and headed upriver along the east bank. The Ottomans had no idea where the enemy was. Ambush On 11 September, the Ottoman army began to ford the river Tisza near Zenta, unaware that the Imperial Army was nearby. Captain Jovan Popović Tekelija, commander of the Serbian Militia, who was monitoring the advances of the Ottomans, immediately informed Prince Eugene, and a captured Ottoman pasha was forced to confirm the information. Tekelija then led the Imperial army over swamps and bog to the rear of the Turks encampment. A courier arrived from Vienna carrying peremptory orders from the emperor to "act with extreme caution" and not risk a general engagement, but not wanting to let the Turks slip across the river under cover of night, Eugene decided to carry on with his plan. Two hours before sunset, the arrival of the Habsburg army, after a ten-hour forced march, shocked the Ottoman forces as they were still in the process of crossing the river and did not think that the Christian army could get there so quickly. Sultan Mustafa, his baggage, and the artillery were on the Temeşvar bank while most of the infantry was still with the Grand Vizier on the other bank. As the light began to fall the entire Habsburg force, with cavalry on each side and the infantry in the middle, launched an all-out assault from the rear, attacking in a crescent shape movement against the defensive position of the Ottomans. The left flank of the Imperial army commanded by General Guido Starhemberg penetrated between the Ottoman left and the bridge, trapping them against the river. The army's right wing was under the command of General Sigbert Heister. At the same time, Imperial forces led by Charles-Thomas de Vaudémont, attacked from the front and, after engaging in close-quarter fighting, broke through the trenches surrounding the Ottoman camp. The command of the Turkish cavalry was under Hungarian Imre Thököly, who also supported the sultan with some additional Kuruc cavalry. The Imperial Dragoon of General Starhemberg dismounted and proceeded to the moat encircling and engaging the Ottoman camp and soon broke through the Turkish line of defence. Ottoman troops behind the entrenchments retreated in confusion to the bridge, which was now overcrowded, heavily bombarded, and soon collapsed. Thrown into disorder, the trapped Ottoman troops fell into chaos with thousands falling into the river. Austrian artillery devastated the surviving Ottomans as