Boundless history: 1849 - Colonel János Korponay, a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, is sentenced to a lengthy prison term after the War of Independence

János Korponay (1819‒1881), born into a family of landed lesser nobility, enlisted in the army in 1834. He served in the 37th (Máriássy) Infantry Regiment, where he was soon promoted to ensign. In 1837, he became a member of the Royal Hungarian Bodyguard in Vienna, where he studied military science and tactics. In 1842, he was promoted to first lieutenant and transferred to the 32nd (Este) Infantry Regiment.

On 24 December 1844, he became a corresponding member of the Hungarian Learned Society as a writer on military science. He expressed his gratitude for this in a letter to the Society dated 13 January 1845: “Esteemed Learned Society! As I accept my election as a corresponding member, I do not hesitate to express my heartfelt conviction that I regard this as a special mark of your esteem. I am most willingly prepared, and consider it my duty, to fulfil the Society’s commissions to the best of my ability and to contribute to the advancement of learning in my homeland, not only when I may be permitted by the higher authorities to use this honoured title and when it is also authorised for me in my military capacity, but in the meantime as well.”

He delivered his inaugural address on 17 March 1845, based on the first volume of his work Military Geography. In his lecture, he discussed the characteristics of military geography theory, described the military conditions of Europe, and analysed Russia and the Republic of Kraków from a military perspective.

After the revolutionary events of March 1848, Korponay became a military adviser to Prime Minister Lajos Batthyány, and from 17 April onward, he served as the prime minister’s secretary for military affairs and the National Guard. He also participated in the organisation of the Ministry of War, where he was appointed a ministerial secretary. In the spring of 1849, he was promoted to colonel.

In July, he organised an army of insurgents in the eastern part of the country, of which he also became the commander. He took part in several battles with his army. One of his most notable successes came on 25 July 1849, when he thwarted an attempt by Russians forces to cross the River Tisza at Tiszafüred. A few days later, however, he was forced to retreat. He was taken prisoner of war when the Hungarian army surrendered at Világos. He was held in Arad, where he was sentenced to death on 29 December, although in January the sentence was commuted to imprisonment in a fortress. He was finally released from the Kufstein Fortress Prison on 5 April 1856, under a general amnesty.

Afterwards, he worked as the chief archivist of Abaúj County, where he prepared A Monograph of Abaúj County for publication. His scholarly writings appeared in Tudománytár (On Military Academies in General, 1843), Akadémiai Értesítő (On the Theater of War in Serbia; The Hungarian Danube from a Military Perspective, 1847), Honderű (The History of the Janissaries; The History of the Bulgarians, 1847), and Társalkodó (The Art of War of the Greeks, 1847). While imprisoned in Arad, he began writing several scholarly works, but these were never published. His final work, The Military History of Hungary, was intended to be a five-volume treatise on military science, but he was unable to complete its revision before his death. By cultivating the study of military science in the Hungarian language, Korponay contributed to the establishment of an independent Hungarian military.