On 24 September, Auffenberg's brigade made a very strenuous hike across the mountains. One of his columns did not make it to the rendezvous by the evening, so the Austrian general decided to wait until the next day to move against Amsteg. The next morning, Auffenberg's men worked their way down the Maderanertal unopposed until within a half-hour march of Amsteg, when they bumped into two companies of the 38th Line. Amid the rocky course of the Charstelenbach stream, the French held up the Austrians for four hours. Finally, the Austrian infantry seized the bridge across the Charstelenbach. Auffenberg occupied Amsteg with two battalions and posted the other two battalions on the lower slopes of the Bristen Mountain, south of the stream. Auffenberg only partly damaged the bridge probably because he wanted to slow down the French when they retreated his way, but did not want to keep Suvorov from repairing it when the Russians arrived.