August von Gneisenau was sent to Arnsgereuth to support the troops there, and having confirmed that the French were advancing on Saalfeld and in strength, the Prussian troops withdrew from Arnsgereuth to , just outside Saalfeld, with advance posts in . At 7am Prince Louis began concentrating his troops at Saalfeld, and by 9am he had arranged his forces for battle. The troops were arranged in a line stretching from in front of Saalfeld to behind and facing the woods the covered the hills above Saalfeld and the Saale valley. The Prince left Generalmajor Karl Gerhard von Pelet's detachment at Blankenburg. Order of battle Battle At around 9.45AM, the advanced guard of V Corps, consisting of the corps' Bataillon d'élite (formed of the elite companies of battalions left at depots), the 17th Légère Regiment, and two cannons, made its way towards Saalfeld and occupied the heights overlooking the town. The French light cavalry brigade and the advanced guard began to engage the Prussian-Saxon army. The Bataillon d'élite supported by French skirmishers pushed out the Prussian troops from Garnsdorf and occupied it. As the French troops advanced and the Prussian-Saxon army prepared to fight them, Marshal Lannes noticed that the right flank of the Prussian-Saxon army was completely uncovered, and while the cavalry and French advanced guard engaged the Prussians around Garnsdorf and Saalfeld, he ordered rest of Suchet's division to march northwards through the woods to outflank the Prussian and Saxon line. To cover these moves, the 17th Légère Regiment formed a skirmish line that extended from Saalfeld to Beulwitz. Prince Louis was aware that he was engaged with a larger force, and then at 11am, Saxon Souslieutnant Heinrich August von Egidy brought a verbal order from Prince Hohenlohe to remain at Rudolstadt and that the offensive across the Saale had been abandoned. Prince Louis decided to try and disengage with the French and retreat to Rudolstadt. He ordered second battalion of the "Müffling" Regiment to Schwarza to hold the bridges, and sent troops under the Saxon Generalmajor to extend the right of his line to the hills either side of (known as the Oberhayn and Sandberg). He also ordered the "Prince Xaver" and "Kurfürst" regiments to take the offensive by attacking the plain between Siechentbal and the Kesselthal streams. The skirmishers of the 17th Légère Regiment supported with the 34th Ligne Regiment (which had moved out of the woods