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Transylvania / Romania

Bust of General Gál Sándor

Bust of General Gál Sándor
Petőfi Sándor's statue
Szabi237, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Original function:
statue / memorial / relief
Current function:
statue / memorial / relief
Address:
Temesvári út
Historical Hungarian county:
Csík
Country:
Romania
GPS coordinates:
46.3637267044, 25.801496887
Google map:

History

Gál Sándor was born in Csíkszentgyörgy in 1817. In 1848 he participated in the organisation of the National Guard. Together with Klapka György and Hajnik Károly, Prime Minister Batthyány Lajos sent him to Transylvania to mobilise the Székely army in support of the Hungarian government. He became Chief of Staff of the Székely army. After the Transylvanian commander-in-chief Puchner Antal had disobeyed the Hungarian government and pushed the Hungarian troops out of Transylvania, the Székely army was forced back to Háromszék. Gál Sándor was the organizer and commander of the Székely troops in the fighting in Háromszék. After the liberation of Székelyland, in January 1849, General Bem József promoted him to the rank of colonel and entrusted him with the further organisation of the Székely forces. On 4 February he was attacked by the Tsarist detachment and was defeated in the battle of Szászhermány.

By March, he had raised a regular corps of 10,000 men and took part in the summer campaign as commander of this unit, known as the Székelyland Division. On 19 and 20 June he took part in heavy fighting at the Tömösi Pass. On 2 July, Gál's Székely division attacked the Tsarist troops left behind to secure Székelyland between Kökös and Uzon. It was in this battle that the artillery commander of the Székely division, Gábor Áron, was killed. When the enemy entered Székelyland, he retreated with his troops to Csíkszereda. In mid-July, together with General Bem, who had arrived there, he launched a counterattack and on 23 July he fought a successful battle with the 15,000-strong Imperial corps near Sepsisentgyörgy. On 29 July he was promoted to general, but only later, in emigration, did he learn of this. He was decisively defeated by the Austro-Russian forces at the Battle of Nyergestető on 1 August. With this defeat, the whole of Székelyland fell into the hands of the enemy. With the rest of his army he joined Colonel Kazinczy's troops in Kolozsvár, but after Kazinczy surrendered at Zsibó on 24 August he hid for a while in the marshes around Szatmár, and then managed to escape abroad in the spring of 1850.

He was active in Hamburg and London, maintaining close contact with the revolutionaries forced into exile, then Kossuth Lajos sent him to Constantinople and entrusted him with the military leadership of the Transylvanian liberation movement. In November 1851 he appointed him commander-in-chief of the so-called Transylvanian liberation army. He took part in the preparation of the independence movement led by Makk József, Jubál Károly and May János.

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