The Austrian First Army and Russian Fourth Army mirrored one another’s deployment: three infantry corps abreast, with a cavalry division guarding either flank. While the cavalry on the western flank engaged in a major engagement when the two armies crashed together, on the eastern flank the Cossacks proved more circumspect and only probed with small forces.

The Cossacks lacked the staying power to get past the Austrian cavalry screen in this sector, and the advance of X Corps on the right flank of First Army would continue unhindered. On the Russian side of the line the Grenadier Corps blundered forward as well, having received no orders to stop despite the setbacks on the Russian right flank and remaining unaware of the Austrian corps moving to attack it in a head-on frontal assault.