The reserve of cavalry, composed of five divisions, crossed the Rhine on the 25th of September, at Kehl. Lannes and his corps, consisting of the grenadiers under Oudinot, and of a division under Suchet, crossed the Rhine at the same place; and Marshal Ney, with his divisions, under Dupont, Loison, and Malher, and the dragoons of Baragny d’Hilliers, followed on the 26th.
Soult with the divisions of Vandamme, Legrand, and St. Hilaire, effected his passage at Spire; and Davoust at Manheim at the head of the divisions under Friant, Gudin, and Bouvrier.
NAPOLEON CROSSING THE RHINE AT KEHL.
THE FOURTH CORPS ENTERING AUGSBURG.
General Vandamme, in the action at Donawerth, routed the regiment of Colloredo, who defended the bridge, killed about 60 men and took 150 prisoners. Marshal Soult hastened to the bridge, and bore down upon Augsburg with the division under Vandamme and Legrand; while St. Hilaire marched his troops up the left bank of the Danube, to watch the movements of the army collected round Ulm, and afterward, followed the two divisions we have just named.
Murat arrived at Donawerth on the morning of the 7th of October, 1805, with the dragoons commanded by General Walter, and crossed the river to bear down rapidly upon the Lech. Colonel Wathier, at the head of 200 dragoons of the Fourth Regiment, crossed that river by swimming, to occupy the bridge on the road to Rain. A regiment of Austrian cuirassiers made some efforts at resistance, but were charged so gallantly by Wathier and his small handful of men that the bridge remained in the hands of the French.
Napoleon, who accompanied the corps under Lannes, took up his quarters at Zusmershausen, where he reviewed the cavalry under Murat, as well as the two divisions under Oudinot and Suchet.
Marshal Soult, after having manœuvred with Legrand’s division on the 7th and 8th of October, rejoined that of Vandamme, to make for Augsburg by the right bank of the Lech; whilst St. Hilaire pursued the same course on the left. Soult met with the debris of the Austrian column, beaten and dispersed, at Wertingen; from which village he drove them, and entered Augsburg.