break into Transylvania by the Ojtoz Pass to Csíkszereda, and finally the column of Major General Dyck stationing at Fogaras to Kőhalom, and to join, if needed, with the main army of Lüders. Prelude Lüders's main column, which started its march from Nagyszeben to Segesvár had 9,100–9,200 soldiers and 32 cannons. Bem too wanted to crush the Russians also with a concentrated attack. With the column under his command, consisting of the Beszterce, Nagyszeben and Székely divisions, the units of the Kolozsvár and the brigade of Volonel József Dobay coming from Rika he planned to attack Lüders' Russian troops from three directions. If all three columns had arrived on the battlefield, Bem would have had around 8000 soldiers at his disposal, while the siege troops from Gyulafehérvár under the command of Colonel Miksa Stein had to execute a diversion attack towards Nagyszeben. But, without Bem's knowing, the troops from Kolozsvár of Colonel Farkas Kemény on 31 July arrived only in Marosvásárhely, while Dobay was beaten on 30 July by the Russian troops of Major General Dyck at Kőhalom. Initially Bem wanted to march through Székelykeresztúr towards Székelyudvarhely, but when he heard that Lüders was around Segesvár, he turned towards the same direction. However, he sent a battalion to help the division of Székely land under the leadership of colonel Sándor Gál, so at the start of the battle he had only 2400 soldiers. When Bem arrived, he found in Fehéregyháza the Russian vanguard, chasing them out of the village. Lüders was on the subsequent battlefield when Bem's army arrived in Fehéregyháza from the direction of Székelyudvarhely. Seeing the small number of the Hungarian troops, he could not believe that they wanted to fight, thinking that Bem wanted only to do a demonstration attack. At the beginning Lüders believed that Bem wanted to lure all his forces into fighting while the main Hungarian troops would attack him from the direction of Marosvásárhely, so he kept the bulk of his forces on the road coming from this town. He massed 4500-4600 soldiers (five battalions of infantry, seven cavalry companies and two batteries), augmented with 1000 others to the northern region of the battlefield, to block the road from Marosvásárhely. The weaker point of the Russian frontline was the Southern section, consisting from the Segesvár forest, because it could be more easily bypassed than the left wing protected by the Küküllő river. Here,