption: The situation at 5:30 p.m.. Red - the Austrian troops, Blue - the Hungarian troops.
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