Hungarian Heritage Review, 1987 (16. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1987-08-01 / 8. szám
country. The news about Hussar units reached this continent in the 18th century via the numerous press reports from Europe, particularly from London, and the military works published in France and Prussia where numbers of officers (many of them high ranking) and men of Hungarian origin served in the Hussar regiments of those countries. Catholic Hungarians usually preferred the French service, the Calvinist and Lutheran Hungarians the Prussia of Frederic the Great. As a consequence, these "foreign Hussars" who were also political refugees and dissidents (especially their Hungarian officers) often found themselves fighting their former comrades-inarms. It was both a tragedy and glory of the Hungarian nation: brought nearly to complete destruction as an independent nation during 160 years of Turkish occupation of Hungary's central regions and the ensuing warfare between the German-Roman and the Ottoman empires on Hungarian ground, the nation did not cease to resist these annihilating forces, neither did she stop sending her best sons to foreign universities in her search for vital personal and cultural contacts, knowledge and support of all kind in her efforts to achieve freedom and independence. Many of these scholars ended up as professors at foreign universities, officials in the administrations of foreign countries, or (and this group is the most numerous) as officers or soldiers in the armies of foreign rulers, from Madrid to St. Petersburg. A prominent military man who offered his services for the cause of American independence was the Hussar officer Michael Kovats de Fabricy (1724-1779), Colonel Commandant of the Pulaski Legion in George Washington’s army. His achievements in training American light cavalry and initiating "Free Corps” tactics (known also as the precursor of modern guerilla warfare) in the American service, earned him the name of "Father of Modern American Cavalry”, so recognized by the United States Congress and the American Army. Prior to his sailing to America in early 1777, he was a retired Hussar major in the Austro-Hungarian army of Maria Theresa, during the years of 1762 to 1776. The previous 18 years of his life, however, were divided between service periods in the Austro-Hungarian, French and Prussian armies. In addition, while in retirement in Upper Hungary (present-day Slovakia), he achieved considerable success and recognition as a training officer of the voluntary troops of Polish patriots then organizing themselves for the liberation of their nation in a movement called the Confederation of Bar (so named after the place where it has been constituted). This was the time when Kovats met and trained his future superior in the American army, young Casimir Pulaski. Michael Kovats de Fabricy in the Service of the United States Hungarian historians conducting their research either in the United States (like Eugene Pivany, Edmund Vasvary and others) or in Hungary (such as Aladar Poka-Pivny and József Zachar) have cleared the ground around many unknown details of the life and deeds of Michael Kovats de Fabricy. We have almost full knowledge of his military career in the various European armies, of his private and public life in Hungary, and the motivation for his decision to join the cause of American independence. The key to all above is given in a letter written by him in Latin, on January 13, 1777, at Bordeaux, France, and mailed to Benjamin Franklin, United States envoy at Paris. Following a short description of his military life Kovats stated: "I am now here, of my own free will, having taken all the horrible hardships and bothers of this journey” (that |Muttgartan-1Americana- ■ — is, from Buda, Hungary, via Italy and France) "and I am willing to sacrifice myself wholly and faithfully as it is expected of an honest soldier facing the hazards and great dangers of the war, to the detriment of Joseph and as well for the freedom of your great Congress.” And, as he also indicated in the same letter, the Hungarian officer sailed for far-away America without further delay. This "Joseph” was the son of Maria Theresa, queen of Hungary and, after the death of her husband, German-Roman emperor Charles V, also empress over the Imperial domains. Since 1765, her son, Joseph was ruling, at the side of his mother, with the title of "Emperor” in full command of all the military forces of the Empire including Hungary. He was the one who changed his mother's opposition to the dismemberment of Poland in 1773, and was well known for his ambitions to defeat Prussia and to regain power over all German speaking lands of Europe forming a new, Habsburg-dominated German empire. (Later, following the death of Maria Theresa in 1780 when the son ascended to the throne as emperor — but without the constitutional recognition as king of Hungary because he was not willing to take the coronation oath which would have compelled him to uphold Hungary's constitution and the rights of the Hungarian nation, — he was branded even by Thomas Jefferson a "despote” for his treatment of his subjects in Belgium, then part of the Habsburg Empire.) Such a ruler could not be suffered by Michael Kovats de Fabricy, a former anti-Habsburg "freedom fighter”, commandant of a "Free Corps” and recipient of the highest military decoration in the Prussian army, the "Pour le Merit”, and, by his association with freedom loving Polish patriots, a supporter of Poland’s independence. Also, because of Joseph's announced plans to recall most of the —continued next page AUGUST 1987 HUNGARIAN HERITAGE REVIEW 13
