Battle of Temesvár The Battle of Temesvár ( now Timişoara , in Romania ) was a battle in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 , fought on 9 August 1849 between the Austrian Empire and Hungarian Revolutionary Army supplemented by Polish volunteers . The Austrians were led by Julius Jacob von Haynau , while the Hungarians were led by Józef Bem who arrived at the eleventh hour from Transylvania . The Austrians were victorious . The Hungarians had only their southern division here , and although they had slightly more men than the Austrians , they lacked experience and good equipment . Henryk Dembiński , the leader of this Hungarian division , retreated from Szeged just before the arrival of the army of Julius Jacob von Haynau , where the Hungarians had prepared defence lines . Dembiński was relieved of his command , and Lajos Kossuth asked József Bem to step in . The Hungarians were stationed at the stronghold of Temesvár ( now Timişoara , Romania ) when they were attacked from Temesvár Castle too . The Hungarians did well for a while , but when Bem fell from his horse they could not hold the Austrian cavalry . Pretext . Henryk Dembiński , the originator of the idea to join forces at Szeged , became the supreme commander of the southern Hungarian army , even though Antal Vetter had a chance of getting this post . Dembiński commanded little respect because he retreated in 1831 and it seemed that he couldn ' t change . He essentially retreated from Szeged and left a legion with only four cannon at Újszeged . He was supreme commander of the Hungarian army at the Battle of Kápolna and the Battle of Szőreg , and lost both . The Hungarian army left their positions , because they could push the Austrian army , which was crossing Újszeged , towards the River Tisza , but it didn ' t happen . Even though the Hungarians were defending their positions , Haynau crossed the Tisza to Újszeged without resistance . Dembiński stationed his army between Maros and Szőreg and Haynau started to move towards the Hungarian army . There was a small chance the Hungarian army could win if the Austrian army sent its cavalry against the Hungarian artillery or if Dembiński attacked the Austrian foot . But Dembiński was inactive even though the Hungarian cavalry defeated the Austrian cavalry ' s attacks and the Hungarian artillery defended their positions too . After the Hungarian army lost the Battle of Szőreg , Prime Minister Bertalan Szemere gave orders to Dembiński to retreat towards Arad ( now in Romania ) because they wanted him to fight there . That position had many advantages : Dembiński retreated to Temesvár while the Italian legion , under the command of Monti Alessandro , helped the Hungarian army ' s retreat . The Hungarians were tired and had low morale when they arrived at Temesvár on 9 August . József Bem was at Temesvár when they arrived , and he became the new supreme commander of the Hungarian army . Battle . Fight for better position . Hungarian plan . The Hungarian army ’ s position was not fortunate . At Kisbecskerek ( now Becicherecu Mic , Romania ) there were some cavalry and 4 cannon against the Austrian army . Kmety ’ s legion ’ s became the left flank at Szakálháza , on the northern east was Colonel László Gál ’ s 10th legion , Major - general Richard Guyon with his 4th legion was in the centrum and Major - general Arisztid Dessewffy ’ s 9th legion was the left flank . Most of the centrum and left flank were stationed in the Csóka and Vadász forests . Vécsey ’ s 5 th legion surrounded Temesvár . From this legion most of the foot joined in Guyon ’ s legion because of Bem ’ s order . The Hungarian army couldn ’ t retreat towards Temesvár because the Austrian army was defending the way to the city . Austrian plan . Haynau didn ’ t expect any fight on this day and wanted to move his legion to Kisbecskerek . Franz Schlik and his first legion had to advance to Vinga ( now in Romania ) to block the Arad - Temesvár route . Franz Liechtenstein and his legion had to occupy Hodony and Mercyfalva ( now Sânandrei , Romania ) . Georg Heinrich Ramberg and his 3rd legion had to occupy Kisbecskerek and Szakállháza . Ludwig von Wallmoden - Gimborn and his cavalry had to advance towards Temesvár and Fjodor Szergejevics Panutyin ' s 9th Russian legion had to occupy Kisbecskerek too . The fight . The Wallmoden legion bumped into the Hungarian rearguard around 8 . 30 am . After a short cannon fight the Hungarians had to retreat in the direction of River Nyárád . After a short while the 3rd legion arrived to Kisbecskerek . Haynau with the Russian legion and artillery also arrived Kisbecskerek and ordered his legions to advance towards the Hungarians and attack them . After that Haynau saw the Hungarians army was advancing towards his legion , he gave the order to attack the Hungarians : he sent 12 cannon . Bem ordered six cavalry troops and one cannon to attack Haynau . It was successful and the Austrians had to retreat . Furthermore Haynau ’ s legion mixed up the advancing Russian army . Haynau attacked back with fourteen cavalry troops and sent an order to Liechtenstein that he had to advance to Szentandrás ( now Sânandrei , in Romania ) and attack the right Hungarian flank . Bem ’ s artillery was too enthusiastic and used up their munitions quickly . When he sent for more munitions , Bem did not know that Dembiński moved the spare munitions to Lugos ( now Lugoj , Romania ) , so Bem gave the order to Kmety to move forward on the left flank . Kmety sent his cavalry against the Austrians but they defended themselves . Another Hungarian troop surrounded the Austrians and made them to retreat . At this time there were 120 Hungarian cannon and 108 Austrian canon . The great cannon fight stopped immediately after a while because the Hungarians didn ’ t have more munitions . Haynau realized this and ordered the Austrians to move forward in the hope that Liechtenstein ’ s reinforcement would arrive soon . This happened around 5 pm but it was not the same how Haynau had imagined because Liechtenstein ’ s army was divided and arrived from two directions . Liechtenstein ’ s army started attack the Hungarians from the front and the side . The Hungarian army had to retreat in the direction of the River Nyárád . General Mór Perczel tried to help to the Hungarians and sent his 9th legion to Újbesenyő ( now Dudeştii Noi , Romania ) . But because no one wanted to command this legion they also retreated to Nyárád . Unfavourable turn . Bem ordered Kmety to advance while he went to the right flank . But he fell off his horse and got injured and it meant that there were no one who could conduct the whole Hungarian army . Dessewffy tried to stop Liechtenstein with his troops and 3 cannon , but the Austrian army was stronger and the 4th and 9th legions started to retreat . Dessewffy had to retreat too , to avoid the Austrian army cutting him off . The Austrian army pursued the Hungarians . Retreat . Perczel then arrived at the Hungarian rearguard to attack the pursuing Austrian army . They started to fire at the Austrian army , who returned fire more strongly , and the Hungarians started to panic . There were about 30 , 000 men who said they would desert after the first gunshot . The 9th Hungarian legion shrank from 16 , 000 men to 7 , 000 . Haynau captured about 6 , 000 to 7 , 000 men , the largest number of captives since the Winter Campaign . Aftermath . There was no longer any chance the Hungarians could win the revolution , and after the defeat it became obvious that the Hungarians could gain no advantage from their capitulation . Every other Hungarian attempt to win a battle was unsuccessful . The battle was the last major one in the Hungarian Revolution . During the retreat the Hungarian army broke up and just only half of it arrived at Lugos . Haynau left Temesvár . After the battle it was impossible to continue the revolution and the Hungarians formally declared their surrender at Világos ( now Şiria , Romania ) .