That night, as Napoleon rode among his troops, the French soldiers lit torches and shouted, "Vive l'Empereur!" despite having orders to not light torches and give away their positions. Oudinot's grenadier division, temporarily commanded by both Duroc and Oudinot, and the Imperial Guard were held in reserve. Bernadotte's I Corps would form up on the center left, able to assist with either the center or the left. Instead, Lannes was to contain Bagration, engaging his troops as much as necessary to ensure they could not interfere with the assault on the center. On the left, Lannes' V Corps supported by Murat's cavalry was ordered to not attack too forcefully to ensure the Allies would not send reinforcements to that side.
Then, when the time was right and most of the Allied troops were engaged on one of the two wings, the other divisions of IV Corps would storm the Pratzen Heights in the center, smashing the Allied center and breaking their line. Napoleon's plan called for the right flank to hold its ground as well as possible, forcing the Allies to commit more and more troops to that flank. Only Legrand's division of Soult's IV Corps formed the right, but Davout's III Corps was enduring forced marches to arrive at the battlefield by the next morning. He had purposely weakened and spread out his right flank in the hopes of enticing as many enemy units to that side of the battlefield as possible. On the other side, Napoleon was ecstatic when he saw the movements of the enemy army. The Russian Imperial Guard, commanded by the tsar's brother Constantine, would be held in reserve and respond where it was most needed. On the Allied right, General Bagration would press forward and hit the French from that side, while the center would hold steady and keep the two wings linked.
#IMPERIAL GUARD HOLD THE LINE SERIES#
Seeing the overextended wing on the French right, General Buxhowden would launch a series of columns in force against that wing and turn it, rolling the French back northward. After heated discussions, the Austrian Chief of Staff General Weyrother's plan was accepted as the course of action. On December 1st, the Allied army arrived with many of its commanders excited about the possibility of destroying the French army. Next Napoleon sent his aide Savary to negotiate an armistice and deceive the Allies into thinking that the French lacked confidence, and in the meantime his soldiers prepared defensive positions. Unable to prevent the two Russian armies from linking up, Napoleon ordered La Grande Armée to fall back and selected an area near the town of Austerlitz to make a stand. Also known as: Battle of the Three Emperors Arc de Triomphe: AUSTERLITZ December 2, 1805
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