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

pursuit on two parallel roads leading to Landshutand the bridges over the Isar River. Again General Vincent acted admirably holding the French at bay for over three hours. This allowed many Austrians to cross the river and continue their retreat. The scene in and around Landshut was pure chaos as that area had been the forward staging base for the Austrian army. Infantry, cavalry, artillery, and baggage wagons competed for space on the one road leading to the east. The Austrian fire held the French in front of the bridge across the Isar River for a number of hours. Finally at the end of the day Napoleon succeeded in taking Landshut with a coup de main. Meanwhile Charles resolved to fix and destroy Davout's isolated corps to the north. Davout and Lefebvre had about 36,000 men facing Charles with over 75,000. For the third day in a row Davout would have to face these great odds, and the Austrian commander, with his main army. The actions on the twenty-first show that Davouthad great tactical abilities. Unlike at Teugen-Hausen,Charles brought more of his available forces into play inan attempt to defeat the French I11 Corps. The battles of21 April were again a series of engagements conducted bysubordinate units over an eight mile stretch of land.They do not have a name but are generally referred to as"Davout's running fight1f ( see Appendix A, Figure '5) .