The Eighth Tribe, 1979 (6. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1979-04-01 / 4. szám
Page 4 THE EIGHTH TRIBE April, 1979 DR. ANDREW TIBOR UDVARDY, President The American-Hungarian Bicentennial Committee Patriatic Americans and Hungarians Members and Friends of the Colonel Kováts Historical Society 200 years ago, on May 11, 1779, Colonel Michael Kováts de Fabricy, Commander of the newly organized Continental cavalry, saved the City of Charleston, S.C. from British occupation. He was killed during that battle and buried where he fell, near the Citadel in Charleston. During the American Revolution, Charleston, S.C. was the largest and most active port of the South. Well fortified towards the sea, it repelled a British naval attack in 1776. It was General George Washington’s most vital life line to the outside world for the export of goods and import of military hardware. The loss of Charleston would have had fatal consequences for the revolutionary government. The British Headquarters was well aware of Charleston’s importance to General Washington and had made the strategic decision to attack the city in a pincér movement from the southern flank on land, where fortifications were inadequate. Almost 8,000 British soldiers, considered the best in the world, supported by Tory units from South Carolina, Georgia and as far as Virginia, occupied the peninsula. Almost 100 ships in the port and some 1,000 sailors were trapped within the city walls, when the City Fathers, in a desperate attempt to save their people from massacre and their city from destruction, had prepared on May 10, 1779, for surrender to the enemy the following morning, when Out of nowhere, a small cavalry unit broke through the city walls in a daring storm attack. The offensive warfare tactics employed by the continentals for the first time, and the physchological effect of surprise, caused the battle experienced British infantry to fall apart. The new fighting spirit of this cavalry unit broke the siege, the enemy withdrew. Michael Kováts de Fabricy, the Hungarian-born commanding colonel of the cavalry started the raid with extraordinary valor. By correctly evaluating the oncoming disaster, and his subsequent charge, undoubtedly, changed the future of 13 American colonies. His total personal commitment represents a turning point in the development of American freedom, as we enjoy it today. To quote Michael Kováts de Fabricy himself: “Golden Freedom cannot be purchased with yellow gold!'. o-o-o-o General Mark W. Clark, at the unveiling of the Kováts memorial in 1954 said: “We in Charleston and the Citadel feel a living kinship to Magyar history and especially to ts representative Colonel Kováts. It was here, only a few yards from the present site of the Citadel, that he was mortally wounded while defending our city in 1779, and he is buried where he felV'. A Hungarian by Birth An American by Choice A South Carolinian by Fate
