| Name |
Civil War Service |
Comments |
| Albert, Anselm |
Colonel on Gen. John C. Fremont's staff in the Western Department; Fremont's chief-of-staff in the Mountain Department with the rank of colonel |
Participated in the battle of Wilson's Creek, MO, Aug. 10, 1861, where he was wounded and captured. At the start of the war, he played a prominent role in organizing pro-Union forces in St. Louis. |
| Asboth, Alexander |
Fremont's chief-of-staff in the Western Department; commander of the District of West Florida; brevetted major-general on March 13, 1865 |
US minister to Argentina after the Civil War; died in Buenos Aires on January 21, 1868 from the effects of the wounds sustained during the battle of Marianna, FL, in September 1864. His remains were brought back to the US in 1990 and interred in Arlington National Cemetery. |
| Dr. Bettelheim, Bernard |
Surgeon and major, 106th Illinois Infantry |
Prior to coming to the United States, he was a prominent and controversial missionary in Okinawa and rendered valuable aid to Commodore Perry in the opening of Japan. His exploits in the Far East are described in numerous writings dealing with missionaries and the history of Okinawa. |
| Csermelyi, Joseph |
Captain, 45th New York Infantry; Captain, 82nd U.S. Colored Infantry; brevetted major on March 13, 1865 |
One of the participants in the Cuban filibustering expedition of Gen. Narciso Lopez in August 1851, he spent a year and a half in the Spanish penal prison at Ceuta, North Africa. |
| De Korponay, Gabriel |
Colonel, 28th Pennsylvania Infantry |
One of the few Hungarians to come to the US before the 1848-49 revolution, he taught fencing at a boys' school in the early 1840s where his favorite pupil was George Dashiell Bayard, who rose to the rank of general during the Civil War and was mortally wounded at Fredericksburg in December 1862. |
| Dobozy, Peter Paul |
Lieutenant-Colonel, 4th U. S. Colored Heavy Artillery |
Before coming to the US, he served with the Hungarian Legion in Italy and sustained serious wounds while fighting against Carmine Crocco Donatelli, one of the most notorious outlaws in Italian history. |
| Dunka, Nicolai |
Aide-de-camp with rank of captain on Fremont's staff in the Mountain Department; killed in action during the battle of Cross Keys, VA, on June 8, 1862 |
He served with the Hungarian Legion in Italy before coming to America. |
| D'Utassy, Frederick George |
Colonel of the 39th New York Infantry |
One of the more flamboyant figures of the Civil War, he was cashiered for a variety of offenses and sentenced to one year in Sing Sing Prison. Afterwards he carved out a respected and succesful career in the insurance business. His two brothers, Carl and Anton, were also in the regiment; neither was implicated in his nefarious deeds. |
| Estvan, Bela |
Colonel in the Confederate army |
The only Hungarian to achieve prominance on the Southern side, he is the author of War Pictures from the South which was published in England and the US in 1863 and as Kriegsbilder aus Amerika in Germany in 1864, and reprinted by Books for Libraries Press in 1971. |
| Fiala, John |
Fremont's chief topographical engineer in the Western Department as well as in the Mountain Department with the rank of colonel |
He played a leading role in building the fortifications around St. Louis and in equipping Fremont's army with a flottila of river gunboats. While working for the railroad before the Civil War, he prepared the first large sectional and topographical map of Missouri. His memoirs were published in Hungary in 1942. |
| Figyelmessy, Philip |
Colonel on Fremont's staff in the Mountain Department; later colonel on the staff of Gen. Julius Stahel |
He was one of the most daring and successful secret agents of ex-Governor Lajos Kossuth in Turkey and England during the 1850s. He helped to organize Hungarian contingents in the War of 1859 which pitted Piedmont and France against the Hapsburg Empire. Commanded one of the Hungarian Legion's cavalry squadrons during Garibaldi's campaign in southern Italy. After the Civil War, he was US consul to British Guyana for 20 years. |
| Fornet, Cornelius |
Engineering major with Fremont in the Western Department. A serious accident in October 1861 necessitated his withdrawal from active service. Subsequently he helped to organize the 22nd New Jersey Infantry Infantry. |
One of the most decorated veterans of the 1848-49 war, he helped fellow exile János Prágay write The Hungarian Revolution, one of the earliest English-language books about the struggle against the Hapsburgs, upon their arrival in America. The story of his life was published in Hungary in 1946. [Prágay was second-in-command of the Lopez expedition to Cuba and perished there.] |
| Gerster, Anton |
Commander, Gerster's Independent Co. of Pioneers; Captain, 5th Missouri Infantry; Captain, 27th Missouri Infantry |
An engineer by profession, he worked with John A. Roebling, the famous bridge-builder, prior to the Civil War. He was the uncle of two world-renowned Gersters: Dr. Árpád Gerster, pioneer in modern surgical techniques whose pupils included William J. and Charles H. Mayo; and Etelka Gerster, the prima donna and rival of Adelina Patti in the affections of New York opera lovers. |
| Grecheneck, George |
Captain 72nd New York Infantry; died of wounds received in the battle of Williamsburg, VA, on May 5, 1862 |
He came to the US aboard the Mississippi, and was one of Kossuth's bodyguards when the ex-Governor toured the US. |
| Haraszthy, Geza |
Major, 18th New York Cavalry |
He was the eldest son of Ágoston Haraszthy, the "Father of California Viticulture." While sheriff of San Diego County well before the Civil War, the elder Haraszthy arrested a young rake by the name of Roy Bean, who later became Judge Roy Bean, "the only law west of the Pecos." After the Civil War, he and his father moved to Nicaragua and both died there. |
| Hillebrandt, Hugo |
Major, 39th New York Infantry; seriously wounded at Gettysburg; captain, 12th Regiment, Veteran Reserve Corps |
He returned to Europe to participate in Garibaldi's 1860 Sicilian campaign; he served as US consul to Crete after the Civil War |
| Hollan, Hugo |
Major of a Missouri cavalry battalion known as the Hollan Horse; died in action at Jackson, TN, as captain with the 119th Illinois Infantry. |
A veteran of the 1848-49 War of Liberation, he also served in the Ottoman army. He lost command of the Hollan Horse for engaging in pillaging against civilians. |
| Knefler, Frederick |
Colonel of the 79th Indiana Infantry Regiment; brevetted brigadier-general on |
A lifelong friend of Lew Wallace, author of Ben-Hur and other popular novels, he is acknowledged to be the highest ranking officer of the Jewish faith in the Union army. A lawyer after the war, he was president of the Board of Regents in charge of the erection of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Indianapolis. See article at http://www.jewish-history.com/knefler.html. |
| Kovacs, Stephen |
Major, 54th New York Infantry; declined promotion to lieutenant-colonel on the grounds that only native-born Americans should hold high ranks |
Endured several months of captivity in Libby Prison following his capture at Gettysburg where his regiment bore the brunt of the initial Confederate attack. A clergyman, he fought in the revolution of 1848-49 as a major and spent two years in Turkey before coming to the US aboard the Mississippi. |
| Kovats, Augustus |
Captain, 24th Illinois Infantry Infantry |
Serious wounds sustained at Jasper, TN, on June 21, 1862 forced his resignation in January of the following year. He was among those who returned to Hungary after the Civil War. |
| Kozlay, Eugene |
Colonel, 45th New York infantry; brevetted brigadier-general on March 13, 1865 |
After the Civil War, he became a well-known engineer. One of his sons, Charles Meeker Kozlay, a prominent publisher, was a steadfast patron of the writer Brett Harte. |
| Kuné, Julian |
Major, 24th Illinois Infantry |
One of the principal organizers of the regiment, he resigned after a few months due to conflict with Friedrich Hecker, the regiment's first colonel. He then became a very successful businessman in Chicago. Late in life, he wrote a book Reminiscences of an Octogenerian Hungarian Exile, which remains a favorite reference material to authors discussing the participation of ethnic groups in the war. |
| Lang, Henry |
Captain, 48th New York Infantry |
Returned to Hungary after the Civil War and wrote extensively about his experiences in America. |
| Lulley, Charles |
Union navy; honorably discharged for bodily disability in 1863 |
Son of Emmanuel Lulley, he was the only Hungarian to serve in the Union navy. Due to the dire poverty of the Lulley family, he was "adopted" by the renowned ethnologist Henry Rowe Schoolcraft and his wife. After his tragic death in the great fire of March 8, 1867 in Washington, D.C., Mrs. Schoolcraft wrote a tribute to him. |
| Lulley, Emanuel |
Agent, Department of Justice with the rank of major |
During the 1848-49 War of Liberation he was a high-level official entrusted with espionage and counterespionage. He came to the US with his entire family aboard the Mississippi. |
| Majtheny, Theodore |
1st sergeant, 2nd Iowa Infantry; 2nd lieutenant, Fremont's Body Guard; Captain 1st Indiana Cavalry |
The only other Hungarian in the Guard commanded by fellow exile Charles Zagonyi, he returned to Hungary after the Civil War with his father Baron József Majthenyi, a prominent politician during the revolution of 1848-49, and participated in the organization of the new Hungarian army in wake of the Compromise of 1867 which set up the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. |
| Mihalotzy, Geza |
Colonel, 24th Illinois Infantry; died on March 11, 1864 in Chattanooga, TN, of wounds received at Buzzard Roost Gap on Febr. 24 |
In honor of his memory, two forts, one in Chatttanooga and one in Knoxville, were named after him. At the start of the Civil War, he organized a militia company called the Lincoln Riflemen. The letter he wrote to Lincoln asking for permission to use the President's name rests in in the Lincoln Collection of the Chicago Historical Society's Gilpin Library. |
| Nemett, Joseph |
Colonel, 5th Missouri Cavalry |
He served as one of Kossuth's bodyguards during the Turkish internment and came to the US aboard the Mississippi. |
| Perczel, Nicholas |
Colonel, 10th Iowa Infantry |
The son of a wealthy landowner, he was a prominent politician before the 1848-49 war during which he served as colonel. Mór, one of his older brothers, was among the Hungarian army's leading generals. He spent five years in the mid-1850s on the Isle of Jersey where one of his neighbors was Victor Hugo. He returned to Hungary after the Civil War, resumed his political career and died laden with honors at the age of 92 in 1902. His diary was published in 1977. |
| Pomutz, George |
Major, 15th Iowa Infantry regiment; brevetted brigadier-general on March 13, 1865 |
One of the founders of New Buda, the Hungarian settlement in Iowa, he was appointed US consul to St. Petersburg, Russia, after the Civil War and died there. |
| Pulitzer, Joseph |
Cavalryman, 1st New York (Lincoln) Cavalry |
After the Civil War, he embarked on his well-known meteroric career in journalism and in his will endowed the prizes which bear his name. |
| Radnich, Stephen |
Iowa Home Guards |
One of the few successful Hungarian settlers in Iowa, he came to the US with his brothers Imre and János. Imre participated in the Lopez expedition to Cuba. János was chief of artillery of the Hungarian Legion in Italy. Both Imre and János returned to Hungary and carved out prominent careers. |
| Rombauer, Raphael Guido |
Major, 1st Illinois Light Artillery; chief-of artillery of the District of West Tennessee; while serving under U.S. Grant in Missouri in the early days of the war, he handled the communications in Hungarian from Fremont |
Their father, Tivadar Rombauer, was organizer and director of the Hungarian arms factories during the 1848-49 War of Liberation; their mother, Berta Rombauer, is listed among the notable German-American women for her translations of Hungarian poems into German. Prominent in the public life of St. Louis, MO, for decades, Robert is the author of the highly regarded The Union Cause in St. Louis in 1861, published in 1909. Roderick served as judge of Law Commissioners, Circuit Court and Court of Appeals and |
| Rombauer, Robert |
Colonel, 1st Missouri Infantry, U.S. Reserve Corps |
|
| Rombauer, Roderick Emil |
Captain, 1st Regiment Missouri Volunteers |
|
| Rombauer, Roland |
Captain, 1st Florida Cavalry |
|
| Rozafy, Ernst M. |
Captain, Battery B, West Virginia Light Artillery, and later ordnance officer |
He was one of the top secret agents of the Hungarian emigre movement in Turkey following the 1848-49 war. Very active in Hungarian-American affairs till the end of his life, he rests in Arlington National Cemetery. |
| Ruttkay, Albert |
Captain, 4th U. S. Colored Heavy Artillery; Major, First Florida Cavalry |
He was one of the five nephews of Lajos Kossuth (the other four being the Zulavsky brothers) to participate in the Civil War. After the conflict, he established a succesful cotton business in Houston, TX. |
| Semsey, Charles |
Major, 45th New York Infantry |
A scion of one of Hungary's oldest and most distinguished families, he served in the German Legion, a mercenary unit raised by the British government during the Crimean War. The Semsey Andor Museum in Balmazújváros, Hungary, contains an extensive collection about the family. |
| Solyon, Louis |
1st lieutenant, 31st New York Infantry |
A remarkable linguist - he was fluent in more than 20 languages - he worked at the Library of Congress after the Civil War. |
| Stahel, Julius |
Major-general |
He was the highest ranking Hungarian in the Civil War and the only Hungarian to win the coveted Medal of Honor. See articles at http://suvcw.org/mollus/art018.pdf and http://www.arlingtoncemetery.com/ juliushs.htm |
| Szabad, Emeric |
Aide-de-camp with the rank of captain on the staffs of General John C. Fremont, Daniel E. Sickles and Gouverneur Kemble; brevetted colonel for gallantry |
One of Hungary's foremost teachers of English before the 1848-49 revolution, he participated in Garibaldi's Sicilian campaign and wrote highly acclaimed works in Hungarian, English and French. See the book The Libby Prison Diary of Colonel Emeric Szabad. |
| Dr. Tauszky, Rudolf |
Assistant surgeon of volunteers with rank of 1st lieutenant |
He was a pupil of Dr. Ignác Semmelweis, the discoverer of the cause of puerperal fever. Prior to the Civil War, he served with the Hungarian Legion in Italy and after the war he became a highly respected figure in New York City's medical circles. |
| Vandor, Joseph |
Colonel, 7th Wisconsin Infantry |
Although popular with the rank and file, his strict disciplinary measures alienated the regimental officers and was coerced into resigning, becoming US consul to Tahiti. |
| Waagner, Gustav |
Chief-of-artillery in the Western Department of Fremont; Colonel, 2nd New York Heavy Artillery |
An engineer by education, Waagner also served under Gen. George B. McClellan and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant; both spoke very highly of him. The fortifications he built around Cairo, IL, were praised by London Times correspondent William Howard Russell when he visited the site. |
| Weekey, Anthony |
Major, 39th New York Infantry regiment; died of disease at Winchester, VA, on April 28, 1862 |
He was the younger brother of Zsigmond (better known in the English-speaking world as Sigismund Wekey), who made important literary and scientific contributions in Australia, earning himself an entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography. |
| Zagonyi, Charles |
Commanded Fremont's Body Guard in the Western Department with the rank of major; colonel and chief of cavalry in Fremont's Mountain Department |
One of the and most written about Hungarians of the Civil War because of his daring charge against an overwhelming number of Confederates at Springfield, MO, on 1861. He is the central figure in Jessie Benton Fremont's popular book The Story of the Guard. |
| Zerdahelyi, Edward |
2nd lieutenant, 39th New York Infantry |
A piano virtuoso, he was a pupil and friend of the great Franz Liszt. While in exile in London, England, he was one of the main figures in the notorious Baroness von Beck affair. |
| Zulavsky, Casimir |
1st lieutenant, 10th Kansas Infantry |
They were the sons of Kossuth's sister Emilia. Ladislas and Emil served with the Hungarian Legion in Italy prior to the Civil War. With the exception of Casimir, the black sheep of the family, all rendered honorable service during the Civil War. George Luther Stearns, a wealthy Boston businessman and noted abolitionist, rendered much financial help to them upon their arrival in America in the early 1850s. |
| Zulavsky, Emil |
1st lieutenant, 82nd U.S. Colored Infantry |
|
| Zulavsky, Ladislas |
Colonel, 82nd U. S. Colored Infantry |
|
| Zulavsky, Sigismund |
2nd lieutenant, 82 U.S. Colored Infantry; died of disease at Port Hudson, LA, on Sept. 16, 1863 |
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