Hungarian Heritage Review, 1987 (16. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1987-08-01 / 8. szám
jHungarian-jAmertcana retired officers to active service in preparation for new campaigns against both Turkey and Prussia, Kovats had no other choice as an honest soldier true to his own self but to leave the Austrian Empire and to seek service somewhere else where the future could promise him a victory of his avowed ideals: human freedom and national independence. The only land where he could nurse any hopes for such promises was an independent, democratic United States of America. For several reasons, however, Kovats’ letter could not be forwarded by Benjamin Franklin, neither could the American diplomat initiate any recommendation on his own. The most important reasons were the, by then, very angry and repeated reactions by General Washington to the employment of any more of the foreign (mostly French) officers under his command who, for higher rank and more substantial pay, were offering their swords for the liberation of the American “colonists” from the rule of Britian. The other reason was the hope on the part of Franklin and of other American diplomatic representatives in Europe that, the queen of France being a daughter of Maria Theresa, and, thus, a sister of Joseph, the future almighty emperor of the Habsburg Empire, (who, for some mistaken reasons, was identified by the progressive French personalities maintaining close contacts with Franklin with the cause of reforms in France and Europe in general), they might enlist Austria’s support for the American cause, even if not to the same degree as they managed to achieve it with France. No matter what, a letter by an obscure, rebellious Hungarian officer who declared to fight “for the detriment of Joseph”, could not be forwarded to the American Congress by Benjamin Franklin, the best American diplomat in Paris. Consequently, Kovats' letter remained among the many other dormant pieces of Franklin's European correspondence. Besides, the Hungarian officer has left Europe without having presented himself in person to the American envoy. Later, with a few lines of introduction by Major General Joseph Spencer of Providence, Rhode Island, (dated April 30, 1777), Kovats paid his respect to the Commander-in- Chief at his headquarters in Philadelphia. The meeting did not bring the positive results the Hungarian officer was hoping for. As Washington indicated in his reply to Spencer on May 17, he has forwarded Spencer’s recommendation to Congress but without any positive support of his own because, owing partly to mistakes made by the interpreter, some details in the past of Kovats appeared to be contradictory. According to reports, Kovats functioned as a voluntary recruiting officer for a Pennsylvania German unit during the summer; then, early in the fall, he visited several settlements of the so-called Moravian Order of Lutheran German Pietists who had their center in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, because, as stated by the “Moravian Diary”, members of both the male and female branches of the order knew him either in person or heard about the Hungarian officer through their own channels to Europe. In a few months, following Pulaski’s fiasco as commander of the cavalry units in Washington’s army, Kovats’ excellent personal contacts with members of the Moravian Order and, in general, with the German speaking population of upper Pennsylvania, came as a real blessing for the Polish patriot: having fulfilled his request for an “Independent Legion”, Pulaski got Kovats appointed, at first, as training officer, then as Colonel Commandant of the new unit. It took the perseverance of the late Edmund Vasvary to find Kovats’ letter of Bordeaux among the “Franklin Papers” held at the Library of the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia. When it was found and published by Vasvary, the important document helped to identify Michael Kovats de Fabricy, and to prove his Hungarian origin. (However, some Polish historians and public personalities are still trying to dismiss references to his Hungarian background by pointing to the Slavic etymological root of his family name, — the word ‘kovács’, that is, ‘smith’ being a Slavic loanword in the Hungarian language.) “Fidelissimus ad Mortem” (Most Faithful unto Death”), the closing phrase in Kovats’ letter to Franklin (the text of which, with its translation into English or Hungarian, had been published by several authors in the past) turned out to become a tragical reality for Kovats. In early 1779, General Washington issued an order to march the Pulaski Legion to the South. Since the successful British invasion of Georgia in late 1778, the City of Charleston, South Carolina, with its most important port and trade contacts, became the next target for the British strategists. According to Washington’s (and the Congress’) order, Brigadier General Pulaski and his Hungarian Colonel Commandant led the only good cavalry unit available for the defence of the American cause, together with the Legion’s infantry, to the aid of the Southern Department of the United States Army. The Southern Department, a continuously changing amalgam of mostly militia units contributed by a number of the American states, was under the weak command of General Benjamin Lincoln, a brave New England patriot, who has submitted his resignation already to the Congress for poor health, particularly for an incurable wound in his leg. Mainly for this lamentable physical condition of the commanding general, and for his being a New England man in charge of Southern militia units, the Southern Military Department was in a constant state of turmoil. By the time when the Pulaski Legion arrived to Lincoln’s head—continued next page 14 HUNGARIAN HERITAGE REVIEW AUGUST 1987
