Napoleon, who was by now present alongside Davout, reconnoitered the situation and, seeing that Archduke John's army was nowhere near the battlefield, ordered the reserves back to Raasdorf, leaving only Arrighi's cuirassiers and a battery of 12-pounders with III Corps.
John Cruso, for example, explained the "caracoll" as a maneuver whereby a formation of cuirassiers would receive the enemy's charge by wheeling apart to either side, letting the enemy rush in between the pincers of their trap, and then charging inwards against the flanks of the overextended enemy.
After graduating from the school Louis-le-Grand, he joined the military as a quartermaster in the eight cuirassier, before becoming flag carrier for General Charles Denis Bourbaki.
With the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars, Saint-Sulpice is given the command of a cuirassier brigade in d'Hautpoul's 2nd heavy cavalry division of the cavalry reserve of the Grande Armée, which he will command between 1805 and 1807.