MARSHAL LOUIS N. DAVOUT AND THE ART OF COMMAND A ...

controlled the river road. Davout realized that these were not the same Austrians that he had beaten at Ulm and Austerlitz. Their leadership had improved and their soldiers fought with a vigor never before observed. He then knew that the next few days were not going to be easy. The Austrians, too, were impressed with their adversary. Hohenzollern commented that evening that he must have faced at least two corps during the fighting at Teugen-Hausen. In fact he had faced a little more than .one division with virtually no artillery. 6 By the end of the night Davout had achieved his goals for the day. His artillery had arrived safely and he had effected the linkup with Lefebvrels corps. He had managed to maneuver himself south of Charles and defeated the corps that was in his way. He did this with minimal effort and loss of life. Gabriel De Chenier said it best, The victory of Napoleon was not due to general sacrifice but due to the self-sacrifice of Davout. Which was the result of his boldness to stop the march of the enemy and divide his forces. 7 Although part of Davoutfs success was due to the ineffectiveness of the Austrian command, he certainly ensured that I11 Corps took advantage of every Austrian mistake. Davout had stopped the advance of an entire corps with only one division. Additionally, his movement away from Ratisbon forced Charlest other two corps to strike into the wind.