A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year Part 47

The Hungarian Diet, on learning of this transfer of the crown, refused to acknowledge Francis Joseph as King of Hungary. The whole nation was summoned to arms. The command of the army was given to Goergey. His first serious problem was a rising of the Roumanians in Transylvania against Magyar rule. The Roumanian peasants committed all conceivable atrocities.

When they raised the standard of the Empire, the Austrian commander, General Puchner, espoused their cause. Transylvania was lost to Hungary.

The Roumanians led by Puchner co-operated with Jellacic's forces in Croatia, and moved on Hungary from that quarter. On December 15, the main Austrian army, under Windischgratz, crossed over the River Leitha and invaded Hungary. Goergey declared from the first that Pesth would have to be abandoned. Kossuth's frantic efforts to prevent this only served to hamper Goergey's able campaign. One line after another had to be abandoned.

At last, toward the close of the year, Kossuth and his Magyar Diet were compelled to evacuate Pesth. The Hungarian army fell back over the River Theiss, upon the fortress of Comorn, and the mountainous regions of northern Hungary. Kossuth's government was established at Debreczin.

1849

[Sidenote: Bem's aggressive campaign]

[Sidenote: Goergey and Dembinsky]

On January 5, Windischgratz and Jellacic made their triumphant entry into Budapesth. The Vienna "Gazette" announced "the glorious end of the Hungarian campaign." Prince Windischgratz rested on his arms. During this interval the Polish general, Bem, who had escaped from Vienna, aroused his countrymen in Siebenburgen and carried the war into that region. The Austrian troops under General Puchner were beaten in a series of engagements. Goergey, aided by another Pole, Dembinsky, repulsed the Austrian troops under General Schlik in the north. While Windischgratz remained idle at Pesth, Klapkah, the new Hungarian Minister of War, organized the Magyar forces and created new defences for his country.

[Sidenote: Afghan war]

[Sidenote: Chilian Wallah]

[Sidenote: Lord Gough superseded]

[Sidenote: "Battle of the Guns"]

[Sidenote: Punjab annexed to England]

Prince Metternich, whiling away his idle hours among other notable refugees at London and Brighton, now had the satisfaction of seeing the dangers of revolt brought home to the people of England. The tidings of a disaster in Afghanistan provoked an outburst of alarm and indignation in England. On January 13, Lord Gough had advanced on Sher Singh's intrenchments at Chilian Wallah. They were held by 30,000 Sikhs with sixty guns, screened by a thick jungle. As the British imprudently exposed themselves the Sikhs opened fire. Lord Gough ordered a general charge. The drawn battle that followed proved the bloodiest affair in the history of British India.

Driven from their first line of defences, the Sikhs stood their ground in another stronger position, and repulsed the British attack. Nearly 2,500 British officers and men fell in the fight. In the face of the Afghan rejoicings Lord Gough claimed a victory. The British War Office, however, hastily despatched Sir Charles Napier to India to supersede Lord Gough.

There was still time for that commander to retrieve himself. General Whish captured the town of Multan, and by terrible bombardment of the citadel brought Mulraj to surrender. General Whish then joined forces with Lord Gough in his final struggle with Sher Singh. At Guzerat, on February 22, Lord Gough achieved the crowning victory known as "the battle of the guns."

For two hours a terrific artillery duel was maintained, the Sikhs firing with all their sixty pieces. Finally the British stormed their batteries in a combined charge of bayonets and cavalry. The Sikh forces were scattered, and their camp, with most of their standards and guns, were captured by the British. Dost Muhammad Khan and his Afghans were driven out of Peshawar and narrowly escaped to Kabul. Mulraj was imprisoned for life. The whole of the Punjab was annexed to British India. A successful administration of this hostile province was Lord Dalhousie's first great triumph.

[Sidenote: President Taylor inaugurated]

[Sidenote: Development of Western America]

[Sidenote: The "Forty-Niners"]

About the same time, General Taylor, the conqueror of Buena Vista, was inaugurated as President of the United States. One sentence in his inaugural address provoked derision: "We are at peace with all the world and the rest of mankind." The old Spanish missions in the conquered territory were deprived of their wealth and influence. The name of San Francisco was adopted in place of Yerba Buena. Besides California, the new territory included the subsequently admitted States of Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and parts of Colorado, Wyoming and Kansas. The Apache and Navajo Indians in those regions gave immediate trouble. The gold seekers tracking across the plains were the first to suffer from the Indians. Still the stream of immigrants poured into California. Their halfway stations on the Missouri River developed into the two thriving towns of Omaha and Council Bluffs. The Bay of San Francisco was soon surrounded by a settlement of tents and sheds. A Vigilance Committee took affairs into its own hands, and administered justice without fear or favor. Six times the new city was destroyed by fire. Within two months all traces of the disaster would be lost. California soon had a population ent.i.tling it to Statehood. President Taylor eagerly seconded the wishes of the people for a government of their own. The first Const.i.tutional Convention of California declared against slavery. More than $40,000,000 worth of gold was produced in the new State, and the first gold dollars were coined.

[Sidenote: Death of Poe]

[Sidenote: Posthumous poems]

[Sidenote: "The Conqueror Worm"]

The death of Edgar Allan Poe, the American poet, was as tragic as his life had been. After the death of his wife, Poe had engaged himself to marry a wealthy lady in Richmond, and the wedding day was fixed. On his way to New York to settle up affairs in antic.i.p.ation of his marriage, Poe fell in with some of his companions in dissipation at Baltimore. He became drunk, wandered through the streets, and was finally taken to a hospital in an unconscious condition. Later he became delirious and finally expired, saying: "Lord, help my poor soul!" After Poe's death the simplest and sweetest of his ballads, "Annabel Lee," and the wonderful poem of "The Bells," were published. His former friend and editor, Griswold, published a scathing denunciation of the dead man in the New York "Tribune." Poe's fame as a master of the weird and fanciful in literature was already established wherever his thrilling tales and superb poem "The Raven" had penetrated. He was one of the few poets of America at that period who had succeeded in achieving an international reputation. The best of his poems were rendered in choice French by Baudelaire, while his short stories were translated into almost all European languages. As his biographer, Woodberry, has said: "On the roll of American literature Poe's name is inscribed with the few foremost, and in the world at large his genius is established as valid among all men. Much as he derived nurture from other sources, he was the son of Coleridge by the weird touch in his imagination, by the principles of his a.n.a.lytic criticism, and the speculative bent of his mind." Most characteristic of Poe's genius perhaps are these lines from his famous poem "The Conqueror Worm":

Lo! 'tis a gala night Within the lonesome latter years!

An angel throng, bewinged, bedight In veils, and drowned in tears, Sit in a theatre, to see A play of hopes and fears, While the orchestra breathes fitfully The music of the spheres.

That motley drama--oh, be sure It shall not be forgot!

With its Phantom chased for evermore By a crowd that seize it not, Through a circle that ever returneth in To the self-same spot, And much of Madness, and more of Sin, And Horror the soul of the plot.

Out--out are the lights--out all!

And over each quivering form The curtain, a funeral pall, Comes down with the rush of a storm, And the angels, all pallid and wan, Uprising, unveiling, affirm That the play is the tragedy "Man,"

And its hero the Conqueror Worm.

[Sidenote: Abortive Spanish rising]

[Sidenote: Italian republics]

[Sidenote: Situation in Sicily]

In Europe, the startling upheavals of the previous year were followed by an aftermath no less startling. Even in Spain, where a first attempt at revolution had easily been crushed at Madrid, Don Carlos deemed the time ripe to join Cabrera's revolutionary rising in Catalonia. On his way there he was arrested at the French frontier. Deprived of his support, Cabrera himself had to remove his forces to French soil. In Italy, the revolutionary movement spread. On February 7, Duke Leopold of Florence was driven out of Tuscany. A republican government was established at Florence under the triumvirate of Guerazzi, Montanelli and Manzoni. Taking refuge on a British man-of-war, the Duke of Tuscany fled to Gaeta to share the Pope's exile there. On the same day that the new republic was proclaimed at Florence a popular a.s.sembly at Rome formally deposed the Pope from temporal power and proclaimed the Republic of Rome. The armistice in Sicily was about to expire. King Ferdinand's final concessions to his rebellious subjects were repudiated. Lord Palmerston, who had vainly offered British mediation to Ferdinand, on the floor of Parliament openly defended the uncompromising att.i.tude of the Sicilians. In preparation for the inevitable conflict, Filangieri gathered an army of 20,000 Neapolitans, while Mierolavsky, a Pole, took command of the Sicilian insurgents.

[Sidenote: Hungarian defeats]

[Sidenote: Austrian reverses]

[Sidenote: Windischgratz "Reconcentrates"]

[Sidenote: Hungarian declaration of independence]

Meanwhile the tide of war set against the Hungarians. On February 4, Bem was defeated on the site of his former victory at Hermannstadt. While retreating he was defeated again at Paiski. By the middle of February the Austrians succeeded in taking the fortress of Essek from the Hungarians.

Toward the close of the month a disastrous defeat was inflicted upon the Hungarians under the command of General Dembinsky at Kapolna. Kossuth had made the mistake of superseding Goergey by that commander. Now Goergey was reinstated. The Hungarians rallied. On March 5, the Magyar Csikos, or irregular cavalry, under Janos Damjanies, defeated the Austrians under General Grammont at Szolnok. A few days later the Hungarian army in Transylvania, under General Bem, retrieved their ill-fortune by another glorious victory at Hermannstadt. A Russian contingent from Wallachia, which had crossed the frontier to a.s.sist the Austrians, was defeated by Bem at Bra.s.so. General Puchner and his Russian allies sought refuge across the border. Goergey relieved Komorn. The ablest of the Austrian generals, Schlik, was beaten at Hapvan, while Jellacic was overthrown at Isaszteg and Goedoelloe. Prince Windischgratz had to give up Pesth, or, as he put it in his immortal thirty-fourth bulletin: "Reconcentrate the army in front of Budapesth, a movement hastily imitated by the enemy." Goergey added another touch of humor by attributing the Hungarian victory solely to the activity of Windischgratz and Jellacic. On March 4, Emperor Francis Joseph had annulled the old Hungarian const.i.tution. Kossuth retaliated in kind. Under his influence the Magyar Diet at Debreczin p.r.o.nounced the deposition of the House of Hapsburg from the throne of Hungary and declared the independence of Hungary and the adjoining southern provinces. While the Hungarian army, instead of marching on Vienna, lost valuable time before Ofen, the Austrian Government improved the interval to perfect its long-threatened alliance with Russia.

[Sidenote: Sardinia renews war]

[Sidenote: Polish leaders]

[Sidenote: The "Five Days' Campaign"]

[Sidenote: Battle of Novara]

[Sidenote: Italian retreat]

[Sidenote: D'Aspre's heavy losses]

[Sidenote: Charles Albert abdicates]

In the interim war had broken out anew in Schleswig-Holstein and in Italy.

Before the expiration of the Austrian-Italian armistice, Charles Albert of Sardinia, in a spirited address on February 1, announced his determination to renew the war. To this desperate resolve he was driven by the increasing turbulence of Italian affairs. The spread of the revolutionary movement to his dominions could be forestalled only by placing himself once more at the head of the Italian movement. In some respects the moment appeared propitious. Charles Albert's army now numbered a hundred and twenty thousand men, while Radetzky had little more than seventy thousand Austrians. A characteristic note of the times was the appointment of Poles to command the Italian troops. Prince Chrzanovsky, who had fought under Napoleon at Leipzig and Waterloo, and had subsequently commanded a Russian division at Varna, was put in supreme command, seconded by Alexander La Marmora. Another Pole, or half Pole, Ramorino, who had figured in the unfortunate rising of 1833, commanded the legion of Lombardy. On March 12, the pending termination of the truce was officially announced. At noon on March 20, hostilities were to be resumed. The campaign that followed lasted but five days. Radetzky, by his preliminary feint, made the Italians believe that he would evacuate Lombardy as heretofore; but at the last moment he quickly concentrated his five army corps at Pavia. At the stroke of noon, on March 20, he threw his army across the Tessino on three bridges. While the Italians believed that Radetzky was retreating on the Adda, the Austrians were already bivouacking on the flank of the Piedmontese army. Three b.l.o.o.d.y engagements at Mortara, Gambola and Sforzesca, on March 21, ended in a retreat of the Italians all along the line. Ramorino had received orders to move northward and to destroy the bridges behind him. Out of accord with his countryman, Chrzanovsky, he disobeyed his orders and lingered at Stradella. Radetzky flung his army in between, and cut off the Italian line of retreat upon Turin and Alessandria. It was then that Benedek, an Austrian colonel, distinguished himself by leading his troops far in advance of the Austrian army, and cutting his way through an Italian brigade, under the cover of night. At midnight of March 21, Charles Albert had to order a general retreat on Novara. There Chrzanovsky determined to make a stand with his main column of about 50,000 men. Radetzky was in doubt whether the Italians had fallen back on Novara or Vercelli. To make sure he sent his troops in either direction. He himself remained at his headquarters, so as to be ready to ride either way. The roar of artillery from Novara, on the morning of March 23, told him where the battle was to be fought. There General D'Aspre, commanding the second Austrian army corps, undertook to win some laurels on his own account by a bold attack on the superior position of the Italians.

As Charles Albert rode out of the gate of Novara he received the last cheers of his devoted Bersaglieri. After a three hours' fight the scale turned against the Austrians. Count D'Aspre repented of his rashness, and sent for help to Count Thurn at Vercelli. Fortunately for him, Radetzky and Thurn had marched in that direction as soon as they heard the sound of the cannon. It was a race between the two divisions. As Radetzky, at the head of the first army corps, galloped through Nebola, the aged marshal met the retreating columns of D'Aspre's second corps. Both the first and the third Austrian corps rushed into the battle almost simultaneously. The Italian advance was checked. At last, when Thurn's fourth corps arrived at sundown, the Austrian bugles sounded for a general charge. The Italian line of battle was overthrown. The Austrian cavalry circled around the flank. While the Italians fled into Novara they suffered from the fire of their own artillery. Charles Albert was one of the last who left the Bicocca to seek refuge in Novara. The town itself was bombarded by the Austrian artillery far into the night. Standing on the ramparts of Novara, Charles Albert realized the disastrous nature of his defeat. His losses aggregated more than seven thousand, of whom three thousand had been taken captive. Of the Austrian losses of 3,158 men, five-sevenths fell to D'Aspre's corps. The other Austrian divisions were practically intact. The Italians were in confusion. Charles Albert, who throughout the day had exposed his person with the utmost gallantry, had to be dragged from the ramparts by General Durando. As the Austrian sh.e.l.ls struck all around them he exclaimed, "Leave me, General. Let it be the last day of my life. I wish to die." At last he consented to send his Minister, Cadorna, to Radetzky's headquarters to sue for an armistice. Cadorna was received in an insulting manner. Charles Albert came to the conclusion that his own person was an obstacle in the way of peace. That night he resigned his crown. In the presence of his generals he p.r.o.nounced his eldest son, Victor Emmanuel, King of Sardinia.

Accompanied by but one attendant he left Novara, and pa.s.sed unrecognized through the enemy's lines. Sending a farewell letter to his wife, he went into exile. A few months later he died at Oporto in Portugal.