On 9 August 1849, outside the besieged fortress of Temesvár (today Timișoara in Romania), Julius von Haynau's imperial army, with the Russian division of General Panyutin, routed the main army of the Hungarian revolution. That day the Polish general Józef Bem, summoned from Transylvania, took the command from another Pole, Henryk Dembiński, and chose to fight. His horse fell under him, he was injured, and the Hungarian army dissolved in retreat toward Lugos while Haynau rode into the relieved fortress. Two days later Lajos Kossuth handed supreme power to Artúr Görgey. This page also covers the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945.
A fortress near its end
The 1955 edition of Kossuth's papers identifies Temesvár as Timișoara in Romania. The historian Róbert Hermann writes that in 1849 Count Károly Vécsey's Hungarian V Corps blockaded its imperial garrison, and that by early August the defenders were eating the animals in the fortress and disease had broken out, though no breach had been shot in the walls.1
Haynau beat Henryk Dembiński, a Polish general of the 1830-1831 rising, at Szőreg on 5 August. According to the Pallas encyclopedia, Dembiński then fell back not toward Arad, as the war plan required, but toward Temesvár. Kossuth wrote to him early on 9 August that a march on Arad, where he could safely join Görgey, would have been very desirable.2
Bem takes over
Józef Bem, like Dembiński a Polish general, had been fighting in Transylvania. In the same letter Kossuth wrote that Bem had just reported from Lugos that he was heading for Temesvár; the editors note that this report is not known. Hermann writes that Kossuth and the war minister Lajos Aulich appointed Bem commander-in-chief on 7 August. The Pallas encyclopedia has Kossuth summon him on 6 August.3
György Bálás's biography of 1927 puts Bem's arrival at 9 a.m., and the military historian József Bánlaky at about 9; an anonymous officer of the 58th honvéd battalion, whose memoir Hermann edited, at about 10; Haynau's report and the history of the campaign by Wilhelm Ramming, his chief of staff, at midday. Bánlaky, citing Dembiński's notes, has Dembiński embrace him: "My friend, thank you for taking this heavy cross off my shoulders!" (our translation).4
Bálás and Bánlaky both write that the troops greeted Bem with thunderous cheers, that Dembiński wanted to withdraw, and that Bem decided to attack. The Pallas encyclopedia says Dembiński had already begun the battle when Bem took over the command during the fighting. Bánlaky describes only rear-guard fighting at Kis-Becskerek that morning, with Hungarian batteries opening a lively fire soon after 10 a.m., by which time Bem had already taken command.5
A great artillery battle
Haynau reported that on 9 August he advanced with the III Corps, Wallmoden's cavalry division, the Russian division of Panyutin and the artillery reserve, and sent the reserve corps round to take the enemy in the right flank. Hermann identifies Panyutin's force as the Russian 9th Infantry Division, which fought in Haynau's main army all summer. Ramming puts the Hungarian forces at 58,000 to 60,000 men, plus at least 10,000 levies.6
Ramming calls it "im vollen Sinn eine große Artillerieschlacht" ("in the full sense a great artillery battle"), in which the infantry never came to grips (our translation). In the center, Bánlaky writes, 108 Austrian and 120 Hungarian guns fought for more than two hours, until the Hungarian fire faded for lack of ammunition. About 3 p.m. Colonel Blomberg led a sortie from the fortress. Ramming has it return with a captured flag; Bánlaky and the Hungarian sources cited by Hermann have Vécsey's troops drive it back.7
At 4 p.m., Haynau reported, the reserve corps appeared before Hodony, and Prince Franz Liechtenstein advanced at once on Szent András against the enemy's right flank; the enemy then fell back along the whole line. Bánlaky and Hermann identify this force as Liechtenstein's IV Corps. Ramming credits the decision to the artillery, Panyutin's Russian division and the IV Corps' flank attack.8
The fall
Bánlaky writes that when Bem heard of the masses coming from Szent András he galloped off toward the right wing; Bálás has him riding there to lead the decisive attack. His horse fell and he was injured. Guyon's report that day said Bem had broken his collarbone; Bánlaky writes that when he was bandaged at a hunting lodge in the Jagdwald it proved to be a severe dislocation, not a fracture. Bálás says he badly injured the collarbone.9
Bálás writes that Dembiński, on hearing of the fall, ordered the retreat toward Lugos. Bánlaky has Dembiński take command for a time, naming Remete and Lugos as rallying points, then flatly refuse when Bem asked him to take over the supreme command again. The Pallas encyclopedia says that from Bem's arrival Dembiński was merely a spectator.10
That evening Haynau rode into the relieved fortress at the head of a cavalry force.11
"The battle of Temesvár is lost. The enemy was very strong. The army is completely routed," Guyon reported (our translation from Bánlaky's Hungarian). The original, the editors of Kossuth's papers write, was a short German report that reached Kossuth early on 11 August.12
The cost, by whose count
Ramming gives the allied loss on 9 August, counting the sortie party: among the Austrians, 1 officer and 34 men killed and 7 officers and 146 men wounded; among the Russians, 1 man killed and 3 officers and 16 men wounded; in all, 11 officers, 197 men and 190 horses.13
Ramming estimates the Hungarian killed and wounded at no more than 300 to 500. Bánlaky writes that the Hungarian battle loss is unknown but is said to be about twice the allied loss. Haynau reported 6,000 prisoners from 9 August; the Vienna summary of his report has 6,000 prisoners and deserters. Ramming writes that 6,000 men were taken prisoner or gave themselves up and that more than 10,000 may have thrown away their arms. Hermann writes that barely 20,000 to 25,000 men of the 50,000 could be gathered again at Lugos.14
The road to Világos
At Arad, Görgey recalls, Kossuth opened a council of ministers with news from a "reliable source" that Dembiński's army had won at Temesvár the day before, 9 August (our translation). Afterward, Görgey writes, Kossuth asked: "But what if the Austrians have won at Temesvár?" "Then I lay down my arms," Görgey answered. "And I shoot myself!" Kossuth replied (our translation). On the afternoon of 11 August Kossuth announced that the government was stepping down and gave the supreme civil and military power to Görgey.15
According to Bálás, when news came of Görgey's laying down of arms on 13 August, Bem held a last council of war and urged that the war go on. The anonymous officer places that council on the march beyond Lugos. Bálás writes that on 17 August Bem handed over his command and left for Ottoman territory. Tokarz, in the Polish Biographical Dictionary, writes that in exile he converted to Islam and entered the sultan's service. He died at Aleppo on 10 December 1850.16
Tokarz judges that Bem rashly gave battle with an enemy fortress at his back and little artillery ammunition in reserve, and lost disastrously. Ramming called it the last decisive fight of the campaign. György Klapka, quoted by Hermann, wrote: "Világos was only the closing scene of the sad drama. The true grave of our freedom is Temesvár" (our translation). See our biography of Józef Bem.17
Also on 9 August
1945: a B-29 dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. The Manhattan Engineer District and the US Strategic Bombing Survey give the time of release as 11:02. The official Army Air Forces history gives 10:58 Nagasaki time, and names Kokura as the first-choice target and Nagasaki as the secondary. The bomb commander, Frederick L. Ashworth, wrote that the target "was completely obscured by smoke and haze," so they headed for "our secondary target, Nagasaki".18
The Manhattan Engineer District gave 39,000 dead and 25,000 injured. The Survey wrote that between 35,000 and 40,000 were killed and about as many injured, and called over 35,000 dead the most plausible estimate. The Air Forces history cites official Japanese figures of 23,753 killed, 1,927 missing and 23,345 injured, too low, it says, because they counted only verified cases. The City of Nagasaki gives 73,884 killed and 74,909 injured by the end of December 1945. The Survey quotes the prefectural report: the city was "like a graveyard with not a tombstone standing".19
