William Penn, 1962 (45. évfolyam, 5-23. szám)
1962-04-18 / 8. szám
PAGE 8. April 18, 1962 William Penn LINCOLN AND THE HUNGARIANS By EDMUND VASVARY (This is copyrighted by the William Penn Fraternal Association At his funeral one of his best friends, SIMON WOLF, former U. S. Consul General to Egypt, delivered the. eulogy. Among others he said,: “President Lincoln had unbounded confidence in his skill as a commander, and his loyalty as an American. He was selected as the President’s escort to Gettysburg... He received the Medal of Honor for conspicuous bravery on the field of battle of Piedmont . .. As a diplomat in China and Japan he was recognized ... as a man of consummate tact and liberal judgment. . . . He was the soul of honor, cheerful, entertaining companion, lovable in all his ways, and his acts of friendship and philanthrophy are as many as - his days were... He had a large circle of influential and loving friends who looked upon him as a model . . .” General McClellan, the former supreme commander of the Union Forces, mentions him with praise in his memoirs, who according to him was an exception among the officers of “German” origin. We might mention here also that about a hundred years ago every second Hungarian in the United States was believed at least to be a count. AUGUST HARASZTHY, LÁSZLÓ UJHÁZY, FRANCIS PULSZKY and many others.did not escape this mistaken belief, although they most probably had nothing to do with it. We read about Stahel-Számvald even today in respectable publications which write that his real name Was “.Count Sebastiani,” or “Count Ferenzi.” The truth is that the parents of the general were insignificant lower middle class people. The name of his father was ANDREAS SZÁMVALD and that of hi's mother RARBARA NAGY, according to the parochial records of old St. Demeter parish in Szeged, in which city he was born September 25, 1824. The other Hungarians who actually met President "Lincoln never got into such a close relationship with him as General Stahel-Számvald did. COLONEL PHILIP FIGY^LMESSY was presented to the President shortly after he arrived in the United States by SECRETARY OF STATE W. H. SEWARD himself. Figyelmessy during his service in Italy, in the Garibaldist Hungarian Legion, for a long time entertained the idea of immigrating to the United States and offering his services to the Union Forces. He asked the advice of the same GEORGE PERKINS MARSH (1801-1882), who at the time of Kossuth's flight from defeated Hungary (1849), was U. S. Minister to Constantinople. At the time of the Civil War Marsh was U. S. Minister to the Sardinian kingdom, residing in Torino. He knew Figyelmessy from his days in Turkey. When Secretary of State Seward asked Marsh in a private letter to send good cavalry officers from Europe for the Union Forces, Marsh thought of Figyelmessy and gave him warm letters of recommendation to Seward and Secretary of War SIMON CAMERON. Governor KOSSUTH, the undisputed leader of the exiled Hun. garians, also gave him letters of recommendation to the famous editor and politician, HORACE GREELY, and to others. The Generals GARIBALDI and KLAPKA, as well as FRANCIS PULSZKY, did the same. Figyelmessy traveled to America accompanied by two of his staff officers in the Hungarian Leg'ion. One of them was Captain NICHOLAS DUNKA, who shortly afterward died a hero’s death for the Union, and tire other Captain GEORGE SÁRPI. They arrived in New York December 4, 1861 and, after a few days, they proceeded to Washington. On the 9th of December Secretary of State SEWARD received them and at once took Figyelmessy to the President. The President’s simplicity made a very deep impression on the Hungarian soldier who at once became his loyal follower. We do not know the details of the meeting and conversation, nor do we know whether the two men ever met again. COULD YOU USE AN EXTRA INCOME? Learn how our SALES EXPANSION PROGRAM can help you earn $50.00 to $100.00 a week EXTRA in your SPARE TIME. A few hours a week selling William Penn low cost Life and A & H Insurance — with premiums so low it virtually sells itself — can give you the income you need to enjoy life! Our accelerated sales program calls for the addition of a considerable number of part-time representatives. HIGH COMMISSIONS OFFER STRONG INCENTIVE The William Penn commissions are high, and you collect renewal commissions without any work at all! Selling just one policy a week can give you $5,000.00 EXTRA yearly income! You can start selling William Penn by writing to: Elmer Charles, Field Manager William Penn Fraternal Association 436 Fourth Avenue Pittsburgh 19, Pa. and can not be reproduced in any way without permission.) JULIAN KUNÉ, the young ex-honvéd, after the defeat in 1849 escaped to the Balkans with General BEM’s entourage. He went to Aleppo, Syria and later to Damascus, where he found employment in the service of EMIN PASHA, who was a brother-in-law of the Sultan. After many vicissitudes ha came, via England, to the United States, bringing with him Kossuth’s letter of recommendation. In 1860 he took an active part in politics and, as an alternate degelate, was present at the Republican convention which nominated Lincoln for the presidency. The party sent him to the State of Indiana to deliver German speeches in Lincoln’s behalf. In his memoirs he mentions that he had several times talked with Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois and in Washington. Since he lived in Chicago he took active part in the initial organization of volunteer regiments there, and he personally took the letter" of GÉZA MIHALÓTZY to Lincoln, in which he asked permission to use the ;name of “Lincoln Riflemen” for the unit organized by him. (Lincoln was already President-Elect at that time, but not yet inaugurated.) CHARLES ZÄGONYI, the hero of the victorious Springfield, Missouri cavalry charge, also had some personal contacts with President Lincoln. lit February 1862, when the Frémont Bodyguard was already dissolved and General FRÉMONT himself removed from command of the Western Departtnent, Zágonyi personally delivered one of Fremont’s letter to the President. Frémont and his wife were in Washington also, but the General, as “persona Ron grata,” thought that it would be better to send his letter with Zágonyi. We do not know whether the Hungarian officer had an occasion to talk with the President or not. Lincoln in his answer mentions that the letter, sent with Zágonyi, reached him. During his stay in Washington Zágonyi met the famous American writea" and thinker, RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1893-1882), who in a letter written (to his daughter (February 5, 1862) mentions that he had met President Lincoln twice in the White House, and saw everybody whom he had looked up except General Frémont. Since Mrs. Fremont told him that she was expecting her husband any minute, Emerson waited for half an hour but in vain. During this time he had a conversation with Zágonyi who was visiting his former commander and his wife. It is very probable that other high ranking Hungarians also met President Lincoln since it was customary to thank the President personally when one was promoted to generalship or some other high post but at the present we have no records of such meetngs. Chapter Five A FEW INTERESTING CAREERS Most of the Civil War Hungarians led adventurous lives which were full of interesting and many times dangerous episodes. Most of them were veterans of more than one war, who saw service not only in the Hungarian War of Independence in 1848-49 but in almost all the contemporary wars on several continents. The exiled Hungarians, who naturally found success difficult to achieve in foreign lands, readily flocked to the banners of their new countries and were gladly accepted owing to their military experience. We saw them in the third and last expedition to Cuba led by Narciso Lopetf (1850), in the Crimean War on Russian soil (1854-56), in the Sepoy Mutiny in India (1857), in the struggles of the Italian Risorgimento under Garibaldi (1859-61), and even in the Mexican War against the Habsburg Emperor Maximilian (1859-1861). They gave good accounts of themselves everywhere. It was only natural that those Hungarians who were living in the United States at the outbreak of the Civil War would do their duty and could not stay away from the struggle. In the following we relate the interesting careers of some of these Hungarians. (1) Matthias Ernest Rózsafy (1828-1893). During the seventies and eighties of the last century a cordial, always smiling, bearded elderly gentle-« man was working busily in one of the government offices in Washington. Nobody could have suspected what an adventurous past stood behind him. He was Matthias E. Rózsafy, who already signed his name in its Americanized form “Rosafy,” but in spite of that he was the same tough, strict Hungarian as he used to be when as a young man he took up arms to defend the independence of his native country. He was born in the town Komárom (now belonging to Czechoslovakia). He was a brilliant student and hoped to become a Roman Catholic priest. As his most promising young student, Joseph Cardinal Kopácsy, the Prince-Primate of Hungary and Archbishop of Esztergom, sent him to the famous Pazmaneum Institute in Vienna to study at the theological faculty of the University. He was 20 years old when Governor Kossuth called the manhood of Hungary to arms against Austrian tyranny, like many other candidates for the priesthood, he enlisted in the new Honvéd Army. Later he became editor of a daily paper in the town of his birth which was one of the most formidable fortresses of the land. For a considerable time this paper was instrumental in keeping up the spirit of resistance among the people of the fortress-town, deserving the praise of Kossuth himself. Rózsafy’s best friend was a young artillery officer, Joseph Makk. Komárom was the last fortress which kept up the resistance even after the surrender of the Hungarian army at Világos on August 13, 1849. When later Komárom also had to surrender, Rózsafy and Makk refused the safe conduct of the Austrians. With several of their friends they went to Italy. Not willing to admit that Hungary’s cause was lost, they started to make plans to incite revolutions in the lands around Hungary, all at the same time. Their exiled leader Kossuth, who at this time was interned by the Turks in Asia Minor, approved these plans in general and sent money to Rózsafy inviting him to Asia Minor. He was the guest of Kossuth for eight days. Later on Makk also visited Kossuth who gave him a document of authorization to prepare a revolution in the Hungarian province of Transylvania, Kossuth also requested Philip Figyelmessy, another veteran officer of the Hungarian war, to assist in the preparation of the plans. (To Be Continued)
