14-18 July 1703 Battle of Tiszabecs and Rákóczi’s crossing of the Tisza River
After the defeat of Munkács (24 June 1703), Rákóczi’s troops retreated to the border, to Zavadka, from where they started towards the River Tisza again on 7 July, after the arrival of the Polish auxiliaries of Bercsényi Miklós.
The troops of the county nobles of Ugocsa and Szatmár counties, reinforced by one German infantry and cavalry regiment each, blocked the Tiszabecs river crossing between Tiszaújlak and Csetfalva, where Rákóczi’s cavalry, led by Ocskay László and Borbély Balázs, arrived on July 14. The pro-Habsburg noblemen were reinforced by a troop of cavalry from Bihar County and a squadron of infantry and cavalry from Imperial Captains Reinhard and Kobilka.
The day before, Csáky Mihály, the Chief Comes of Bihar and Ugocsa counties, and commander of the armies of the nobility, had sent 50 Hungarian and German cavalrymen across the Tisza to scout the area up to Beregszász. The Kuruc cavalry reached Újlak first, as the infantry was left behind on the muddy road. The 15 German soldiers guarding the meadow were quickly driven off, leaving the scouting party of the noble uprising stranded on the right bank of the river.
The pro-Habsburg cavalry led by Kende Mihály, the vice officer of Csáky retreated to the bend of the river with 20 Hungarian and 30 German cavalrymen and took up the fight with the Kuruc cavalry. They were supported by rifle fire from the other bank. In four hours of fighting they repulsed Ocskay three times, so Rákóczi proposed to stop fighting until the infantry arrived. But another charge of the Kuruc troops in closed ranks finally drove the Hungarian-German cavalry into the Tisza. Eight German soldiers were killed and several, including Kende Mihály, drowned in the river. The Kuruc losses must have been somewhat higher. Among the prisoners, Majos János joined the Kuruc and was promoted to the rank of colonel.
In the evening the infantry arrived and the tired Kuruc troops retreated to Vári for the night. By dawn, the pro-Habsburg (called “Labanc”) army of Tiszabecs had dispersed, frightened by the defeat and the news of thousands of Polish-Swedish reinforcements. However, Montecuccoli’s regiment, which had left Munkács, was approaching dangerously, and Rákóczi was in danger of being surrounded. At the same time, the dispersal of the nobles’ camp opened the way to the Tiszántúl Region. Rákóczi wrote about it: “It was the first, though insignificant clash. Even the Germans admired the bravery of the Hungarian cavalry”.
On 18 July, the prince’s army crossed the Tisza at Vásárosnamény, and in his dispatch of the same day he called on the nobility to rise. The Tiszántúl campaign began, during which the Kuruc invaded almost the entire eastern part of the Great Plain in a few weeks. The battle of Tiszabecs was the first victorious battle of the Kuruc.
The Turul Monument, erected in 1903, destroyed in 1945, and restored in 1989, proclaims the news of the Kuruc victory in Subcarpathia in present-day Ukraine. A memorial column was also erected in Tiszabecs in 1905, next to the Reformed Church.
The Hungarian and Slovak rebels defeated the Imperials at Rajec on 23 November 1703
On 15 November, Bercsényi’s army defeated the Imperial troops at Zólyom, but the enemy commander-in-chief, Leopold Schlick, escaped the encirclement in time. He retreated towards Bajmóc and sought to unite with General Adam Ritschan’s unit advancing northwards along the Vág valley.
Ritschan joined forces with Colonel Ottlyk György’s group of noble insurgents in the Vág valley and then turned to Rajec to join Schlick in Bajmóc. The Kuruc general Károlyi Sándor also sensed the danger that the merger of the two imperial armies would pose to the Kuruc and ordered Captain Winkler Vilmos to prevent Ritschan’s movement. “Be on your guard and if the enemy intends to come towards me through the hills and narrow passages, shoot him,” he wrote to him.
Luby György, the captain of the Kuruc troops raiding the counties of Turóc and Trencsén, managed to intercept one of Ritschan’s letters, which revealed that the Imperial General had about 1600 soldiers (700 infantry, 160 German cavalry, and about 700 noble insurgents) under his command.
At dawn on 23 November, Ritschan’s army was attacked by Winkler’s Hajdú and Slovak rebels at the village of Rajec. The Kuruc torched some houses and attacked the village. Ritschan, fearing that the gunpowder carried in his wagons would explode, tried to hide behind the stone wall of the cemetery. Ottlyk dissuaded him and promised to cover the Imperial retreat with 100 horsemen. The Hajdús quickly swept away Ottlyk’s resistance, and the soldiers of Ottlyk scattered. The Moravian insurgents fled home, only to be joined by the wreckage of Ritschan’s army, joined by Schlick at Illava. The Imperial commander-in-chief did not stay here either, but retreated through Trencsén, via Lipótvár to Pozsony.
For the time being, Bercsényi was besieging Zólyom, and Károlyi was preparing to take Bajmóc, so they did not pursue Schlick and Ritschan. Out of the initial 8,000, barely 3,000 Imperial soldiers reached Pozsony. Panic broke out there as well as in Vienna, and many fled to the west. The Kuruc tide seemed unstoppable.
Source: Szibler Gábor
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