After Somogy county had been taken by the imperial army, a young magistrate, Gáspár Noszlopy (1820-1853), became the chief protagonist of the events, who, together with his brother Antal, devised a plan for the liberation of South Transdanubia.

On 19 March 1849, Lajos Kossuth gave the go-ahead to Gáspár Noszlopy to start fighting in Somogy county. Noszlopy, who had been promoted to the rank of Major of the National Guard, marched with his insurgents to Kaposvár on 1 May, and in the spring of that year most of Somogy and Zala counties were finally liberated from the occupation.

General György Klapka wrote about Gáspár Noszlopy: This energetic young man had been harassing the Second Austrian Corps under Nugent since June and had fought several battles with the Austrians with favourable results. The whole force that was battling the enemy alone, cut off from the government or the other armies, consisted of 3000 men; only a part of them were armed with proper weapons, the greater part being recruits armed with scythes and pikes, and 100 horses, 1 wooden cannon and 1 ore cannon”.

Noszlopy, who had been appointed government commissioner of South Transdanubia in July, tried to organise the defence of the region from Kaposvár (in July even cannons were cast in the town), but soon he was forced to withdraw part of his army to Komárom Castle to escape the approaching imperial troops. He continued to fight for years. He was captured in 1850, but managed to escape.

Gáspár Noszlopy went on the run, hiding all over the country – in Transdanubia, in the Great Hungarian Plain, in the Partium and in Pest, while making new plans for a popular uprising. He also tried to organise guerrilla troops and obtain imperial uniforms. Noszlopy – so as not to be recognised – is said to have disfigured his face with bleach (i.e. nitric acid). In the autumn of 1852, however, Noszlopy was captured again and, after being sentenced to death for the second time by the military tribunal in Vienna, he was executed in Pest in March 1853.

The street leading south from the Kaposvár Town Hall has been called Gáspár Noszlopy Street since 1946. This public place was previously named after Queen Elisabeth, the wife of Franz Joseph, who was murdered in Geneva…