Jellaçiç invades

Drava crossing

Croat Ban Jellaçiç (pronounced : Yelachich), heading an eclectic army, crossed the Dráva river into Hungary on Sep.11. Proclaiming he was bringing peace, it was to "restore the monarchy". His army of some 50 thousand included regulars, border guards, and the "Grenzer" (border region defenders). Not encountering resistance at first,their main activity was looting.This infuriated the peasants, who started to take their own revenge. The Hungarian army (Huszárs and Honvéds)was still very small. Their commander, Major General Ottinger tried to negotiate instead of resisting. Having been deposed, his successor, Ádám Teleki, followed similar strategy and was replaced by János Móga. By now, Jellaçiç was halfway to Buda-Pest. Key confrontation to be at Pákozd;(Sep. 21)where the invaders were routed

Umdaunted, The king reached to Jellaçiç to head the armies in Hungary. In an October 3 "manifesto", he appointed Jellaçiç supreme commander,dissolved the Hungarian national assembly, declared martial law and threatened those disobeying with treason. However, Jellaçiç's army was in retreat, thus the appointment carried little weight. The move was seen as promoted by General Count Baillet von Latour, Austrian minister of war.His strategy was to provoke confrontation not only with the Hungarians, but also Austrian liberal elements.

In the meantime Batthyány was prevailed upon to form a new cabinet and asked the Palatine to take charge of the army. Thus a Habsburg was set against a pro-Habsburg Jellaçiç. Concurrently, Kossuth led a number of moves to fortify the Honvéd, while assiduously organizing local governments to wield effective defense and urging Buda and Pest to erect fortifications. The parliament passed a series of measures to obtain peasant support (e.g.abolishing taxes leviedon vineyards).

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