The French victory at the
Battle of Wagram on 6 July forced the commander of the
Kaiserlich-königliche Hauptarmee, the main Austrian army,
Archduke Charles of Austria-Teschen, to retreat. In spite of the defeat, the retreat was orderly and very well handled. The French, commanded by
Napoleon I, were initially unsure about the exact direction, with reports saying that the Austrians were retreating towards
Bohemia, but it was still unclear whether they would retreat using the road to
Brünn or the road to
Znaim. Other reports from, sent by General
Louis-Pierre Montbrun were indicating that the Austrians were actually retreating towards
Moravia. Masséna sent scouts towards
Krems and the district of
Horn and was able to ascertain that the enemy was not retreating in that direction, but he was unable to conclude where they would retreat. It thus took the French a few days after the battle of Wagram, before they could gather enough intelligence to really understand where the Austrians were going. However, by 8 July, things began to clarify for Napoleon, mainly due to intelligence sent by
Auguste de Marmont, commander of XI Corps and the significance of a series of combats fought by elements of Masséna's Corps against the VI Korps under Klenau. These combats, fought at
Korneuburg and
Stockerau allowed Masséna to inform Napoleon that a large Austrian force was indeed retreating towards Bohemia. Austrian commander Klenau, with an initial force of 18,000 men and 64 cannons had orders to delay the French pursuit. On 9 July, Klenau decided to make another stand, this time near
Hollabrunn, around 55 kilometers northwest of
Vienna. Following the initial skirmishes, Klenau's force was still 17,000 men strong and it now occupied a strong position. Opposite to him, Masséna only had under his immediate control General
Claude Legrand's 1st division of IV Corps, the Corps cavalry under General
Jacob François Marulaz and the
cuirassiers from the 2nd
heavy cavalry division of General
Raymond-Gaspard de Bonardi de Saint-Sulpice. Masséna promptly engaged Klenau, while at the same time conducting a full
reconnaissance of the battlefield, which enabled him to write to the Emperor and reconfirm that no Austrian regiments were heading towards Krems. Masséna's attacks were at first successful, but Klenau counterattacked and repulsed the French and then opposed staunch resistance to any further attacks. The outnumbered Masséna was forced to break off the combat and wait for his other three infantry divisions, knowing that
Claude Carra Saint-Cyr's division would be able to rejoin him shortly, but that
Gabriel Jean Joseph Molitor's and
Jean Boudet's were much too far off to be of any assistance. == Aftermath ==