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

approached, a shell toppled Friantfs horse but did notexplode.The General soon regained his composure and wasquickly given another mount.Convinced that Itthe affairhad taken on a more serious charactertt Davout and Friantplanned an assault.19 Unfazed by the cannon fire heordered Friant and St Hilaire's division to conduct ageneral attack forward.For the third time in as manydays Davout was attacking a force that vastly outnumberedhis two small divisions.This time the Austrians were determined to fight.Charles was present on the scene and showed a considerableamount of leadership and battlefield skills.He evencommitted the !!Archduke Charles Regiment1! to the fightwhen Friant began to make progress ig the north.StHilaire managed to capture Unter-Laichling but was forcedto retreat later in the night.The fighting continueduntil dark but the French were not able to take theAustrian positions.However, they managed to hold on towhat they achieved as the day wore to an end.The Frenchfought a series of running battles and skirmishes overabout eight miles.They had finally run out of endurancein front of the twin villages of the Laichlings.Had Davout failed to initiate the attack to holdCharles the results may have been disastrous.During thefight Davout had sent at least six messages to Napoleoninforming him that the main army lay to the front of I11