The Battle of Perlasz (now Perlez, in the Zrenjanin municipality in the Central Banat District Serbia) was a battle in the Hungarian War of Independence of 1848-1849, fought on 2 September 1848 between the Hungarian Army under the command of Colonel Ernő Kiss and Lieutenant Colonel Antal Vetter against the Serbian insurgents led by Colonel Jovan Drakulić. The Hungarians captured, through heavy fight, the Serbian fortified military camp from Perlasz, being the first important offensive success of the Hungarian army in the Revolutionary war. Although this success could not be exploited because of Kiss's indecision, it had an important moral boost for the Hungarians, and also prevented the Serbians to start an offensive right when the Croatian troops led by Ban Josip Jelačić attacked Hungary, to put an end to the Hungarian independence.
Background
At the beginning of July, the Serb fortified camps numbered 29–30,000 armed men, with at least 100 guns, mostly small caliber (3-6-pounders). The Serbs had no cavalry, so they struck at the Hungarian, Romanian and German settlements in the area on fast-moving wagons. On 26 June, a bloody clash took place between the Hungarian population and the Serbian National Guard supported by Serbian volunteers coming from the Principality of Serbia to help the anti-Hungarian insurgence) at the election of the deputies in Újvidék (Novi Sad).
As soon as the Hungarian government learned about the escalating situation in Southern Hungary, it decided to introduce more serious security measures. On 11 June, the Minister of the Interior, Bertalan Szemere, informed the threatened counties and cities that a camp consisting of conscripts and national guards would be established in the Szeged area. But on 12 June, the Hungarian troops led by Lieutenant General János Hrabovszky, trying to put down the Serbian revolt, were forced to retreat in the Battle of Karlóca, which emboldened the Serbs even more, to revolt against the Hungarian government. On 13 June, he ordered the mobilization of 2–4,000 national guards in the counties threatened by the Croat and Serb movements. From mid-June onwards, the southern counties took successive measures to mobilize their national guardsmen and place them on the Bács County defense line.
Although the size of the force thus formed, consisting of National Guards, Honvéds, and K.u.K. Infantry and Cavalry units, was considerable, the loyalty of the non-Hungarian soldiers, quite numerous in the K.u.K. troops, could hardly be counted on. The national guards, mostly of Hungarian nationality, were not suitable for actual military operations, but only for garrison and other security duties. No wonder, then, that this - already fragmented - conscripted army was unable to destroy the Serb military camps. Its strength was only enough to prevent the rebels from gaining further ground.
Evolution of the number of Hungarian troops in Southern Hungary:
On 24 June, Hungarian Royal Commissioner Péter Csernovits signed an armistice with the Serbs, who used it to strengthen their positions and did not keep the ceasefire. This was already shown by the massacre in Újvidék (Novi Sad), and on 30 June the village of Magyarszentmihály was raided and burnt to the ground. When the ceasefire expired on 4 July, the Main Odbor (the Serbian National Assembly) declared that the rebels would not disperse, but would wait for First Archbishop Josif Rajačić's return from Zagreb (where he discussed the anti-Hungarian alliance with the leader of Croatia, Josip Jelačić) and that the status quo would remain until then.
In the middle of July, the Serbs launched a general attack, but their attacks carried out on a long frontline were repulsed everywhere by the imperial troops and the Hungarian national guards. The most serious clash was on 11 July in the Battle of Versec. The garrison of Versec, consisting mostly of K.u.K. troops, advanced in battle formation against the 3,800-strong Serbian attack column, half of which were border guards of the Military Frontier. The advancing Serbs were attacked in the flank and from the back by the Hussars and the Uhlans, and then the infantry put them to flight with a bayonet charge. The Serb losses were 303 dead and nearly 200 prisoners.
But the Hungarian attack on Szenttamás three days later failed. After this Hungarian defeat, on 14-15 and 16–17 July, the Serbian garrison of the Roman ramparts attacked and occupied Bácsföldvár, whose Hungarian possession threatened both the Roman ramparts and Szenttamás. On 16 July, at Futak, the National Guards and K.u.K. soldiers from Szabadka repelled another Serbian attack.
The aim of the Serb insurgents in Bánság at this time was to capture Nagybecskerek, and thus the district of Nagykikinda. Therefore, on 15 July, Lieutenant Đorđe Stratimirović's troops attacked the garrison led by Colonel Ernő Kiss of Écska, but the garrison repulsed them. The occupation of Pancsova and the burning of the village of Uzdin, inhabited by Romanians, on 23 July were intended to advance here. On 3 and 6 August, heavy fighting took place in the areas of Szárcsa, Ernesztáza, and Neuzina, in which the Serbs were eventually defeated.
By the beginning of August, a coherent Hungarian defence line had been established in Bácska and Bánság. Stratimirović attacked the Hungarian camp from Verbász on 1 and 3 August but was repulsed both times. On 10 August it attacked Temerin and Járek and on 13 August again Verbász without success.
Lieutenant General Fülöp Bechtold, who had moved his headquarters to Versec on 17 August, decided to launch another attack on Szenttamás, but it failed again on 19 August. At the end of the month, Stratimirović's troops launched two attacks, and on 30 August they captured Temerin and Járek. As a result of this Serbian success, the connection between the Hungarian forces in Bácska and the fortress of Pétervárad was cut, and a continuous Serbian front line was established from Szenttamás through the Roman ramparts to Titel, and from there to Perlasz, Tomasevác, Alibunár to Strázsa.
A serious obstacle in the way of the Serbian forces in Bánság was the town of Fehértemplom, the only town in the border region that stood by the Hungarian government. The soldiers of the Serbian military camps in Vracsegáj and Lokva were constantly attacking the city. On 2 August, the garrison of Fehértemplom, led by Lieutenant Colonel Le Gay, attacked and destroyed the Serb camp from the Lokva forest. The K.u.K. troops, however, soon left the town, while the Serbs established two smaller camps around the town in addition to the Vracsevgáj camp. After the departure of the K.u.K. troops, the defense of Fehértemplom was taken over by Captain Ferenc Maderspach. At 1 am on 19 August, the Serbs led by Stevan Knićanin attacked the city from three directions, and by morning had taken the Serb-inhabited part of the city. In the afternoon, however, Maderspach's guards recaptured the whole town. Shortly afterward reinforcements arrived from Versec under Colonel Blomberg, but they did not take part in the fighting. After the failed offensive, the Serbs tried to negotiate the departure of the Hungarian troops, but they imposed such humiliating conditions on the town's population that the citizens refused to accept them. At the same time, Austria's consul in Belgrade, Colonel Ferdinand Mayerhofer von Grünhübel, did his best to support the Serbians, and convince the government from Serbia, to send more troops to Hungary, which was a strong signal to the leaders of the non-Hungarian supplemented Imperial regiments, put under the command of the Hungarian government, stationing in the Bácska and Bánság regions, convincing them that the Empire preferred to support the Serbs against the Hungarians and that they, therefore, did not have to fight on the side of the Hungarians.
On 30 August, Knićanin launched another attack on Fehértemplom but was repulsed by the 9th Honvéd Battalion, which had been deployed there in the meantime, and the city's National Guard. The K.u.K. troops led by Colonel Blomberg did not intervene in the fighting, and the officers of Blomberg's regiment, the 2nd (Schwarzenberg) Uhlan Regiment, declared that they would henceforth limit their operations to the defense of Versec, but would not fight against the Serbian border guards.
On 7 September, the Hungarian garrison in Fehértemplom raided the Serbian camp in Vrachevga and destroyed it. To make up for this, the Serbs set up military camps at Ördöghídja and Strázsa to break the connection between Fehértemplom and Versec.
Prelude
At the same time as the actions against Fehértemplom, fighting also began in the mining district of Krassó, after most of the local border guards had also switched to the side of the insurgents. On 22 August, 400 Serb insurgents attacked Újmoldova. After a five-hour battle, Major Lajos Asbóth, who was defending the mining town, retreated to Németszászka, and the Serbs set fire to Újmoldova. On 28 August, a Hungarian detachment led by Captain Sándor Rácz returned the loan and defeated the Serbs camped in Ómoldova.
Of the Serbian military camps in Bánság, the Perlasz camp, was the third camp built after those from Karlóca and the Roman entrenchments, being established in mid-June, under the command of retired K.u.K. Lieutenant Jovan Drakulić, Colonel of the Serbian National Guards. This camp was built in opposition to Nagybecskerek and, together with Alibunár, was a solid base for the Serb uprising. The Serbian communities south and east of the camp were subordinated to the Perlasz camp. All actions from here to the north threatened especially Nagybecskerek and its surroundings. The Perlasz Serb military camp was located on the left bank of the Béga canal, on the Perlasz-Écska road, about 4 km from the village of Perlasz. The camp, which was at a forest guardhouse, was surrounded by a continuous defensive trench system of parallel ramparts, the outer trench of which was 2 m deep and 4 m wide. The camp was situated on a slightly elevated area, with its western and northern sides descending steeply towards the Béga. The higher southern part overlooked the surrounding area. Closer to Perlasz, a massive redoubt has been built at Jáncsa Hill (Jancova Hunka). The camp had about 500 thatched huts to house the troops. The camp had 300 border guards at the beginning of July, and 5,000 border guards and 300 Servians in mid-July. The Serb troops consisted mainly of well-trained border guards, Šajkaši units, Servians, and volunteers from Serbian villages in Hungary. 12 cannons were deployed on the parapets. 4 of these were placed on the open outpost trench. The guns in the camp were mostly of small caliber.
At the beginning of August, due to the constant incursions of the Serbs from Perlasz, the soldiers of the Hungarian camp in Écska sent a delegation to Colonel Ernő Kiss, the commander of the camp from Nagybecskerek, and asked him to allow them to attack the camp. Kiss was not against the idea of an attack, and success was necessary before all, because of the public anger at the failure of the second siege of Szenttamás and the destruction by the Serbs, of Temerin and Járek. By capturing Perlasz, the connection between Titel and Tomasevác could be severed, and Kiss could also secure his property from Elemér from Serbian attacks. Colonel Kiss Ernő urged the government to send a strong force to be able to strike a decisive blow at the Perlasz camp as soon as he felt capable of undertaking this mission.
After he received the reinforcements, Kiss had at his disposition the following forces:
- 3. battalion of the 37th (Michael) infantry regiment (6 companies=450 soldiers);
- 3. battalion of the 39th (Dom Miguel) infantry regiment (5 companies);
- 10. Honvéd battalion (6 companies);
- Woroniecki jäger troop (2 companies);
- Bihar national guard battalion (7 1/2 companies);
- Volunteers from Lukácsfalva (160 men);
- Nagybecskerek national guard battalion (6 companies);
- 2nd (Hannover) hussar regiment (6 companies);
- 6th (Württemberg) hussar regiment (3 companies);
- Artillery (20 cannons).
Total: 8000 soldiers and 20 cannons.