Southern Historical Society Papers/Volume 03/April/Zagonyi's Charge with Fremont's Body-Guard
Zagonyi's Charge with Fremont's Body-Guard—A Picturesque Fol-de-rol.
By Colonel William Preston Johnson.
In some recent studies on the late civil war, the attention of the writer has directed itself to the amazing exaggeration of certain fighters, and the equally wonderful credulity of certain writers. This was quite notable in the war in Missouri in 1861. The following instance will illustrate this class of cases. Its extreme improbability rests not more upon its explicit denial by the Confederates engaged, than on the internal evidences of inveracity. The writer has no individual interest in the question, except that of historical truth. But if this communication should tend to elicit the exact facts in this case, or to start similar inquiries in other cases, it will do something towards giving a solid basis to our war history, which should not rest upon fiction.
Among the stories that have been repeated until they have acquired currency and are liable to pass into history, unless contradicted, one of the most conspicuous in the Missouri campaign is the myth of "the charge of Zagonyi." Major Zagonyi, a Hungarian, the commander of Fremont's body-guard, gained great credit for the prodigious prowess of his command from his report of a charge in which he led 150 of them against 2,200 Confederates, whom he routed and slaughtered fearfully. His story is told in the Report on the Conduct of the War (part 3, page 186) and is vouched for by General Fremont (ibid, page 72); and, altogether, makes a very amusing piece of war literature.
This fierce hussar beholds the enemy in line of battle; he charges down a lane 200 yards, in which forty of his men are unhorsed. He continues thus:
"I formed my command, which at the time was hardly more than 100 men, and with them I attacked the enemy, and in less than five seconds the enemy were completely broken to pieces and running in every direction. My men were so much excited that ten or fifteen of them would attack hundreds of the enemy; and in that single attack, I lost fifteen men killed—that was all I lost in dead; and the enemy's dead men on the ground were 106.
"Question. How did you kill them—with sabres or with revolvers?"
"Answer. Mostly with the sabre. We Hungarians teach our soldiers never to use the revolver, as they are of very little use. The sabre is the only arm the cavalry need, if they are well drilled. There were no swords of my men that were not bloody; and I saw swords from which the blood was running down on the hand. The men were drilled very well. I had only six weeks from the time I had the first man sworn in service to the time we started for the field; but in those six weeks I brought them forward so far as I ever thought I should be able to do." * * * *
"By Mr. Chandler—Question. How many did you have wounded besides the fifteen killed?"
"Answer. I had twenty-eight wounded," &c. * *
"Question. Do you know the number of the wounded of the enemy?"
"Answer. No, sir; I do dot, but I heard that it was a great many; and that a great many of them would die, because they had mostly received heavy cuts on the head. All the dead were cut in the head. Some of the enemy behaved themselves very bravely indeed, but they were not able to hold up against this tremendous charge."
Zagonyi says in the course of two pages of testimony: "I found that the enemy, instead of having only 300 or 400, had 1,800 or 1,900." "After the battle was over, I found out there was indeed 2,200." "The probability was that there were 1,900 of the enemy."
In spite of the combined oriental exuberance and suspicious Falstaffian minuteness of this witness, not only less respectable annalists, but the Comte de Paris substantially accepts and adopts his story as a true narrative. The writer is assured, however, by those conversant with the facts, that Zagonyi's rhodomontade was merely the cloak for a disaster. He was ambuscaded by militia, not more numerous than his own command, and severely handled, with the loss of only two or three of his opponents.
If his story, or similar military reports, had been true, it was the wildest extravagance on the part of the United States to keep 60,000 or 80,000 men on foot in Missouri, as was the case at that time. Fremont's body-guard should have been increased to 2,000 or 3,000 men and permitted "to charge with sabres" wherever the Confederates could be found "in line of battle." Instead of this, an ungrateful Republic, while it embalmed these heroes in its history, somewhat contumeliously discharged them from its service. What is the truth of it?