 From exile on Elba fifteen years later , Napoleon analyzed the Battle of Stockach and the French defeat : its cause , he concluded , lay in Jourdan 's division of force . Although Jourdan had increased concentration from his dispositions at Ostrach , the French force was still over @-@ extended . Against a more concentrated force , the Austrians could not have moved troops from the left to reinforce the right flank when Saint Cyr and Vandamme attacked from front and rear . Furthermore , Napoleon averred , Ferino 's force on the French right had not been concentrated sufficiently and d 'Hautpoul 's cavalry assault had taken too long to materialize , giving the Austrians the upper hand . The Austrian left had halted his assault , freeing men from the southern flank to reinforce the northern one . Importantly , the Austrian line was short enough that troops could move quickly from the southern flank to the northern one . Furthermore , Napoleon argued , Jourdan had retreated north @-@ northwest , to the Black Forest to protect Alsace . He should have retreated south , to join with André Masséna 's well @-@ positioned Army of Helvetia , where in combination the Army of Helvetia and the Army of the Danube could have combined forces to defeat the Habsburg army . With Jourdan 's misguided overall strategy , Napoleon asserted , the French snatched defeat from the jaws of victory . 
