„Nem kerestek engemet kötéllel, Zászló alá magam csaptam én fel.” Önkéntesség és kötelező szolgálat a 19. század első felében és az 1848–49-es magyar
„Was not dragged in threatened by kill, I’ve signed up by my own free will” Voluntarism and Conscription in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century a

Summary/Abstract: The soldiers of the National Defence Force in the Hungarian War of Independence in 1848–49 are remembered both in literature and historical scholarship as volunteers fighting for their country with patriotic zeal. Reality, however, is more differentiated: besides the volunteers, from September 1848 there were also conscripts, who were selected or assigned by local authorities by order of Prime Minister Lajos Batthyány. This arrangement was similar to the conscription system in the Austrian Empire, which had been applied only partially in Hungary. The conscription, however, was only decreed when the country received an external attack. For the supression of the Serbian rebellion in the country, militiamen were deployed besides the enlisted soldiers. The militiamen were mobilised for the theater of war in various ways. At the same time, the organisation of the defence forces was facilitated by the wide national backing, which almost obliged any capable young man to enlist. Their performance in war was encouraged by the internal cohesion of military corps, which the Hungarian army strived to maintain both by conventional means (e.g. battle standards, distinguishing features, closed task forces), and by the idisyncratic methods and characteristics developed specifically in the Hungarian Defence Forces. These elements contributed to the outstanding military success and that eventually the enormous Russian military force had to be deployed to overcome the Hungarian Defence Forces.

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