The Hungarian hero who helped the Americans during the revolutionary war
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There was a Hungarian hussar who fought all over Europe and even against Hungarians. Once he heard about the revolution of the thirteen English colonies, he immediately decided to travel to the New World and help the Americans win their independence from the English Empire.
It was none other than noble-at-birth Mihály Kováts, who, through his adventurous life, ended up helping establish the United States Cavalry, along with the more well-known Polish General Kazimierz Pułaski (Casimir Pulaski).
Early years
According to Telex, American history views the Polish Pułaski as the “Father of American Cavalry”, and RevolutionaryWarNewJersey reported that he was also awarded the Honorary Citizen of the United States title in 2009, one of the eight people in the history of the US to have ever received such title.
The story of the Hungarian hero who helped the Polish general and the efforts of the United States soldiers started in Hungary when Mihály Kováts was born in 1724 in Karcag, to a then gentry family, but he became an orphan at the age of eight. To make his career, after finishing the local secondary school of the reformed church in his hometown, he, lying about his age, entered the Hávor hussar regiment, Telex reports.
Military career
This is when his adventurous career started, and not long after he joined the hussar regiment, the War of the Austrian Succession broke out after Emperor Charles VI had no son to inherit his throne, and he wanted his daughter, Maria Theresa, to be his heir.
Történelemútravaló reports that the Hávor hussar regiment immediately joined the First Silesian War, and Kováts fought among them. Then, the regiment moved to Prague where they first fought Hungarian units. These units were former Kuruc, who joined forces with the French to weaken the tyrannical grasp of Vienna. These hussars, the Bercsényi regiment, laid the foundation of the French light cavalry.
After 1742, when he was marched to today’s Italy, there is not a lot of information about his life. In 1745, he was detained in Passau and sent back to Buda, and then he joined the Haller Hungarian hussar regiment to fight against the Czechs, but after the conflict ended, Kováts was dismissed.
After this point, he became a mercenary and fought on many sides. He became a prisoner but was absolved, he found himself a wife and even had a son who, unfortunately, died at the age of three.
His contribution to the American Revolution
At 52, he once again took on an adventure and, in 1776, he was in Bordeaux, from where he wrote his letter to Benjamin Franklin. Történelemútravaló writes that Kováts must have known about the revolution of the thirteen colonies, and he must have started his journey from Hungary to eventually join the fight for independence.