The Battle of Pancsova (now Pančevo, in the Pančevo municipality in the South Banat District Serbia) was a battle in the Hungarian War of Independence of 1848-1849, fought on 2 January 1849 between the Hungarian Army under the command of Lieutenant General Ernő Kiss against the Serbian insurgents led by Colonel Ferdinand Mayerhofer von Grünhübel. Pancsova was the last important Serbian stronghold in the Bánság/Banat region of Southern Hungary, after the Hungarian victories at Alibunar and Jarkovác. Because of the bad timing of the attack, the insufficient numbers of soldiers, and their clothing inappropriate for the very cold weather, Kiss's army was defeated, and forced to retreat. After this battle, due to the order of the Hungarian National Defense Committee to the troops fighting in southern Hungary, to retreat on the Maros's line, the Serbians occupied the whole Délvidék, and were able to extend their power to most of the territories they claimed to belong to their unilaterally proclaimed Serbian Vojvodina. This situation changed only in March when the Hungarian troops led by Mór Perczel counter-attacked.
Background The capture of Alibunár and Tomasevác, the two most important fortified camps of the Serbs in the Bánság, turned the situation of the Hungarian army in this region so favorable that, if these results had been quickly and properly exploited, it would not have been difficult to annihilate the resistance of the enemy in Southern Hungary.Bánlaky József: A bács-bánsági események a magyar csapatok kivonulásáig, 1849. január végéig. A magyar nemzet hadtörténete XXI Arcanum Adatbázis Kft. 2001 To this end, according to the historian József Bánlaky, the Hungarians should have immediately turned, without long hesitation, with their victorious army against Pancsova and after the capture of which the conquest of Arad and Temesvár, defended by the Austrian imperial army, would become possible by using all the available forces. However, General Ernő Kiss, having been informed of the raids of the Temesvár garrison in the Bánság mining district, wanted to attack the aforementioned fortress first, and for this purpose, he conducted an attack to as far as Csákova. Because as a result of the royal manifesto of 3 October, the garrison of Temesvár and Arad sided openly with the Serbs, and subjected the Hungarians to constant attacks. With part of his troops, Kiss moved to repel the attacks of the Temesvár garrison, then planned to defeat the border guards of Krassó and Bánság, and only after then to rush with renewed force to take Pancsova.. As part of this operation, Kiss's troops attacked Csákova on 24 December but only managed to capture a few prisoners. At the news of the advance of the Hungarian troops, the imperial troops hastily retreated to Temesvár, to which General Kiss, halting his advance, led his troops back to their camp at Nagybecskerek. In the meantime, Austrian Colonel Stefan Wernhardt captured Németbogsán from Major Lajos Asbóth, and another detachment captured Resicabánya. With this, the Hungarians lost the mining district. Kiss did nothing, however, to reverse the situation, and his troops returned to Nagybecskerek.
After the invasion of Hungary by the main Austrian imperial forces of Field Marshal Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz, Lajos Kossuth, the president of the Hungarian National Defence Committee on 18 December ordered Ernő Kiss to abandon Versec and Fehértemplom, withdraw with his troops to Szeged, and send his best battalions under Major General Antal Vetter to Pest.. Kiss later resisted this order, but in the end, he sent two battalions of the Bánság corps and three of the Bácska corps to Pest.
Afterward, the commanders of the Bánság Corps held a council of war in Zichyfalva. At this meeting, the majority proposed to try to achieve a decisive turnaround in the course of the war in Southern Hungary by capturing Pancsova, the main Serb camp. But Major Károly Leiningen-Westerburg objected that if this attack had not been launched after the Battle of Jarkovác, before the aforementioned battalions were sent to Pest, now it would be risky to do this with the remaining 4 battalions, but he was voted down. In this planned attack János Damjanich, the most successful Hungarian military leader in Southern Hungary could not participate, because he was incapacitated by some kind of rheumatic disease.. There were also problems on the opposite side, because Voivode Stevan Šupljikac, the Serbian high commander died on 27 December, or on 15, according to the official death certificate issued by the patriarch Josif Rajačić,Josif Rajačić: РАЈАЧИЋ, Јосиф - Обавештење патријарха Јосифа Рајачића о томе да је у Панчеву изненада умро војвода Стеван Шупљикац Digitalna BMS. Ulica Matice srpske 1, Novi Sad, Serbia and the command of the Austro-Serbian corps was temporarily taken over by the Colonel Ferdinand Mayerhofer von Grünhübel, Austria's consul in Belgrade.
Prelude Promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General on 22 December Ernő Kiss departed with his army on 31 December in the bitter cold. To secure the flanks of the main troops, two columns were sent from Nagybecskerek and Fehértemplom parallel with The Honvéds, who were inadequately dressed for the very cold climatic conditions were forced to spend the night in the open air. There were 30 or 40 of us lying on top of each other [to keep ourselves warm], until at last, unable to stand the hunger and cold, the battalions rose up and ran to and fro from their resting places, shouting incessantly, causing a terrible noise, until at last Ernő Kiss allowed us to light fires - wrote a soldier to his parents. Nevertheless, the offensive started well: on 1 January, Kiss's army ran into Mayerhofer's troops at Újfalu. The Serbs had superior numbers, but as they joined the battle in separate groups coming one after another, they were defeated in detail, then the Hungarians continued their advance towards Pancsova.
Opposing forces :
3rd (White Feathered) Honvéd Battalion: 6 infantry companies; 9th (Red Hatted) Honvéd Battalion: 6 infantry companies; 24th Honvéd Battalion: 6 infantry companies; 28th Honvéd Battalion: 6 infantry companies; 3rd Battalion of the 37th Infantry Regiment: 6 infantry companies; 2nd Hussar Regiment: 7 cavalry companies; 13th Hussar Regiment: 1 cavalry company; Artillery: 24 cannons. Total: 4,600 men, 900 horses, 24 cannons
: 4th Pétervárad Border Guards Battalion; 5th Pétervárad Border Guards Battalion; 6th Pétervárad Border Guards Battalion; 3rd Illyrian-Banatian Border Guards Battalion; 4th Illyrian-Banatian Border Guards Battalion; 4th German-Banatian Border Guards Battalion; 5th German-Banatian Border Guards Battalion; Pancsova National Guards Battalion; Servians (6,000-7,200 soldiers); Artillery: 34 cannons. Total: 15,000-17,000 men, 34 cannons
Pancsova and its defense Pancsova had 12,000 inhabitants at the time of the Serbian uprising of 1848/49, and was the final stronghold of the Austro-Serbian army on the eastern section of the theater of war from the Bánság, with a food store, clothing store, cannon foundry, weapon and ammunition store.Olchváry Ödön: A magyar függetlenségi harc 1848-1849-ben a Délvidéken Budapest, 1902, pp. 119 A steamer was circulating constantly between Pancsova and Belgrade. The city lied in an open, open area. Tall buildings in the innercity were towards the market. The outer perimeter was surrounded by a lined promenade with internal and external ditches. The roads leading out of the town were also flanked by a double alley. The country road leading to Ovča was only usable in dry weather. On the eastern edge of the town, where the road to the military shooting gallery led into the forest of Vojlovice - facing the forest - was the military hospital, near the civilian shooting range and the public part. The northern line of the town was 3-600 paces long. Between the road to Jabuka and the Temes River - from Pancsova to Jabuka stretched vineyards for a distance of 3600 paces. This frontline was the actual, 6,000 paces long, defense line.Olchváry Ödön: A magyar függetlenségi harc 1848–1849-ben a Délvidéken Budapest, 1902, pp. 120 More or less parallel to the north-eastern contour of the town, stretching on a distance of about 4,000 paces, run the 50 paces wide, 1–2 m deep muddy and reedy Nadela bara swampy river, on which a stone bridge could be found on the roads leading from Pancsova to Bavaniste, Neudorf and Crepaja. Both banks of the Nadela were bordered by vineyards. In the summer of 1848, to fortify Pancsova, the municipal authorities ordered the construction at 5,000 paces distance north from the city, of a new straight defensive rampart with ravelins, equipped with gun emplacements, stretching from the Temes River to the Nadela bara, intersecting the roads to Crepaja and Jabuka. The only gate on this defensive barrier was on the Panchova-Jabuka road. A redoubt was also built 1000 paces behind the defensive line along the Pancsova-Franzfeld road. Defending this long defensive line would have been difficult, so the Serbian army command abandoned the defense of this line and built shorter, interrupted ramparts following the line of the town, all the more so because the Nadela bara was frozen over and had ceased to be a barrier against the attackers. Thus, the roads to Neudorf, Franzfeld and Jabuka and other lines of approach were blocked by entrenchments built directly on the edge of the city. For the defense of Pancsova, the Serbs had 7 border guard battalions, 1 battalion of the Pancsova national guards, 7,200 Servians (volunteers coming from the Principality of Serbia) and 34 guns (15,000-1,7000 men). But the defensive guard also included armed militia from the civilian population, because the authorities only allowed women and children to flee to Belgrade. In contrast, the Hungarian military force (5 battalions, 8 cavalry companies, 24 guns) numbered 4,600 men. ) On the evening of 1 January, Lieutenant-General Kiss received information about the number of enemy troops from a spy.
On 1st January 1849, the advancing Hungarian troops defeated the Serbs in the Battle of Neudorf, however, so demoralized the enemy that Mayerhofer directly proposed abandoning the city and retreating to Transylvania, but he was refused by the council of the officers.. The Serbs, preparing for the attack, abandoned the outer line of battlements and occupied the entrenchments directly in front of the city.
As for the organization of the defense, the following measure was taken: the northern and north-eastern borderline of the city was divided into 3 defensive sections; the middle section was the area lying to the right and left of the road to Neudorf - which was defended by the Knicsanin brigade, i.e. the Servians.Olchváry Ödön: A magyar függetlenségi harc 1848–1849-ben a Délvidéken Budapest, 1902, pp. 120-121 The line to the right of this, including the military hospital, the public part, and the civilian firing range, will be defended by Captain Scharich with the 2nd Illyrian-Banatian Battalion.Olchváry Ödön: A magyar függetlenségi harc 1848–1849-ben a Délvidéken Budapest, 1902, pp. 121 The line to the left from Knichanin's defenders, including the roads to Franzfeld and Jabuka as far as the Temes River, was assigned to Captain Kossanić, with 2 battalions of the German-Banatian border guard regiment and 1 squadron of Pétervárad border guards. Three Pétervárad battalions and 6-pounder guns led by Captain Mihajlo Jovanović were assigned to be the reserve, being placed behind the center, where the road from the churchyard to the courtyard of the treasury building met the road to Neudorf. The larger part of the Pancsova National Guard battalion was assigned to the main square. All the guns were used to defend the front line, except the reserve guns.