More than one hundred Hungarians served as officers in the American Civil War, the overwhelming majority in the Union army. Most were political exiles who came to the United States after the unsuccessful 1848-49 War of Liberation led by the charismatic Lajos Kossuth against the ruling Hapsburg dynasty. One of the most distinguished of these émigrés was Alexander Asboth. His life and career, with a particular emphasis on his participation in the Civil War, are succinctly summarized in a vast array of American biographical dictionaries. Similar Hungarian publications also present pertinent personal and professional details.

Asboth was born at Keszthely, the largest city on the shores of Lake Balaton, on December 18, 1811. His father, János Asbóth (1768-1823), was a highly regarded agricultural expert, a member of several learned societies, and principal of the Georgikon, a famous academy devoted to agricultural sciences. Wishing to emulate his older brother Lajos, Asboth aspired to a military career but the family opposed it. Bowing to their wishes, he studied engineering at Selmecbánya. Afterwards he was employed as a civil engineer, mostly in the public sector.

While working in the city of Temesvár, Asboth met and fell in love with Emilia Hogl, the daughter of a prosperous merchant. She, however, did not reciprocate his feeling and eventually married a Pole, Theodore Dembinski, nephew of Count Henry Dembinski, during the War of Liberation. Neither of them imagined that their paths would cross several times in different countries in the years ahead.

Like other patriots, Asboth joined the Hungarian army in the spring of 1848 upon the eruption of the War of Liberation. As an engineering officer, he participated in numerous battles, and eventually became one of Kossuth's most loyal and trusted adjutants with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

Following the initial setbacks of 1848, the revolutionary army inflicted a series of decisive defeats on the Hapsburg Imperial Army in the spring of 1849. Confronted with the specter of losing a substantial part of his domains, Emperor Franz Joseph turned to Czar Nicholas I for help. The Russian autocrat was only too glad to oblige a fellow despot, and soon a Russian army of more than 300,000 poured into Hungary. Confronted by such overwhelming odds, the Hungarian forces quickly crumbled. Following the disastrous battle of Temesvár in August of 1849, Kossuth, with Asboth at his side, fled to the neighboring Ottoman Empire.

Despite the enormous pressure exerted by the Hapsburg and Czarist governments, the Sultan refused to extradite Kossuth, but acquiesced to interning him. Asboth was among those who willingly shared the entire Turkish internment with Kossuth.

On September 10, 1851, Kossuth, Asboth and some 50 other exiles boarded the warship Mississippi, dispatched by the United States government to bring Kossuth and his companions to America. Kossuth, his wife and children, and a few others disembarked at Gibraltar to allow the ex-Governor to make a whirlwind tour prior to sailing on to America. Asboth and the rest continued the voyage. Early in the morning of November 10, 1851, the Mississippi entered New York harbor and docked at ten o'clock. The refugees were welcomed with great pomp and ceremony by a committee from the city and escorted to the Irving House, one of New York's finest hotels.

As one of the highest ranking officers among the exiles and a close companion of Kossuth, Asboth naturally was the center of attention. Kossuth himself arrived on December 5 and spent the next six months touring the United States in an attempt to drum up support for the Hungarian cause. He sailed away disappointed in July 1852 and settled in England. Asboth, on the other hand, remained in the United States, making his home in New York City. He never ceased to maintain contacts with Kossuth, and in many ways he was the great patriot's representative in America.

In the years leading up to the Civil War he worked as an engineer on a multitude of projects. His most notable employment, however, was with the great landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, best known for his creation of New York City's Central Park, considered one of the most brilliant examples of civic and urban planning. While with Olmsted, Asboth worked not only on Central Park but also in the surveying of Manhattan's Upper West Side. Regarding this latter endeavor, Olmsted wrote to his father on July 22, 1860: "We have six months to do it in, two competent military engineers, Col. Asboth and Mr. [Rudolph] Rosa, to assist us. Asboth & Rosa are to be paid $1500 a year ... "

Over the years Asboth met many notable Americans, among them John C. Frémont, and his intrepid wife, Jessie, daughter of influential Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton. Few Americans at the time enjoyed as much fame and public adulation as Frémont. His explorations in the American West earned him a national reputation as the "Pathfinder." In addition to playing a leading role in the conquest of California, he was the presidential candidate of the newly formed Republican party in 1856.

When President Abraham Lincoln appointed Frémont commander of the huge Western Department headquartered at St. Louis, Missouri, at the outbreak of the Civil War, he chose Asboth as his chief-of-staff.

Situated on the border between North and South, Missouri manifested the characteristics of both sections. Despite the securing of St. Louis by pro-Union elements before Frémont's arrival, the state remained rife with Confederate sympathizers.

From the beginning, Fremont was confronted with almost insurmountable problems. His forces were short of arms, ammunition and other vital supplies. Rebel guerrillas roamed the countryside, burned bridges, wrecked trains, despoiled the property of pro-Union citizens, and attacked exposed Federal units. Frémont, headstrong and often tactless, didn't disguise either his sympathy for the anti-slavery radicals or his antipathy towards the defenders of slavery. He had to contend not only with secessionist elements, but also with jealous political and military rivals who were ready to pounce on any misstep or poor decision he made.

A persistent accusation leveled against Frémont was that he surrounded himself with foreign officers and actually preferred foreigners to Americans. This foreign officers - Hungarians, Germans and Italians - largely unfamiliar with American ways and local politics were not looked upon with favor by most Missourians. Besides Asboth, three Hungarians, all veterans of the War of Liberation, held important positions under Fremont: Major Charles Zagonyi, commander of the Body Guard, an elite cavalry unit; Colonel John Fiala, chief topographical engineer; and Colonel Anselm Albert, chief aide to Asboth.

Each day a large number of visitors called upon Fremont. Some of them left a vivid picture of the general, his staff and his surroundings. One of these was Camille Ferri Pisani, an aide to Prince Napoleon of France, who was traveling in the United States: "I left with a very good impression of him. His ardent, ambitious personality obviously is inclined to dictatorship. The military and dictatorial prestige which he seems to like, his headquarters guarded like a fortress [...] His chief of staff is Colonel Asboth, an Hungarian officer; he was Kossuth's friend, and came to America with him."

Frémont and his staff toiled day and night. According to eminent historian Alan Nevins in his The War for the Union: "Asboth was highly efficient in seeing that the new regiments drilled hard, steadily, and with growing precision." Frémont's command of the Western Department was far from perfect; yet he accomplished much in face of obstacles. He fortified St. Louis, trained men and officers, organized a squadron of river gunboats, instituted the free use of cavalry, and he selected a formerly cashiered officer named Ulysses S. Grant to command one of his armies.

Exasperated by the ceaseless activity of guerrillas, Frémont declared martial law and issued an emancipation proclamation to free the slaves belonging to all slaveholders who were aiding and abetting the Confederate cause on August 30, 1861. The proclamation made Frémont the overnight hero of the Radical Republicans and Northern abolitionists and was highly praised in many newspapers. The Missouri Democrat stated that Fremont "has enunciated a great truth in his proclamation, which will outlive us all." "The hour has come, and the man," rejoiced Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Frémont's action stunned Lincoln and placed the president in an awkward political situation. The only avowed purpose of the war so far had been an effort to preserve the Union. Lincoln therefore asked Frémont to modify and to remove the slave property provisions on his own accord. But Frémont refused, whereupon Lincoln himself annulled it in a public order. The President was leaving no doubt that all other issue must be subordinated to the main one - the saving of the Union.

To strike a deciding blow at the Confederate elements gathered in southern Missouri under General Sterling Price, Frémont mobilized an army of 30,00. This march was the first serious aggressive movement yet made by a Federal army. The organization of these troops and the slow but relentless advance proved that Frémont and his staff exercised far greater organizing skills that his detractors were willing to concede. Asboth commanded one of the five divisions of the army.

Price, however, refused to stand and fight, preferring to withdraw. At Springfield, on October 25, 1861, the Body Guard led by Zagonyi made a bold dash and in a daring charge scattered a Confederate contingent several times their number. Zagonyi's heroic action was hailed by Fremont as a prelude to an even greater victory.

Unbeknown to Frémont, his enemies, leveling a broad range of charges against him, had persuaded Lincoln that he was unfit to head the Western Department and the President's order dismissing him from command was already on its way. The presidential edict was duly delivered and he was replaced by General David Hunter.

In a brief and graceful farewell to his troops Frémont said: "Soldiers, I regret to leave you. Most sincerely I thank you for the regard and confidence you have invariably shown me. I deeply regret that I shall not have the honor to lead you to the victory you are just about to win." But Hunter didn't press on; in accordance with Lincoln's directive he withdrew from Southwestern Missouri, abandoning it to the Confederates.

Abolitionists insisted that Frémont had been fired because of his opposition to the slaveholders. Prominent newspaper editors like Horace Greely, of the New York Tribune, and William C. Bryant, of the New York Evening Post, took deep offense at Lincoln's treatment of Frémont. "Frémont's career in the West was brief," says Patton's Concise History of the United States," only one hundred days; but being a man of military instincts and training, he showed in that time a sagacity which was not allowed fair practical development. [...] In short, he contributed more than is generally credited to him."

Not only was Frémont dismissed, but also many of his officers were sacked without so much as pay for their services on the grounds that they had been given commissions on an irregular basis. However, it was obvious to everyone that the real reason for their dismissal was their loyalty to Frémont. Frémont had conferred the rank of brigadier-general on Asboth on September 7, 1861, but the commission was not recognized by the War Department and it wasn't until March 21 of the following year that he was duly appointed to that rank by the Federal government.

Asboth remained in Missouri and soon he was in charge of one of the divisions of General Samuel R. Curtis's 12,000-strong Army of Southwestern Missouri marching against the elusive Sterling Price early in February, 1862.

Anthony Trollope, the famous English author touring North America, caught up with Curtis's army near Rolla. Asboth was one of the officers he encountered: "We dined at the tent of General Ashboth, and afterwards rode his horses through the camp back to Rolla. I was greatly taken with this Hungarian gentleman. He was a tall, thin, gaunt man of fifty, [...] who had come from his own country with Kossuth to America. His camp circumstances were not very luxurious, nor was his table very richly spread, but he received us with the ease and courtesy of a gentleman. He showed us his sword, his rifle, his pistols, his chargers, and a daguerreotype of a friend he had loved in his own country. They were all the treasures that he carried with him, - over and above a chess-board and a set of chessmen which sorely tempted me to accompany him in his march."

As before against Fremont, Price withdrew steadily, abandoning Missouri by moving into northwest Arkansas. Here Price was joined by the flamboyant General Earl Van Dorn, who assumed overall command and decided to battle the pursuing Federals.

By late afternoon on March 6 Curtis's entire army was in position near Pea Ridge, a spur of the Ozark Mountains, not far from Fayetteville. Expecting a frontal attack from the south, the Federals were well entrenched in that direction. But Van Dorn decided to pass around Curtis's entrenchments by means of a night march, and attack from the north. On the next day, as the battle opened, Van Dorn's move surprised the Union troops but they quickly adjusted. The frontier-type fighting was fierce and the advantage oscillating between the two sides all day. The Confederates received a serious setback with both Generals Ben McCulloch and James McIntosh falling in action. As daylight turned into darkness, the Union army settled in its position, ready for another attack.

Both sides sustained considerable casualties. Among the wounded was Asboth; a musket ball penetrated his right arm, fracturing the humerus. Disregarding the wound, he was back in the saddle the next day. But the renewed Confederate assault was feeble and within hours Van Dorn's weakened and dispirited army retreated. The battle of Pea Ridge was one of the biggest battle west of the Mississippi River and all but ensured Federal control over Missouri.

After Colonel Philip H. Sheridan fought and won the battle of Booneville against heavy odds on July 1, 1862, Asboth joined Generals J. C. Sullivan, William S. Rosecrans, Gordon Granger, and W. L. Elliott in the famous dispatch to General Henry W. Halleck: "Brigadiers are scarce. Good ones scarcer. [...] [We] beg that you will obtain the promotion of Sheridan. He is worth his weight in gold." In his Personal Memoirs Sheridan recalled Asboth as "a tall, spare, handsome man, with gray mustache and a fierce look. He was an educated soldier, of unquestioned courage, but the responsibilities of outpost duty borne rather heavily on him, and he kept all hands in a state of constant worry in anticipation of imaginary attacks." Perhaps Asboth was being cautious, remembering what happened to Grant at Shiloh.

In January 1863 Asboth was placed in command at Columbus, Kentucky. His chief nemesis was Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forrest, a man blessed with great innate abilities which made him an outstanding military leader, kept all the Federal forces constantly on the alert by his sudden and daring raids.

Several months later, more precisely in August, Asboth was assigned to head the District of West Florida with headquarters at Fort Pickens. While the Confederates conceded to the Federal occupation of key coastal areas, they were determined to defend the interior parts of the state. Hence Fort Barrancas and Fort Pickens were the only points in Florida west of the St. Johns which were held permanently after 1862 by Union troops. Fort Pickens, on Santa Rosa Island, commanded the entrance to the harbor of Pensacola Bay, the state's best natural landlocked harbor. Fort Barrancas, dating from the time when Spain owned Florida, was located across from Fort Pickens, on the mainland.

A portion of Asboth's force was composed of African-Americans, recruited partly from the local populace. The transformation from slave to soldier was a momentous experience for these recruits. "This was the biggest thing that ever happened to me in my life," declared a newly enlisted former slave. "I felt like a man with a uniform on and a gun in my hand."

Several Hungarian officers served under Asboth in Florida: three nephews of Lajos Kossuth, namely Ladislas and Emil Zulavsky, and Albert Ruttkay; Joseph Csermelyi; Emeric Meszaros; Roland Rombauer; and Alexander Gaal. The Zulavsky brothers were veterans of the Hungarian Legion in Italy and participated in Giuseppe Garibaldi's triumphant campaign against the Kingdom of Naples. Csermelyi, a soldier in the War of Liberation, was among the dozen Hungarians who accompanied Narciso Lopez in his tragic filibustering expedition against Cuba in August 1850. Meszaros served with Asboth in the Pea Ridge campaign as commander of the Fremont Hussars with the rank of major, while Gaal was a recent arrival from Hungary expelled by the Hapsburg authorities for taking part in the abortive Polish uprising of 1863 against the Russians. Roland Rombauer was one of the sons of Tivadar Rombauer, the Hungarian government's director of armaments during the War of Liberation.

From Fort Barrancas the Federals sallied forth to lay waste the already exhausted countryside. Referring to Asboth's raids, distinguished historian William Watson Davis provides this quaint assessment in his The Civil War and Reconstruction in Florida, published in 1913: "When not engaged in the barbarous practice of pillaging, Asboth was an urbane, pleasant fellow with a great love for flowers and a keen interest in dogs and fine horses. He and his fellow Hungarians were hated, dreaded, and condemned by the country people of that section on the triple charge of being "furreners," Yankees, and "nigger lovers."

On September 18, 1864, Asboth at the head of 700 picked troops, blacks and whites, and several pieces of light artillery and supported by the steamer Lizzie Davis left for Barrancas for a raid into the interior in the direction of Marianna, Jackson County. The expedition consisted of three battalions of the 2nd Maine Cavalry, one battalion of the First Florida Cavalry, and two companies mounted infantry selected from the 86th and 82nd Regiments U.S. Colored Infantry. His objective was to disperse scattered rebel forces in nearby counties, to liberate any Federal prisoners held there, and to secure recruits for the Union cause as well as obtain horses and mules.

The march toward Marianna was punctuated by frequent skirmishes with small groups of Confederates. But no serious opposition materialized until they reached their destination. Entering Marianna on September 27, the invaders were met by a motley group of hastily organized defenders, composed mostly of old men and youths. The first charge upon the town was repulsed, but the valiant defenders were swept aside by the second charge, led by Asboth himself in which he sustained two severe gunshot wounds.

The violent reception and the wounding of their respected commander infuriated the bluecoats. The assistant surgeon of the 2nd Maine Cavalry wrote: "When the colored troops came up they went into the fight like madmen, [...] A fitting retribution for the barbarities exercised toward them. All who witnessed this engagement say that the negro troops will fight and woe to the rebel who is unfortunate as to fall into their hands." The Confederate Military History gives a far more graphic and sensational account: "The negro companies in particular acted in the most fiendish manner. Old men and boys who offered to surrender were driven into the flames of the burning buildings; young lads who laid down their arms were cut to pieces; others picked up bodily by stalwart negro soldiers and thrown into the seething burning church."

Asboth along with Major Nathan Cutler of the 2nd Maine Cavalry, who was also seriously wounded, were carried to a private house where their wounds were dressed. The other Federal officers held a short council of war and decided that given the general's condition it would be best to return to Pensacola with their prisoners and plunder. According to The South in the Building of the Nation, Asboth's expedition resulted in "capturing many citizens and much private property, and carrying off 600 negroes. About 100 prisoners were taken and sent north, principally to Elmira, N.Y."

About midnight Asboth was carried off in a carriage to Washington Point and placed aboard the Lizzie Davis. Command of the troops devolved to Colonel Ladislas Zulavsky, who led the expedition back safely to Fort Barrancas. Bitter memories of the battle persisted for many decades; as late as the 1950s, a history of Jackson County referred to Asboth and "his bloodthirsty Negroes."

"I myself was honored by the rebels with two balls," Asboth wrote in his official report to Major George B. Drake, Assistant Adjutant General on October 1, "the first, in the face, breaking the cheekbone, and the other fracturing my left arm in two places."

Asboth may have taken a lighthearted attitude toward his wounds, but they were very severe. On November 16 he was admitted to the St. Louis U.S. Army General Hospital in New Orleans. In those days a double fracture of a limb required amputation. However, the doctor were able to save the arm, but the damage sustained made it useless. Medical science of the times wasn't sufficiently advanced to extract the bullet from his face. As a result, bits of bones and pus were constantly exuded. Furthermore, his senses of smell, sight and hearing were impaired.

An article in the New York Times, November 26, 1864, reporting on his wounds and recuperation, referred to him as "one of the oldest and most meritorious of the foreign officers who entered our service when the rebellion broke out" and added that "He is a man of high character and of very marked ability. [...] During his residence in this country he has won the respect and friendship of all who knew him by the sterling qualities of his character, and by the modest manliness of his demeanor."

Despite his poor health, he returned to the field, resuming command of the District of West Florida on February 15, 1865. He was very frail, substantially underweight, and had difficulties in performing simple actions such as mounting his horse. Nevertheless he scrupulously attended to all his duties.

On April 2, 1865, General Robert E. Lee telegraphed President Jefferson Davis that the Union army had breached his lines. Unable to reestablish his defensive lines and protect Richmond any longer, Lee advised the immediate evacuation of the Confederate capital. Davis left Richmond late on April 3, and the next day Union troops entered the city. Pausing here and there on his southward flight, Davis still held the delusion that the Confederacy could be saved. On April 9, 1865, a courier from the Army of Northern Virginia informed Davis that Lee had surrendered at Appomattox Court House. The remaining Confederate forces quickly crumbled: General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered on April 26, General Richard Taylor on May 4, and General Edmund Kirby Smith in the Trans-Mississippi Department on May 26.

In a report, dated April 18, Asboth informed General Edward R. S. Canby that: "There are at present 3,000 to 4,000 rebel troops in the vicinity of Tallahassee, and it is rumored that Jeff. Davis will try to make his escape from there, via St. Mark's, to more congenial lands." Whereupon Asboth was instructed to patrol all routes in West Florida leading to the Gulf to prevent their escape. Davis, however, never reached Florida; he was captured in Georgia on May 10.

For gallant and meritorious services Asboth was brevetted major-general on March 13, 1865, and was mustered out of service on August 25, 1865.

The war brought economic ruin to Florida. Preferring death to dishonor, Governor John Milton, an ardent secessionist, a firm believer in slavery, and one of the staunchest supporters of the Confederacy, committed suicide. Few arrests were made for political offenses. The only prominent cases in Florida were those of high-profile public figures David Levy Yulee, Stephen R. Mallory, and A. K. Allison.

On the day of his second inauguration, March 4, 1865, with the war clearly heading toward total Union triumph, Lincoln had indicated that his post post-war policy would be guided "with malice toward none; with charity for all." But Radical Republicans sought a more punitive program against the South. This resolve was further hardened by Lincoln's assassination on April 14. Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt recommended that Mallory be put on trial for treason as soon as possible.

In June 1865 Mallory wrote to President Andrew Johnson from his prison, seeking a pardon, offering to take the oath of allegiance and to aid the administration, and endeavoring to prove that he "never was and never can be regarded as a leader of secession." His case was espoused by a number of influential Northerners and certain elements of the press.

On December 10, 1865, Asboth wrote to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton: "The Tallahassee correspondent of the New York Herald, while urging upon President Johnson that the clemency already granted to several prominent Southern leaders be extended also to Mallory, Yulee and other distinguished rebel gentlemen of Florida, says in behalf of Mr. Mallory "that he was very anxious at the beginning of the war to prevent disruption between the people of the South and the Government of the United States, and was bitterly assailed in his own state as having prevented the capture of Fort Pickens when it might have been taken at any time." These statements are all false. While in command in West Florida I visited Tallahassee, and found in the State archives the most treasonable dispatches sent by Mallory to the Florida State Convention in January, 1861."

Like many veterans who rendered distinguished service, Asboth was rewarded with a government posting; in his case, appointment as United States minister to Argentina and Uruguay. It was no sinecure for both countries, along with Brazil, were embroiled in a bitter war with their common neighbor, Paraguay. Announcement of his diplomatic appointment was published in numerous newspapers; for example, the March 10, 1866, issue of the Newport Mercury of Newport, Rhode Island, said: "Gen. Asboth, who came to this country as adjutant of Kossuth, and who has fought so bravely for the Union cause throughout the late war, has been appointed Minister to the Argentine Republic."

Although Asboth was determined to undergo an operation to have the bullet in his face removed, his duties in connection with his mission to Argentina were so urgent that he sailed without undergoing the operation. Accredited on October 20, 1866, he succeeded Robert C. Kirk who held the post since 1862. He bore firm instructions from Secretary of State William H. Seward to declare that "the president of the United States cannot consent to hold relations of peace and friendship with even friendly nations, when they make their own interests the rule of exposition, instead of the law of nations." Similar directives were conveyed to Charles A. Washburn, American minister to Paraguay, and to James Watson Webb, Washington's representative in Brazil. Seward hoped that good relations with the countries to the south would do much to inaugurate republicanism in the Western Hemisphere, as well as promote a steady increase of commerce with the countries of that region.

The Paraguayan War, also known as the War of the Triple Alliance, was a long, bitter conflict in which the allies, i.e. Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, sought to overthrow Francisco Solano Lopez, ruthless tyrant of Paraguay with a Napoleonic complex who sought to dictate international policies on the Rio de la Plata. It was the longest and bloodiest interstate war in the history of Latin America.

The war began when Lopez meddled in Uruguayan politics and then attacked Brazil. On March 5, 1865, Lopez declared war against Argentina. Two months later, the ministers plenipotentiaries of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay signed the treaty of the Triple Alliance by which they formed an offensive alliance, declaring that the war was being waged against the tyrant Lopez, and not against the people of Paraguay. The Allies agreed not to make peace until Lopez was removed, the fortifications of Paraguay demolished, its army disbanded, indemnities extracted, and boundaries imposed acceptable to them.

At the opening of the war, Paraguay's population numbered 550,000. By enlisting old men as well as boys under 15 years of age, Lopez organized an army of 80,000. George Frederick Masterman, chief military apothecary, lecturer on material medica, and author of Seven Eventful Years in Paraguay, who knew Lopez well, described him as "being five feet four in height, and extremely stout [...] the lower part of his face, [...] which gives the index to his character - a cruel, sensual face, [...] His manners when he was pleased were remarkably gracious; but when enraged [...] his expression was perfectly ferocious; the savage Indian broke through the thin varnish of civilization, as the Cossack shows in an angry Russian." "In the gratification of his passions and in the accomplishment of his ambitious plans," wrote Washburn in his The History of Paraguay, "he was no respecter of persons. Of those most in his confidence when the war began and who were supposed to be his personal friends, nearly all were subsequently tortured and put to death by his orders."

Reporting to Seward on December 15, 1866, Asboth wrote: "The Paraguayans are as indefatigable as ever in fortifying their lines, [...] The allies suffer, also, a great deal from want of proper food and the insupportable heat, [...] Any impartial observer of the affairs here is forced to the conclusion that the Paraguayan War is ruinous in its effects, [...] Here in Buenos Ayres, as well as at Montevideo, bounty brokers are enlisting foreigners, mostly sailors, under false pretences, [...] In Brazil recruiting is conducted with more practical results [...] those of the middle class, who are in danger of being called upon to serve in the army, and who can raise the needful, buy up native blacks and mulattoes and give them their freedom on condition of serving as a substitute for the purchaser. Although this is a somewhat limited freedom given to the poor slaves, under the obligation to risk their lives in Paraguay, nevertheless it is the first step towards the abolition of slavery in Brazil. [...] the Argentine and Uruguayan republics are daily becoming more and more indebted to Brazil, the gold of which Empire is flowing in streams."

In spite of his deteriorating health, he performed his duties conscientiously and competently. His wounds festered relentlessly and he was often in excruciating pain.

The persistent efforts of Asboth and the other diplomats throughout January, February and March 1867 to implement United States mediation were spurned by Brazil and Argentina. While the two countries gave constant assurances of their good will in the matter, they procrastinated endlessly. The Brazilians resisted mediation most strongly because they felt that they were close to striking a fatal blow to Lopez. Since Brazil constituted the bulk of the allied military strength, Argentina had to support the Brazilian stance.

While Asboth understood Argentina's predicament, he was convinced that the mass of the people were favorably inclined toward American mediation. Several Argentine papers, among them La Republica and Pueblo, urged "not only the advisability but the pressing necessity of making peace through the mediation of the United States." The war was especially unpopular in the Argentine interior, and twice there were provincial revolts to try to force a peace.

After the purchase of Alaska by the United States from Russia had been made public, Asboth wrote to Seward on August 9, 1867: " [...] as one of the representatives of the United States government abroad, in the name of my fellow-citizens here, to congratulate you most sincerely upon this very important national acquisition."

The effects of the numerous wounds, particularly the bullet in his face, finally took their toll. He died on January 21, 1868. The war which he so earnestly sought to bring to an end by mediation finally ended early in 1870 when Lopez, on the run with his mistress and a handful of followers, was cornered and killed. The mediation of the United States had no part in its determination. The war devastated Paraguay and resulted in the nearly complete destruction of the country. Of perhaps 250,000 male inhabitants of Paraguay prior to the war, only 28,000 remained in 1871.

Asboth's case, complete with a concise account of his wounds, suffering and death, is one of the numerous examples cited in the massive The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion: "To the many illustrations already adduced, may be added that of General Alexander Asboth, who was shot September, 1864, by a musket ball, at Marianna, Florida, the missile passing through the left antrum of Highmore, and lodging upon the palatine bone. The external wound healed; but there was profused suppuration and interminable exfoliation through the posterior nares, and the general already enfeebled by the effects of a gunshot fracture of the humerus, received at Pea Ridge, of a flesh-wound of the thigh, and several saber wounds of the face, was steadily losing strength." The authors then go on to emphasize that in view of Asboth's situation plus those of many others: "These instances, with the figures presented in the tables, may suffice to controvert the assertion of those military surgeons who regard gunshot wounds of the maxillary sinuses comparatively trifling."

Asboth's funeral was attended by a host of dignitaries. He was laid to rest in the British Cemetery in the city's Victoria District. Later an elaborately carved headstone was placed over the grave. Depicted on the monument were the coat-of-arms of the Hungary and the United States along with the inscription: AN ADJUTANT GENERAL IN THE PATRIOT ARMY OF HUNGARY, HIS NATIVE LAND. AFTERWARDS MAJOR GENERAL IN THE ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES. AT THE TIME OF HIS DEATH MINISTER RESIDENT OF THE U.S. TO THE ARGENTINA REPUBLIC. When this area became a public park in 1923, the entire cemetery was relocated to the Chacarita District.

Paying honor to his memory, the obituary notice in the New York Times, March 6, 1868, said: "His talent and bravery were proven in several actions, [...] whenever or wherever called upon to perform duty, he did it with credit to himself and to the Government."

Sadly, his grave became neglected over the years, becoming shabbier and shabbier with the passing of time. László Szabó in his Magyar múlt Délamerikában [Hungarian Past in South America] mentions that when he visited the cemetery in 1967 and again in 1974 he found Asboth's grave in a pitiful state, with the headstone propped up against a nearby wall. Complaining to the American embassy about this state of affairs elicited only the typical bureaucratic run-around. On a happier note, Asboth's remains were returned to the United States and re-interred at Arlington National Cemetery on October 23, 1990, in a handsome and imposing tomb. The grave has become an unofficial pilgrimage site for Hungarians touring the cemetery.

In 2001 one of the schools in his native city of Keszthely was renamed in his honor. The formal dedication ceremonies took place on June 22, and in attendance were numerous local officials as well as a representative of the United States embassy.

The amount of available material concerning Asboth, in English and in Hungarian, is simply staggering. Scattered throughout these writings are a multitude of major and minor errors and questionable statements. To discuss even a fraction of these would entail much space. One conspicuous point, and a very conspicuous one at that, at least for the Hungarian-speaker, is worth mentioning. In American publications it has become rather common to denote his name as Alexander Sandor Asboth. This is somewhat redundant since Sándor is merely the Hungarian equivalent of Alexander. Asboth's name in official American documents, personal correspondence and the like appears as A. Asboth or Alexander Asboth; he himself certainly never signed his name as Alexander Sandor Asboth.