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A forgotten hussar

Across Central and Eastern Europe, governments and civic and cultural organizations have revived internationally active historical figures or even lesser-known diplomats, scientists, and explorers as evidence that their respective nations were always globally connected. One of these figures is Mihály Kováts de Fabriczy, a Hungarian hussar whose legacy is richer than his unwarranted obscurity suggests.

September 10, 2026 - Adam Reichardt - History and MemoryIssue 5 2026Magazine

A painting of Mihály Kováts de Fabriczy in military uniform. Kováts died leading a cavalry charge of French and American troops in Georgia during American Revolutionary War, in the siege of Savannah in 1779. Source: (CC) commons.wikimedia.org

“Golden freedom cannot be purchased with yellow gold.” – excerpt from Mihály Kováts de Fabriczy’s letter in Latin to Benjamin Franklin in January 1777.

Outside the besieged walls of Charleston, South Carolina in May 1779, Mihály Kováts de Fabriczy, a 55-year-old Hungarian hussar, was mortally wounded by enemy fire during a skirmish with British troops. He perished serving a fledgling republic thousands of miles from his homeland. Inspired by the cause of American independence and by the core tenets of the European Enlightenment, Kováts crossed the Atlantic in 1777, joining forces with his old comrade-in-arms, the Polish nobleman Kazimierz Pułaski (1745-1779), to build and train what became one of the Continental Army’s first effective light cavalry formations.

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