The Battle of Rika or Battle of Felsőrákos-Rika-Vargyas was a battle in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, fought on 13 December 1848 at Felsőrákos, Vargyas the valley of the Rika stream Háromszék County in southeastern Transylvania. The Székelys from Háromszék, sustaining the Hungarian revolution, led by Captain Sándor Gál, Captain Ignác Horváth Kovachich and Áron Gábor defeated the troops of the Habsburg Empire Captain August von Heydte reinforced by Transylvanian Romanian and Saxon militias and national guards. This victory forced the Austrian commander with the mission to crush the resistance of the Székelys of Háromszék, Lieutenant General Joseph Gedeon, was forced to ask reinforcements from the Austrian commandement of Transylvania, which weakened in a decisive way the Austrian troops right before the start of their fight with the Army of Transylvania led by General Józef Bem.
Background
Starting from 30 November 1848 the Székely forces of the Háromszék Seat won several victories against the joint Austrian, Romanian and Saxon troops led by General Joseph von Gedeon. After initial victories the Székelys suffered a defeat at Marosvásárhely on November 5. The army disintegrated with the soldiers leaving for home. One by one the Transylvanian districts surrendered to the Emperor's Transylvanian commander-in-chief. There were, however, two features which proved to be important later. First, the Székely districts took the oath to the new Emperor on the condition that the imperial army would not occupy their territory and that they would not have to lay down their arms. Second, Háromszék, one of the districts, refused to surrender and declared a defensive war.
Starting with 12 November 1848, the people of the Seat, decided to refuse to obey Puchner's orders of submission, organize a military resistance, creating even cannons, and founding a small artillery, thanks to the ingenious Székely engineer Áron Gábor. After a general mobilization, they waited for the attack of the Austrian troops. On 30 November, in the First Battle of Hídvég, the Székelys defeated the attacking Austrian troops, and on 5 December entered in a counterattack, occupying several villages from the Barcaság region, defeating in smaller battles the Austrian regular troops, reinforced by Romanian and Saxon insurgent militias from there. After these successes the Székelys even decided to attack the city of Brassó, one of the most important towns in Transylvania, and one of the headquarters of the Habsburg forces. General of the cavalry Anton Puchner, the commander of the Habsburg forces in Transylvania, who, starting with October, had almost completely occupied Transylvania from the Hungarian troops, and was planning to advance towards Nagyvárad, attacking from the east the Hungarian revolutionary government, threatened from the west by the Habsburg offensive led by Field Marshal Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz, and from the north by the Austrian corps led by Gemneral Franz Schlik, was forced by the Székely victories to engage a third of his forces against Háromszék, thus to postpone his offensive to the West, thanks to which the Hungarian resistance from Eastern Hungary was spared from a very dangerous attack from the rear, which could seal its fate already in December 1848. Until the reinforcements sent by Puchner towards Háromszék arrived, any major attacks from the Austrian local forces were halted.
Prelude
But a force of around 2,600 soldiers, Saxon and Romanian militas entered in the hilly and mountainous forested region called Erdővidék (Forest Region), situated in northwestern Háromszék, and started to gather the weapons from the Székelys leaving there.
A Székely troop, divided into two parts, marched against Heydte, on the two banks of the Olt river, towards Erdővidék. Colonel Károly Dobai advanced on the left side of the Olt towards Ürmös. Captains György Klement and Alajos Butzi marched on the right bank, through Nagyajta and Köpec. Encouraged by the initial successes, the approximately 250 Royal Hungarian Honvéds of the XIIth Battalion, 30 Hussars and a few hundred National Guards (others say that 500 spearmen from Erdővidék, 170 of Honvéds with bayonets and 37 Hussars and two cannons participated) did not wait for the larger troop of Colonel Károly Dobai, and attacked the army of Captain August von Heydte. The main battle took place on 9 December at the bridge at Köpec. It ended with a victory for Heydte. Sources differ on the number of casualties. The victorious enemy lost 19 or 27, or 36 soldiers. According to Heydte, the Székelys lost 20, according to the priest from Nagyborosnyó Áron Benedek 5, and according to Captain Ignác Horváth 7 casualties. The victors occupied the village of Köpec. They proclaimed that no one in the village would be harmed. The weapons were confiscated. In the evening, the Austrian Dragoons set fire to the village, and then, with the Romanians and Saxons from their camp, began to murder the unarmed population. In the massacre 51 civilians were killed, including a retired imperial captain who had been living there.
After the victory in Köpec, Gedeon could look to the future with hope, as he received reports of the retreat of the Székely forces from several places. This allowed the imperial forces to re-occupy the villages of the Felső-Fehér County which lay around Háromszék. On 10 December, Colonel Johann Stutterheim reported that he had sent a detachment forward to Földvár to establish contact with Heydte and coordinate their activities. At the same time, an attack was being prepared to be launched with the brigade on its way to Háromszék sent by Puchner, and placed Romanian and Saxon popular insurgents and militiamen in Szunyogszék and Höltövény.
At dusk, Captain Sándor Gál arrived in Nagyajta with his troops. Colonel Dobai also sent as reinforcements one and a half companies of armed Székelys, together with a troop of spearmen and two cannons under the command of Áron Gábor. As in his other battles, Áron Gábor was accompanied by his wife Justina Velcsuj, even though she was pregnant.
On the same day Heydte sent a letter to the troops from Nagyajta. Referring to the burning of Köpec, and the massacre of its inhabitants, he called on the people of Háromszék to surrender unconditionally, threatening them that the whole seat might fall to the fate of the village. On the same day, Heydte's letter was sent to Sepsiszentgyörgy, the seat of Háromszék. But instead of a letter of surrender, captain Ignác Horváth Kovachich, or Captain Sándor Gál, responded to Heydte, threatening the imperials with imminent revenge. The destruction of Köpec caused great indignation among the Székelys. If Heydte's aim was intimidation, it had the opposite effect.
On the day after the battle of Köpec, Székely Hussars appeared at the smoking ruins of the village. Captain Kovachich Horváth with his hundred and thirty men marched from Hídvég to Nagyajta, and from there he sent patrols as far as the Barót stream. They found that the imperials had set up camp on the side of Felsőrákos close to Olasztelek and controlled the area as far as Barót. In the evening Captain Gál arrived, who agreed with Horváth that they should attack as soon as possible. For this Colonel Dobay provided them with a sufficient force. According to the plan, the Székely forces were divided into two groups. One of them, led by Horváth, had to move from Nagyajta to Középajta, then through Szárazajta to Nagybacon, and from there to Bibarcfalva and through Barót to Olasztelek. The other grouping, led by Gál, had to march through Köpec straight to Felsőrákos and to start the attack against Heydte's troops. The bidirectional attack was intended to make it impossible for Heydte to retreat. The battle plan was for Captain Horváth to march unnoticed across the bridges of the Rika stream valley, wait for Sándor Gál's troops to attack the enemy from the front, and at the decisive moment to attack the enemy's flank.
Horváth's detachment comprised 130 hussars led by himself, and Captain Butyka's 150 riflemen, and 500 spearmen from Erdővidék. Gál's troops consisted of 180 Hussars under the command of Lieutenant Máday, 120 riflemen, and 400 spearmen, as well as two six-pounder cannons under the command of Áron Gábor. These numbers were recorded by Horváth, but, according to historian Tamás Csikány, their number could have been higher, because probably also troops of ill armed Székely militias could have joined them.
Horváth's detachment set off on the designated route on 12 December, and by the evening they had to reach Nagybacon. The next day they wanted to arrive early at Barót to surprise the Dragoons they had expected to find there. However, this failed, because the imperial outpost received news of the Székely movements, so he retreated to his camp. The early arrival did not succeed either, because the infantrymen arrived at the place determined by Horváth only after a considerable delay, at 8 o'clock in the morning of 13 December. After it became clear that Heydte had been informed of the Székely presence, Horváth decided not to march as far as Olasztelek, but to attack from the hill north of Barót, where he had deployed the infantry. Horváth observed the enemy from the chapel on the hill, whose camp he saw in front of the edge of Felsőrákos, leaning towards Alsórákos, guarded by 68 dragoons posted on two sides around the Rákos stream. On the hill, Major Butyka lined up his infantry, with Count Imre Kálnoky standing 200 paces behind him with his spearmen. In the morning, Gál's detachment also arrived, after leaving Köpec crossed the Barót stream, and then took up the battle order. He brought there the two six-pounder guns of Áron Gábor, obviously covered by cavalry, while the riflemen must be used by Gál, who was a highly trained officer, in a standard skirmish line. The commander also placed horsemen behind the infantry to close the ranks and reinforce the infantry. In reality, the detachment of Gál did not intervene in the battle, only the fire of the guns contributed to the success that was to come.
Battle
Heydte observed the deployment of the Székelys with proper attention. The army marching against him the number of which he described as 8–9000, accompanied by four cannons, at least that is how he recorded it in his report. After this, although the previous day he had received a platoon of Dragoons as reinforcement, he decided not to engage the enemy, to repulse their attack, then retreat to the Homoród area across the Rika Mountain. Accordingly, he deployed his troops north of Felsőrákos, along the road to Székelyudvarhely. In accordance with his decision, he deployed his troop to march. The column was led by the 1st Company of the Savoy Dragoons, followed by two Romanian border guard companies, a platoon of the Sivkovich infantry, two double hook guns (Doppelhaken), and the militias led by Lieutenant Thomassegovich and Lieutenant Caballini. The column was covered from the rear by the 4th company of the Bianchi infantry regiment. The rest of the Romanian and Saxon militias and a platoon of the Savoy Dragoons, led by Lieutenant Gustav Bundschuh, secured the march from the left so that if the Székelys attacked from the direction of Barót, they had to fight them to protect the main column.
The imperial movements did not escape the attention of Captain Ignác Horváth, although he wrongly taught from the retreat of part of the enemy to the left that they might be trying to occupy Olasztelek. He wanted to prevent this at all costs, so he urgently ordered eight hussars, thirty riflemen, and a company of militias to rush to the village. At the same time, Áron Gábor's guns started to shoot.