in the Hungarian camp the night before. Jelačić soon wrote a few angry words to Móga, expressing the hope that after this devastating event, he would realize, that the cause he was defending was wrong and traitorous, and, as an Austrian general, would return to the path of honor and duty, and not the "rebellion". According to Hermann Dahlen's diary, a quarter of an hour later they heard cannon fire from the left wing and rushed forward. Jelačić sent out orders through Dahlen, and by the time the latter returned, the guns were already rattling and the rockets were hissing also in the center. In the meantime, Jelačić and his escort arrived on the battlefield and rushed to the Croatian vanguards, which they estimated to be 900 paces from the Hungarian lines. They watched as the shots of the Croatian six-pounder infantry battery struck in the ranks of the 4th (Alexander) Hussars' regiment's lieutenant-colonel class, and as one of the Congreve rocket batteries drove the Hungarian infantry back. Jelačić and his escort advanced as far as the Croatian artillery line, before the Hungarian artillery opened fire on the conspicuous group of riders. Cannonball after cannonball struck close to them, and Jelačić, after a while, no longer wanting to risk his life, decided to ride to the rear. Jelačić rode in front, Wilhelm Hompesch on one side, Oldershausen on the other, and Hermann Dahlen behind him. Suddenly they came under more cannon fire, and one bullet shot off the leg of a commanding officer's horse, and another struck Oldershausen's right hip. Meanwhile, the Hungarian artillery started to fire on the two companies of the 7th (Kress) Light Cavalry Regiment which was advancing along the post road, forcing them to turn back. But Jelačić got in front of them and turned them back. No sooner had this been done than a Croatian militia battalion advancing up the road was routing back while screaming. The cause of this was that the Hungarian artillery fired on them, and the cannonballs tore several of them apart. Behind the battalion made of "professional" soldiers, the untrained militia battalions were supposed to serve as a pressure group, but their indiscipline caused them to advance so much in front of the regular troops, that they were caught in the Hungarian cannon fire. Thus, while the Gradiska battalion had only one killed and two wounded, the Lika battalion lost