*GORGE1, ARTHUR, was born on the 5th of February, 1818, at Poporez, an hereditary possession of his family, in the county of zips, n Upper Hungary. He was sent in 1832 to the military school of ruin, where he remained till 1S37, when his father's influence pro :wed him admission into the royal Hungarian Life-Guards, stationed tt Vienna. In 1842 he was attached to the Hussars of the Palatinate, with the rank of lieutenant. His father died in 1843, and in 1845 Gorgei quitted the army, and removed to Prague in order to study the sciences in the university of that city. lie appears to have at tached himself especially to chemistry, which he studied under Red tenbach. He had spent the early part of the year 1848 on the estate of a relative in northern Hungary, living a quiet country life, when the Hungarian Committee of Defence, with Kossuth as its president, in the month of March called for volunteers to defend the country against the armies of the Croatians and Slavonians under their Ban, Jellachich. Gorgei obeyed the call, and was immediately invested with the rank of Captain, and attached to the fifth battalion of the then in process of formation at Raab. He soon afterwards left this battalion on receiving a commission to purchase muskets and superintend the preparation of other fire-arms. He was next ordered to assist at Pesth in the formation of a plan for the concentration of the Mobile National Guard from the four circles of Hungary, and was himself appointed to the command of the circle of This-Side-the Theies with the rank of Honved Major. His chief station was at Szolnok, aud after collectiug about 700 men of the 5000 calculated upon, he was ordered in the mouth of September to occupy the island of Csepel in the Danube below Pesth, in order to oppose any attempt of Jellachich or his auxiliaries under Roth and Philippovich to cross the Danube. Before proceeding there he obtained from the Hun garian prime-minister, Count Louis Batthyany, a document authorising him to form, when requisite, a court-martial to adjudicate upon cases of treason, disobedience, and cowardice, to confirm condemnations to death, and to order their execution. While at Csepel collecting and organising troops, he received, on the 30th of September, information that Counts Eugene and Paul Zichy had been arrested at the outposts on suspicion of treason, and were detained at his head-quarters at Adony. He went there, and conducted the prisoners to the island of Csepel, where he summoned a court-martial, and sat himself as pre sident. Count Eugene Zichy was found guilty of being in communi cation with Jellachich ; Gorgei passed sentence of death upon him, and the sentence was forthwith carried into execution. Count Paul Zichy, against whom there were no proofs suitable for the proceedings of a court-martial, was transferred to the ordinary courts of law.
Gorgei was soon afterwards incorporated with his detachment into the corps of Colonel Perczel, who had the command of an expedition sent against General Roth. The command of the vanguard was assigned to Gorgei, whose strategetio movements caused Ruth's corps, on the 7th of October, to lay down their arms, and on the 8th Gorgei was promoted to tho rank of Honved Colonel. He was next attached to the army of General Mega, commander-in-chief of the Hungarian forces. On tho 29th of October they crossed the Fische., for tue pur pose of relieving the city of Vienna, then besieged by the army under Prince Wiudischgratz. A battle was fought near Schwecbat, and the Hungarians were signally defeated, the national guards having run away in the utmost confusion. General Moga was injured by a fall
from his horse, and Kossuth, on the 1st of November, advanced Gorgei to the rank of General, and invested him with the command in-chief of the Hungarian armies. In the mouth of December the Austrian army, under Wiudischgratz, crossed the frontiers of Hungary, and Gorgei was compelled to abandon Preaburg, and retreat from Raab ; be was repulsed at Windschaeht, and only saved his army by a retreat over the Sturecz mountain. In February 1849 he was super seded in the commaud-in-chief by General Dembinski, a Pole, whom the superior Hungarian officers refused to serve under, and, calling a a council, made their determination known. Dembinski was then superseded by General Vetter, who, having fallen ill, the command iu chief was again conferred on General Gorgei. The Austrians after wards Buffered a series of defeats. Gorgei's advanced guard under Damjanics stormed Waitzen, while he himself won the battle of Nagy Sarlo, and relieved the garrison of Komorn. On the 14th of April Hungary was declared an independent state, a measure to which Gorgei was decidedly opposed. A provisional government was formed, Kossuth was named Governor of Hungary, and Gorgei was appointed minister of war, the duties of which office were executed by deputy, first by Damjanics and afterwards by Klapka. Meantime Gorgei publicly announced his opposition to the provisional government, and thwarted many of their) measures. He however at their request besieged Buda, and took it by storm on the 21st of May, after which the seat of the provisional government was transferred from Debreczin to Peath. A series of disasters soon afterwards attended the Hunga rians. At the request of the Austrian government, a Russian army, under Prince Paskiewitch, began to cross the Carpathian Mountains and enter Hungary, while the Austrian armies, now under the com mand-in-chief of Field-Marshal Haynau, advanced towards Buda and Komorn. The Hungarian troops were defeated before Komorn, and Gorgei was wounded, but the main body made good its retreat to Waitzen, where Gorgei, after a few days, when the state of his wound permitted, joined the troops, while Klapka remained with the garrison in the fortress of Komorn. Gorgei'a retreat with his army, closely pursued by the Russians, through the Carpathian Mountains, and then southwards by Debreczin and Gros-Wardein to Arad, occupying from the 22nd of July to the 9th of August, is considered by military authorities to have been a masterly series of strategetic operations. The Hungarian army in the south had been beaten by Haynau, and retreated till its shattered remains united with the troops under Gorgei before Arad. On the I Ith of August Kossuth, by proclama tion, resigned his governorship, and created Giirgei dlotator. On the 17th of August, 1849, the Hungarian army, 24,000 strong, and with 150 guns, laid down their arms at Vilagos to the Russian general Rndiger. Giirgei also sent orders to General Klapka to surrender the fortress of Komorn. This however Klapka refused to do, and after wards obtained honourable terms of capitulation. On the 29th of August Giirgei received a letter from Haynau communicating the pardon of the Emperor of Austria, and appointing Carinthia as his place of residence. He has since resided at Klagenfurt, and has pub lished 'Mein Leben und Wirken in Ungarn In den Jahren 1848 und 1849, von Arthur Gorgei,' 8vo., Leipzig, 1852, which was soon after wards translated into English under the title of 'My Life and Acts in Hungary in tho years 1343 and 1849,' 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1852.