Verhovayak Lapja, 1954 (37. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1954-04-07 / 4. szám
tions for the new approach were well matured. They seemed to realize that their potential authority was too great not to meet with all possible objections from / the Army Headquarters at Valley Forge. The Cavalry was, at least on paper, just as important as the Infantry, and so, if not in fact, in theory, and psychologically they had control over one half of Washington’s potential army. Also they were of too active a nature not to feel that at the cavalry headquarters, they were more bureaucrats than soldiers; they planned on paper, organized ideas and principles only, and there was still no Cavalry with which to act. They preferred action to the writing desk. Theories can be great but they wanted a living Cavalry. They wanted to train, above all, officers, without whom they could not make a Cavalry. Tneir new plan was clearly outlined in Pulaski’s already mentioned memorandum of February 4 on the formation of a Training Division of Hussars. They seemed to reason that such a Training Division, being more real than theorizing headquarters, would provide them with a better foundation on which to build a Cavalry. This way they would have been able to train and organize living men instead of figures; once they had the nucleus of real Cavalry it would have been only a question of time before it was enlarged and they could return to the headquarter’s command. They also realized that by resigning the command they would reduce their potentially too great authority and thus remove the reasons for all kinds of objections and resistance at Valley Forge. And how right they were! Pulaski’s resignation was accepted on March 20, and on March 28 the formation of a Pulaski Legion was sanctioned by Congress. A short week later Washington recommended Kovats as Colonel in-command of the Legion, and on his recommendation Congress made him Colonel within a week. 12 — letter and had been in military service for thirty-three years. This letter is really a historical document. At present it is in Philadelphia at the Library of the “American Philosophical Society” among the papers of Benjamin Franklin. This letter speaks for Kováts and for his cultural standing. In his letter to Franklin, he wrote in classical Latin: “Golden freedom can not be purchased with yellow gold.” He continued: “I, who have the honor to present this letter to Your Excellency, am also following the call of the Fathers of the Land, as the pioneers of freedom always did. I am a free man and a Hungarian. I was trained in the Royal Prussian Army and raised from the lowest rank to the dignity of a captain of the Hussars, not so much by luck and the mercy of chance, than by most diligent selfdiscipline and the virtues of my arms. The dangers and the bloodshed of a great many campaigns taught me how to mould a soldier and, when made, how to arm him and let him defend the dearest of the lands with his best ability under any conditions and developments of the war”. “I now am here of my own free will, having taken all the horrible hardships and bothers of this journey. I beg Your Excellency to grant me a passport and a letter of recommendation to the most benevolent Congress. “At last, awaiting your gracious answer, I have no wish greater than to leave soon, to be there where I am needed most, to serve and die in everlasting obedience... “Fidelissimus ad mortem.” (True unto death). We do not know Benjamin Franklin’s answer to this letter. Later events tend to show that Kováts arrived in America without the letter of recomendation to Congress. But anyhow he arrived sometime after the 13th of January, 1777 and before the end of that same year. It is more than just a matter of speculation to see what his American plans were. He was a professional soldier, a specialist in a branch of light cavalry, one of the few by his breeding, training and experience embodying the idea of the Magyar Hussars’. He knew that Washington had no cavalry in the professional sense. The four so-called mounted regiments, commanded by Colonels Moylan, — 5 —
