Cavalry Maker

The Hungarian Who
"Mounted" America's

Revolutionary Cause

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An interesting presentation took place in Karcag, Hungary, in May 2004. Members of the Cleveland (OH) Hungarian Heritage Society brought with them a statue of a Karcag native son who played an important role in America's struggle for freedom. Col. Michael Kovats de Fabriczy in fact is regarded by many Revolutionary War historians as "the founding father of the U.S. cavalry." The American delegation read a proclamation  by the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad, recognizing Kovats as a "foreign-born hero of the American Revolution."

Kovats, born in 1724, was a decorated Hussar commander under Frederick the Great. Through the diplomatic connections of Benjamin Franklin, he was persuaded to join the American revolutionaries. George Washington and the Continental Congress wisely appreciated his talents and appointed him exercise master of the Patriots' fledgling dragoons. Kovat shaped the horse soldiers into a formidable force remarkable for their "exemplary discipline," according to a 1778 account in a Maryland newspaper.

The commandant did not live to see the American cavalry come into its own. By 1779, he was in the field, serving as second in command in Brig. Gen. Casimir Pulaski's legion of dragoons in the defense of Charleston, SC. Kovats was killed in battle on 11 May of that year.

Appropriately, Kovats is a name of honor at The Citadel, the military college in Charleston. Kovats Field on the campus is named after him, and a monument is maintained on the premises. The whereabouts of his grave is uncertain but is believed to be in the heart of the city.

Plug Me In
The Switchboard Was
The Glue That Made
Telephones Practicable

Alexander Graham Bell's famous first phone call on 10 March 1876 ("Mr. Watson, come here; I want to see you.") started it all, but telephone communication meant nothing until a system was in place to connect people in different locations. That system was the switchboard. Less than two years after the Bell-Watson exchange, a commercial switchboard was in place in New Haven, CT. It provided service among 21 customers.

In the beginning, a customer initiated a phone call by "ringing up" the switchboard operator. A light on the switchboard showed the operator which customer on the line wanted service. The operator manually plugged a cable into the caller's lit jack and (typically) issued the greeting "Operator." The caller named the requested party. The operator "rang up" said party and, if the call was answered, connected the two and then disengaged in the interest of privacy (which wasn't necessarily guaranteed, in the early generations of telephony).

Some 30,000 U.S. phone customers were being served by 138 separate exchanges within four years of Bell's breakthrough. Today, of course, billions of people use telephones. There are no more manual exchanges in the United States; all switching is automated.

The Great Blithering Antiquity Quiz:

1) Which British shipping line owned the Lusitania, the passenger vessel torpedoed off the Irish coast during World War I?
a) Blue Star
b) White Star
c) Cunard
d) Pepperidge

2) Sacajawea, the native American woman who helped guide Lewis and Clark through the Pacific Northwest in 1805-6, was of what tribe?

3) Brothers Daniel (1851-1940) and Charles (1860-1915) Frohman were:
a) U.S. senators
b) German chancellors
c) professional clowns
d) theatre managers

4) Henry the Navigator, the great patron of exploration, (1394-1460) was a son of the king of what country?

5) True or false: Oliver Hazard Perry was a naval hero of the Spanish-American War.

CHECK YOUR ANSWERS

Enrico Caruso' s
Encounter With
The Black Hand

He was considered the finest dramatic tenor of his time. After making his debut in 1894 in Naples, Italy, his hometown, 21-year-old Enrico Caruso established himself at the top of the turn-of-the-century world of culture and entertainment. His voluminous repertoire of classical and folk music included some 60 operas and 500 songs. In 1903 he arrived in New York, where he became a star of the Metropolitan Opera and one of history's first recording artists. Caruso's phonographs for the Victor company were distributed widely and today are prize collectibles.

Like famous celebrities throughout history, Caruso faced dramatic difficulties brought on by his fame. The notorious Black Hand, a criminal society that originated in 18th-Century Sicily, menaced Italian-American immigrants in major American cities during the early 20th Century. They extorted money on pain of death. Caruso, a wealthy and obviously promising target, received a letter demanding $2,000, with a depiction of a dagger and a dreaded black hand for emphasis. He decided the prudent response was to pay the demand.

The criminal society's reaction: a subsequent letter, this time requiring $15,000 to spare his life. It was obvious to Caruso that he could either dedicate his career to funding the Black Hand, or turn to the police. Working with authorities, he delivered the second payment to a designated location. Soon afterward, two Italian-Americans were apprehended when they retrieved the money.

The famous singer survived the Black Hand and continued to perform until 1920, the year before his death. Many others were shot, strangled or knifed. Sometimes their executioners burned the bodies. By some estimates, more than half the Italian-Americans living in New York in the early 1900s were blackmailed by the Black Hand.

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