The grand French army, after passing the Danube, had advanced into Moravia, being composed of the corps under Prince Murat, Marshals Soult, Lannes, and Bernadotte. The last of these was then opposed to the Archduke Ferdinand, and was advancing upon Iglau. Marshal Davoust, after having followed M. de Merveldt into Styria, moved from Vienna upon Presbourgh. The corps of Marmont marched upon Carinthia, and then upon Styria; in the first instance, to open the communication between the grand army and that of Italy; and afterwards, to oppose the junction of the Archduke Charles with the army under M. de Koutousoff; but the movements of this prince were so well calculated, and his force so well concentrated, that he did not allow time for the French to establish themselves at Gratz. Marshal Ney, after the passage of the Inn, took his direction on the Tyrol, by Scharnitz. At the time of the junction of the two Russian armies near Wischau, they had only opposed to them, the corps of Prince Murat, part of which formed the advanced guard, those of Marshals Soult and Lannes, the imperial guards, under Marshal Bessiéres, and a corps of grenadiers, drawn from these different troops, forming a reserve of 15,000 men, under General Duroc. This army, when near Brunn, was composed of eight divisions, each of which was about 7000 strong. The Russian army was so much fatigued with the continual marches it had been making, whether to fall back on the support, or the support to get forward in time, that it was decided at Wischau to take up the position of Olmutz, to give some days rest to the troops. Opinions were at that time much divided. The Russian advanced posts had no sort of information as to the position and force of the enemy; at one time, even Prince Bagration was ignorant of the situation occupied by the French advanced guard. The Austrians also, notwithstanding the facility they ought to have possessed of procuring intelligence in the country, had only _very vague data_ to act upon. By _this_ information, however, it appeared, that the French forces were collected only in small numbers near Brunn; and _some_ generals of the combined army gave their opinion at Wischau, for _immediately_ resuming the offensive. It is possible, _this moment_ might have been more fortunate than that which was afterwards chosen. The strength of the coalesced army was, from the 19th of November, superior to that of the enemy, who was yet uninformed that the junction of the two Russian armies was effected, and therefore could not expect an offensive movement,[1] such as a manœuvre on either of his flanks would have been. The army was then too near him to admit of his receiving reinforcements near Brunn. But this very diversity of opinion, perhaps rendered the movement on Olmutz necessary, because those in command did not possess that decision, which can only be the result of a military eye.