Battle of Debrecen
Part of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848
The Battle of Debrecen (by Mihály Zichy): Battle of Debrecen
Date 31 July 1849 Location Debrecen, Hungary Result Russian Victory
Belligerents
Hungarian Revolutionary Army	Russian Empire
Commanders and leaders
József Nagysándor	Ivan Paskevich Pavel Jakovlevich Kupriyanov (WIA)
Strength
Total: 11,338 men, 47 cannons I. corps: 8,838 men (61 infantry companies, 12 cavalry companies) 43 cannons Division of Col. János Korponay: 2,500 men (6+? infantry companies, 1 1/2 cavalry companies) 4 cannons	Total: 62,427 men, 301 cannons II. corps: 22,312 men (113 infantry companies, 33 cavalry companies) 122 cannons III. corps: 27,236 men (116 infantry companies, 44 cavalry companies) 112 cannons Other units: 12,879 men (59 infantry companies, 26 cavalry companies) 67 cannons
Casualties and losses
~1,901 men (dead, wounded and missing) 8 cannons	Total: 337 men (60 dead, 277 wounded) 205 wounded[1]

The Battle of Debrecen was fought on August 2, 1849, between the Hungarian Revolutionary Army and forces of the Russian Empire, which intervened on behalf of the Austrian Empire to suppress the Hungarian revolution. On 30 July 1849, the commander of the Hungarian Army of the Northern Danube, General Artúr Görgei split his army in two, while he and the main part of his army marched towards Arad, he ordered to the I corps under the leadership of József Nagysándor to flank him from West against the Russians, by marching parallelly with his troops towards Debrecen. Nagysándor's I. corps was attacked and defeated by the hugely outnumbering Russian main army under Marshal Ivan Paskevich. This battle enabled Görgei to win a distance of several days from the Russian army, creating the possibility for him to join his armies with the Hungarian troops concentrated in Southern Hungary, and to defeat the Austrian main army of Field Marshal Julius Jacob von Haynau, before the Russians arrived. It was not Görgei's fault that this plan did not materialize.

Background

After his retreat, between 17 and 29 July on the rout Vác-Balassagyarmat-Losonc-Rimaszombat-Miskolc-Tokaj, defeating in several defensive battles the Russian main forces,^[2] Czar, Nicholas I of Russia was impressed by Görgei's brilliant manoeuvers, comparing him twice to Napoleon,^[3] writing this to Paskevich:

The fact that Görgei, after retreating from Komárom, got first around our right then around our left-wing, making such a huge circle, then he arrived south and united with the main troops, blows my mind. And he managed to do all these against your 120,000 brave and disciplined soldiers.^[4]

During Görgei's daring march eastwards towards the Tisza, on the left bank of the river, the detachment of Colonel János Korponay tried to protect it from the eventual Russian attempts to cross it.^[5] His troops were 3,660 men (according to other sources 3,000) with 4 cannons, but from the 3,280 infantry only 1,110 had firearms, the rest being equipped with straightened scythes and spears.^[6] On 25 July the Russian detachment of Duke Gorchakov arrived on the bank of the Tisza at Poroszló. Korponay's too weak detachment was unable to prevent the crossing of the Russian detachment (8000 infantry soldiers and unknown number of cavalrymen), but at least he tried to slow their crossing with his artillery, but the fire of the Russian cannons forced them to retreat.^[7] Despite Korponay burned the bridge at Poroszló, the Russian detachment crossed the Tisza, then occupied Balmazújváros, heading towards Debrecen.^[7] On 26 July Gorchakov took Tiszafüred, spending the whole day there. The Russian II. corps arrived that day at Mezőkövesd, crossing the Tisza on 27.^[7] The III. Russian corps arrived on 27 to Tiszafüred, while the IV. corps left Miskolc, marching towards the same town.^[7] The IV. corps of Cheodayev too left the region of Miskolc, and headed towards Tiszafüred. Paskevich enthrusted Lieutenant General Pavel Hristoforovich Grabbe and Cavalry General Dmitriy Yerofeyevich Osten-Sacken with the pursuit of the Hungarian troops.^[7]

Hearing that many of the Russian troops crossed on the left bank of the Tisza, Görgei too gave the order to his three corps to march towards the river in order to cross it.^[7] Lieutenant General Grabbe tried to stop this, but the III. corps of General Károly Leiningen-Westerburg repulsed the Russians in the Battle of Gesztely.^[7] At 29 July General Artúr Görgei crossed the river Tisza at Tokaj, planning to march to Southern Hungary to Bánát region, where, according to Hungarian Government's order, all the Hungarian forces had to meet.^[8] On 30 in Nyíregyháza he split his army in two. He ordered to General József Nagysándor's I. corps to march on the rout of Hajdúhadház-Debrecen-Derecske-Berettyóújfalu, as a flank guard from the West for his troops (III. and VII. corps) which marched on the Nagykálló-Nyíradony-Vámospércs-Nagyléta-Kismarja.^[9] Three factors explain this decision of Görgei. The first was that after the Battle of Vác from 15 to 17 July the only Hungarian corps which was kept out of the continuous fights was the I. corps, the second one was that in this way the feeding of the army was easier, and the troops could move more quickly.^[9]

After arriving to Hajdúhadház General Nagysándor received the notification from Colonel János Korponay, the leader of the Hungarian irregular forces from Tiszántúl, that he had to retreat to Debrecen after the Russians attacked him with 15,000 soldiers.^[9] Nagysándor sent a strong cavalry unit to Debrecen, to move from there towards Balmazújváros, and find the enemy, but to avoid any direct confrontation with the Russians, instead of this to keep an eye on them, and send him reports about their movements.^[10] The general then ordered to his troops to march to Debrecen at 10 p.m.^[6] The I. corps chief of staff Major István Pongrácz reported on 1. August to Görgei that, in the night before the vanguard of the Russians entered Balmazújváros, mentioning that according to the eyewitnesses they are not very numerous, thus Nagysándor should wait for them in Debrecen and enter in battle with them.^[6] The Central Operations Bureau agreed to Pongrácz's proposal, adding that after the I. corps repulse the Russians, they must continue their retreat on the designated rout.^[6]

Prelude

At 8 a.m. on 2 August Pongrácz reported to the Central Operations Bureau that the I. corps arrived to Debrecen, and they are prepared to fight the 15,000 strong Russian troops, then, on the next day, to march towards Derecske.^[6] In Debrecen the detachment of irregulars led by Colonel János Korponay joined the I. corps.^[6]

The Hungarian cavalry units sent by Nagysándor towards Balmazújváros, met with an enemy cavalry unit, and finding them too strong, retreated to Debrecen.^[11] Then General Nagysándor, taking the lead of the Hungarian cavalry, attacked the Russian cavalry units, and chase them away.^[11]

According to József Bánlaky it was Görgei's order to attack the enemy, no matter its size.^[11] According to Attila Horváth Görgei did not gave the order to Nagysándor to attack the enemy, but to resist to Russians if they attacked.^[12] The cause of this misunderstanding was that the chief of the staff of the I. corps, Major István Pongrácz, in his memoirs written 18 years after the events, remembered wrongly Görgei's order, writing in the newspaper called Hon that Görgei gave him the order to attack the Russians, while the order of his commander sent to him before the battle was only to try to withstand if the enemy attacked.^[12] According to Bánlaky Nagysándor discussed with his officers what to do next.^[6] Nagysándor and Máriássy sustained Görgei's order, the commander of the cavalry, Colonel István Mesterházy was unsure, Bobich wanted to fight only if the enemy attacked, while Korponay and Pongrácz were against the attack.^[11] Seeing this disagreement among his officers, Nagysándor decided not to attack the Russians, but to remain alert all day, and to retreat in silence during the night.^[11] According to Máriássy's memoirs, they rode with Nagysándor to the outposts, where they spoke with the officers of the Russian vanguards, who invited them to the five o’clock tea.^[11] After the muster parade of the outposts, at 11 a.m., Nagysándor gave up the command to Bobich, and together with Máriássy, Pongrácz and other officers he went in the city, to a restaurant, but they barely started the meal, when they heard the Russian gun shots, signaling the start of the battle, so they immediately rushed to their posts.^[11]

On 1 August Paskevich with his troops gathered at Csege, departed to Balmazújváros, after sending at Haynau's demand 4 companies of Uhlans with 50 Cossacks and 4 cannons towards Törökszentmiklós in order to threaten the back and side of the Hungarians.^[11] After arriving there, Paskevich sent one raiding party towards Hajdúböszörmény and another one towards Debrecen. The first raiding party did not found any Hungarians at Hajdúböszörmény, while the other found Hungarian troops to a mile from Balmazújváros.^[11] Hearing this Paskevich sent General David Osipovich Bebutov with two Muslim cavalry companies and one company of Caucasian riders towards Debrecen to learn more about the Hungarian troops there. On the dawn of 2 August, this unit reported that there are Hungarian troops in Debrecen, but they cannot say their exact numbers.^[11] Nagysándor too was unable to acquire precise information from Mesterházy's and his own cavalry raids and the small clashes with the Russian cavalry units, which ensued between them and Bubutov's troops. From the strength of Bebutov's raiders, he taught that only 15,000 Russian soldiers are heading toward Debrecen, so he decided to start a battle with them.^[13] Although he heard some reports that the Russians were much more numerous than this, around 30,000, he renounced sending another reconnaissance units to make sure about the strength of the enemy, which in reality was more than 62,000 soldiers and 298 guns.^[13] If he would have tried harder to find out the real strength of the enemy, he could have avoided this grave danger, and retreat in time. Paskevich departed towards Debrecen on 2 July in the morning in battle formation, with the II. corps on the right side of the road, while the III. corps on its left, on its outer flank with their cavalry divisions, and with the 12. infantry division with two subordinate cavalry regiments as a reserve.^[11]

Opposing forces

Nagysándor's information about the Russian troops size was wrong. Instead of a Russian detachment, he faced the main army (the II. and III. corps and the 12. infantry division), led by Marshal Ivan Paskevich, the Russian main commander.^[6] So his 11,300 ill-equipped soldiers faced at least 62,500 Russian elite troops.^[6]

The Hungarian army^[14][a]

I. corps;
Commander Major General József Nagysándor,
Chief of staff: Major István Pongrácz

The I. Hungarian corps led by General József Nagysándor, together with the division of Colonel János Korponay had in total 12,124 soldiers, 43 cannons, and 4 Congreve rockets.
Its important to mention that the bulk of Korponay's division was made of unarmed conscripts and guerillas without fire arms, which could not be used in the battle.^[16]

The Russian army^[19]

Commander Field Marshal Ivan Paskevich,
Chief of staff: General of the Artillery Mikhail Dmitrievich Gorchakov
Commander of the artillery: General of the Artillery Yakov Yakovlevich Gillenschmidt
Ataman of the Cossack Regiments: Lieutenant General Mikhail Mikhaylovich Kuznetsov.

The Russian army was composed of the II., III., and IV. corps, having in total 62,383 soldiers and 298 cannons. They outnumbered the Hungarians five to one regarding the number of the soldiers, and more than six to one regarding the number of the cannons.^[16]

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