The Battle of Kassa was a battle in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, fought on 4 January 1849 between Austria and Hungarian Revolutionary Army during the Winter Campaign of the Hungarian War of independence of 1848-1849. The Austrians were led by Lieutenant General Franz Schlik, while the Hungarians were led by General Lázár Mészáros. While the Austrian main army led by Field Marshal Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz was attacking Hungary from the West, Schlik's corps invaded Northern Hungary. The Hungarian Upper Tisza corps led by the Minister of War Lázár Mészáros tried to stop Schlik's corps, but he was defeated at Kassa. After this battle Colonel György Klapka, who will be more successful than Mészáros. On 9 January Kossuth appointed Colonel György Klapka to replace Mészáros.
Background
At the beginning of December 1848, a K.u.K. army corps from the Habsburg province of Galicia invaded Northern Hungary. Its commander, Lieutenant General Count Franz Schlik, who was in his 60th year, was one of the most experienced and successful generals of the imperial army. One of his eyes was supposedly gouged out by a drunken Cossacks in the Napoleonic Wars, but contemporaries say he could see more with his remaining half-eye than many other generals could with two. In November 1848 he was entrusted with the organization of the invasion of northern Hungary. The unrest in Galicia made it impossible to mobilize all the Habsburg forces, so Schlik crossed the Dukla Pass on 6 December 1848 with a little less than 8,000 men and 27 guns.
The task of the corps was to capture Kassa , after which it had to advance either through Miskolc or Rozsnyó towards Pest , in accordance with the war plan of the main Imperial Army led by Field Marshal Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz , which expected the decisive confrontation with the Hungarian army in the vicinity of Buda or Pest. Later, Windisch-Grätz, having been informed of the capture of Bártfa, modified this so that Schlik would march towards Vác via the Eger road or via Rozsnyó and Losonc. The prince recommended the latter, saying that the road to Eger was better, but it led through the countryside inhabited mostly by Hungarians (which for an Austrian army would be dangerous), while the route through Rozsnyó - Losonc - Vác would take him through Slovakian -inhabited countryside; moreover, this route would allow him to easily come into contact with the columns of the K.u.K. Army advancing towards Nyitra and the mining towns.
Schlik captured Eperjes on 9 December, and on 11 December he clashed with the Hungarian corps assembled in haste under the command of Colonel Sándor Pulszky between Budamér and Kassa. Pulszky had a total of three newly formed Honvéd battalions, thousands of mobilised National Guards and 15 cannons. The first shots of the Hungarian artillery hit in the immediate vicinity of Schlik. The Imperial Artillery returned fire, which made the untrained National Guardsmen flee. The 19th Honvéd Battalion, taking up position on the right bank of the Hernád river, fired with 3 cannons at the Imperial troops, covering the retreat of the rest of the troops which evacuated Kassa and retreated towards Miskolc.
Schlik sent his light cavalry after them, led by Major Concorreggio and Captain Scudier, his chief of staff. The pursuit was initially successful, and the Imperial troops almost caught up with the Hungarian artillery.
But then a handful of the infantry uhlans of the Polish Legion and the 20th Honvéd Battalion took a stance in their way at the tavern from Bárca. Major Wladyslaw Tchorznicki, the leader of the group, was a true veteran, having fought in the Polish uprising of 1830-31. He took up a position behind the stone wall of the tavern with his soldiers, let the Imperial Cavalry close in, and then poured such a volley of fire on them that Major Concorreggio and several of the officers were killed, Scudier was wounded and taken prisoner, and the others fled struck by panic. Thanks to them the rest of the Hungarian army could retreat to Miskolc unharmed.
Prelude
The defeat in Budamér had caused serious concern in the National Defence Commission (the de facto governing body of Hungary during the war with Austria), and all reinforcements were directed towards there. These were also mostly newly formed, untrained honvéd battalions and cavalry units. The command of the corps was taken over by the Minister of War himself, General Lázár Mészáros, while Bertalan Szemere, a prominent member of the National Defence Commission, was appointed as the plenipotentiary national commissioner of the area. By the end of December the corps had reached 10,000 men and 25 guns.