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# The Reprisals

The decision to institute court martials, made public in Transylvania on August 11, specified that 'all the deeds, mistakes, and rash misdemeanours committed by Hungarian insurgents, instigators, and rebels, or committed in complicity with them, shall be dealt with and punished.'[2]2. Haynau's order to Lieutenant General Ludwig von Wohlgemuth on 21 August 1849, ibid.

It was General Haynau, the plenipotentiary commander in the subdued country who, in a letter addressed to Transylvania, elaborated with military precision the principal forms of punishment: "All leaders of the rebellion, including those of independent fighting forces, must be hanged ... those who had previously served in the Austrian imperial-royal army must be executed by firing-squad. All those who, by word and deed, or by their influence, served or supported the revolt in any way, must be arrested and brought to court martial. ... Romanians, Croats, and Saxons, who served as common soldiers or non-commissioned officers in the rebel army or other forces, must be immediately released. Hungarians, Székelys, Poles, and those who served in the German legion must be recruited as privates.'[3]3. Haynau's order to L. von Wohlgemuth on 24 August 1849, ibid. Within a month, five investigative courts were set up to gather evidence against those who had participated in the revolution and the war of independence. Day after day, heavy sentences were handed down by the imperial-royal court martials at Pest, Arad and Kolozsvár. In Arad, out of 475 prosecuted officers, 231 were sentenced to death, although considerably fewer were actually executed. The execution of the thirteen national guard generals was followed, on October 25, in Arad, by that of General Lajos Kazinczy, the last commander of the national guard in Transylvania; later, three other high-ranking officers met the same fate. András Tamás, the commander of the Csíkszék national guard, {3-335.} and László Sándor, a government commissioner, were hanged in Szamosújvár and in Szamosfalva, respectively, on October 18. The Austrians were particularly assiduous in their pursuit of Székely rebel leaders, and even of local priests, lawyers, and farm managers who might have uttered seditious words during the 1848–49 events; the Székelys were blamed for the failure of imperial forces in 1848 to attack the Hungarians from the rear, from Transylvania, and thus to nip the revolution in the bud. The court martials' sentences took up several pages in newspapers and spread fear across the country. According to rough estimates, 72 national guard officers and 25 civilians were sentenced to death in Transylvania alone; 64 people, among them Romanian supporters of the Hungarians' cause, received long jail sentences and, in many cases, had their property confiscated. Even Axente Sever, a Romanian leader and ally of the Austrians, was arrested and brought to trial court in November when he refused to fully disband his insurgent force. Only thanks to his meritorious services in 1848 did he escape imprisonment. Several Romanian parliamentary deputies from Bihar and the Banat who had supported the revolution, notably Eftimie Murgu, Aloisiu Vlad, and Sigismund Pop, ended up in Austrian prisons, as did many Romanian priests of the Banat. Death sentences were handed down as late as 1850, although by then Haynau would routinely commute them to life imprisonment; later, the Viennese government would grant further remissions. This is how Mihály Mikó, György Haller, and Count Ferenc Haller escaped with their lives; Ferenc Haller earned the death sentence for having merely 'assisted the rebels with his fortune, his name, and his influence.'[4]4. See the minutes of the cabinet meeting on 6 July 1852, in Die Protokolle des österreichischen Ministerrates 1849-1867, ed. by W. Heindl (Vienna, 1975). Austrian rebels were treated with particular vindictiveness: Major Lajos Hauck, the military governor of Szászváros, Bem's aide-decamp, could not benefit from such leniency and was executed in March 1850. Those sentenced to imprisonment were transported to Austrian dungeons, where their generally harsh treatment was nevertheless differentiated by social rank.

{3-336.} The reprisals were less orderly when they touched on personal property. In the autumn of 1849, Romanian peasants in the Érc Mountains started occupying forests on crown lands. Here and there, military commanders personally intervened to restore calm; then, on September 8, the governor ordered that the culprits be shot on the spot, like robbers, without recourse to judicial proceedings.

On the whole, the reprisals in Transylvania — though far more bloody than anyone had expected — were gentler than in other parts of the country. For one thing, the rebels were fewer in number, and the battle lasted longer, so that many of those who faced the greatest risks managed to flee the country. The lucky ones who escaped after the capitulation at Világos included General Bem, a giant among European freedom fighters, and the staff officers János Czetz, Baron Farkas Kemény, and Count Gergely Bethlen; they were later followed by Sándor Gál and 'the Székelys' Kossuth,' László Berzenczey. The latter was sentenced to death in absentia, just like Sándor Teleki, Miklós Jósika, József Dobokay, Bem's chief constable, and Józsa Oroszhegyi Szabó; their names were nailed onto the gallows during a military parade. Among the common soldiers, an entire Székely battalion escaped across the border.

Besides the officers who had participated in the independence war, the civil servants who remained in office after 1849 also had to account for their behaviour before so-called purification commissions, and only those who were cleared could receive a pension or a new appointment. Punishments were inflicted upon public bodies and communities; towns, especially Székely ones, were burdened with war indemnities, and the Austrian forces were supplied mainly by requisitioned foodstuffs.

Along with reprisals there came the rewards. Those who had remained loyal to the emperor amidst the upheavals of 1848–49 received imperial decorations, handed over at solemn ceremonies in the autumn of 1850. The highest decorations were conferred on the Saxon count Franz Salmen, and on the Orthodox bishop Andrei {3-337.} Şaguna. A few Hungarian and many Saxon civil servants were rewarded with the gold cross of merit, as were Avram Iancu and a few other Romanian leaders. Nor did the Austrians neglect to decorate, for symbolic effect, some peasants for their sacrifice and loyalty.