The defeat at Trencsén on 3 August 1708 led to the disintegration of the Kuruc (anti-Habsburg) army. There was a danger that a powerful imperial attack would bring Rákóczi’s state into a catastrophic situation. On 28 August, Ocskai László defected with his regiment to the imperial forces, and the betrayal of Bezerédj Imre was prevented at the last moment.
A Kuruc victory was the only thing that could restore the spirit of the disheartened Hungarians. Rákóczi ordered Field Marshal Esterházy Antal, commander of the Transdanubian region, to move his army into Austria and draw Siegbert Heister’s forces away from Hungary.
Heister was determined to retake the Transdanubian region after the battle of Trencsény to put an end to the threat to Austria. He ordered the general of the south, Dietrich Nehem, to march north immediately with the Serbian troops and join forces to pressure the Transdanubian Kuruc troops into surrendering by taking Simontornya.
Esterházy was in a difficult situation because he would be trapped if Heister and Nehem joined forces. Moreover, in the vicinity of Sopron, there was Nádasdy IV Ferenc, and Draskovich János was arriving with the Croatian cavalry from Croatia. Esterházy therefore sent Béri Balogh Ádám in the direction of Simontornya to stop the Serbs. In addition to Béri Balogh’s cavalry regiment, he took with him the cavalry regiments of Somogyi Ádám and Szekeres István, as well as the infantry regiment of Balogh Ferenc and the insurgent troops of Zala County. Esterházy sent him on his way with these orders:
“Brigadier Balogh Ádám was ordered that, if he loves life and liberty, he should not yield to anyone’s opinion. He must strike a notable blow, striking at the enemy, however many there may be, even at night.” August 19, 1708.
About 5,700 Serbs and Germans had set up a barricade at Kölesd, but Balogh rushed at them and routed the enemy. They drove the Serbs from the Harc Hill into the Belac marshes, destroying them. More than three thousand were slaughtered, including three hundred German horsemen. Three guns and twenty-four flags were captured. The majority of the infantry was left dead on the battlefield, many of the cavalry were killed and the rest fled. The Serbian officers were also captured, and General Kreutz escaped. A lot of booty, the entire Serbian camp, fell into the hands of the Kuruc soldiers. The fugitives were pursued as far as the River Dráva.
Meanwhile, Esterházy drove back the Croats, Heister retreated to Komárom after the defeats and then tried to besiege Érsekújvár – without success. The victory of Béri Balogh Ádám in Kölesd is noteworthy because, in addition to inspiring the despondent rebels barely a month after the defeat at Trencsén, the Kuruc stopped the imperial attacks on the Transdanubian region and saved part of the country. It was not until the following year that Transdanubia fell.
Rákóczi and his circle also highly appreciated the victory in Kölesd, which is also proved by the fact that after a long wait, Béri Balogh Ádám finally received the rank of brigadier. Esterházy had been urging this earlier, but Bercsényi had always been against it, saying that there was no need for so many senior officers. Now, however, there was nothing he could do about the appointment. In addition, Béri Balogh Ádám also received a decorative sword, which had been presented to Rákóczi by King Louis XIV of France. The descendants of Béri Balogh Ádám kept this sword for centuries, as Thaly Kálmán wrote in the summer of 1864 in the newspaper called Vasárnapi Újság.
Thaly Kálmán was also the author of the poem about the Battle of Kölesd, a poem by the renowned historian, a tireless researcher of the Kuruc period, and the creator of the romantic image of the Kuruc period. He wrote a poem about this fight, titled “About the fight at Kölesd”.
Balogh Ádám had a song attached to his name, you can listen to its 21st-century version by the Kárpátia Band, it is the second song in the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwdmw4orojU
The Fight at Nagykőrös on 11 September 1708
The heroic defense of Nagykőrös against the raids of the Serbs
316 years ago, on September 11, 1708, the people of Nagykőrös and the local Kuruc forces successfully fought off the Serbian invaders. From the beginning, the Rákóczi War of Independence was accompanied by a struggle with the South Slavic (also known as “Rác” = Serbian) border guards in the imperial mercenary service. This led to a bloody civil war of religious and ethnic character in the regions of Partium, Southern Great Plain, and Southern Transdanubia, which mainly affected the defenseless population. The three famous cities of the Great Plain, Kecskemét, Nagykőrös, and Cegléd, suffered a series of intimidating, punitive, and repressive actions. The first in 1707 and the last in 1709 were plundered and robbed, but the attack on Nagykőrös was successfully repulsed.
The well-functioning Kuruc reconnaissance system gave early warning of the threat to the city, so the people of Nagykőrös were able to prepare for defense. The bell was rung by the judge, and the inhabitants fled with their valuables to the walled church, where a cannon (a howitzer) was erected in the tower. The houses and hedges of the inner city were defended with rifles, and Veres Takács János, a gunner, took such good aim from the tower that he managed to shoot the artillerymen from the field guns of the Serbs.
The town chronicle recorded the name of Boros János, who had a speech impediment (lisping) and who carried the gunpowder and “cut iron” to the riflemen with the cry “Kill, shoot, cut the dog Serbs, do not be afraid of them!”, and highlighted the courage of the schoolmaster Kecskeméti György and scribe Sólti János, who stood on the top of the embankment with a single rifle. (Solti was shot, but recovered.) In the field near the town, two companies of the Sőtér Hussar Regiment, led by Lieutenant Kállai Miklós from Nagykőrös and Vice-Lieutenant Vágó András from Cegléd, also fought, and reinforcements from the regiment arrived at the end of the stubborn defense, so the market town with no fortifications fortunately escaped the fate of Kecskemét and Cegléd.
Sources: Szibler Gábor Literature: Tóth Gyula: Béri Balogh Ádám kuruc brigadéros. Bp., 1958., Esze Tamás: Béri Balogh Ádám I-IV. In. Vasi Szemle. 1962/1., 2., 3.; 1963/1. and http://HM Hadtörténeti Intézet és Múzeum
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