Szatmári Gizella: Signs of Remembrance - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2005)
Corporal Maria Mária Lebstück, the heroine of Jenő Huszka’s operetta, lived an adventurous, romantic life and served as a first lieutenant. Although born in Zagreb as a distant relation of Jelacic, Miss Lebstück was brought up in the Vienna house of an uncle, a high-ranking officer in the Austrian army. In Vienna, she had joined the revolution, where, as early as 13 March 1848, she was wounded. Escaping from the city she transdressed once again cleverly to exploit her being a woman and as such be escorted by a gallant "revenue overseer” to the Hungarian city of Győr. Here she obtained a uniform and joined the German legion. She was disappointed, however, in the courage of her brothers-in-arms in this unit. Acting on her "determination to fight for liberty”, she asked to be transferred to the Tirol Riflemen where she was later promoted to "chief rifleman" in recognition of her brave conduct in the battle of Besztercebánya on 17 January 1849. Her unit gave cover to General Gör- gey’s troops marching into Eperjes and then Kassa. In her memoirs she gives the following vivid eyewitness account of the river-crossing at Branyiszkb, a manoeuvre she participated in: "Cannons were booming overhead whilst the cavalry kept worrying our troops, killing entire lines. The casualties fell down on those behind them, and many were smashed to death by the rocks rolling down. The Austrians threw logs of wood on the besieging forces cutting whole corridors among their ranks.” She also recalls smaller episodes as the one involving herself marching before the general in a parade when, "at some trifling incident I began to laugh [she was only 19 at the time!, for which the general disciplined me with eight hours in leg-irons." In the battle of Kápolna she "earned the golden sword-knot”: she was promoted to lieutenant by General Dembinszky right there on the battlefield. But then a Dr Lumnitzer, the medical officer attending to her wounds, discovered she was a woman. In spite of that, she carried on fighting. At the town of Hatvan she was already a member of the 9th Miklós Hussars and was put in charge of transporting twenty-three wagonloads of ammunition to the city of Komárom, and she had been promoted to the rank of battery-commander when Buda was liberated. She appeared in her women's clothes at the banquet following the victory, which almost proved to be a fatal mistake: she was taken for a spy and Görgey wanted to have her shot on the spot. She donned into her T5
