At the battle of Leipzig, on October 16, 1813, the Austrian Army made an strog atack to the right flank of Napoleon forces charging directly to the Pleisse river thought little towns as Dölitz, Lössing, etc.
The brave polish troops under Marshall Poniatowsky had to recoiled and Napoleon send his Old Guard under the command of Curial to counter atack.
In this exaclty moment (between 4:00Pm and 5:00PM) Napoleon saw the head of a column south and east of Probstheida and rode to see if it was friend or foe.
It was Souham at the head of Brayer 8th Division and a brigade of Ricard's 11th Division.
How it came to be that Souham appeared to the south of Leipzig with two Divisions is not clear.(!)
Around 1:00PM that day both Brayer and Ricard received an order to move from Mockau to the battlefield south of Leipzig, but they said that they didn't know who send the order.(!)
It wasn't Napoleon but of course he quickly ordered Souham to follow Curial and his Guard to the attack the Allies and probably with them save the position.
Those Divisions (8th and 11th) became from IIIº Corp under the command of Ney.
Not Ney nor Napoleon give the order to move to that zone.
So the question is… are there any document which show who really give that "providencial" order to those Divisions?
I'm interesting to know how such troops began to move ignoring who order them to did that.
Thanks in advance.
Amicalement
Armand
