Seeing this inauspicious development, Wrede sent his cavalry, no less than 7,000 men, to charge Drouot's grand battery. The steady French canister fire was devastating and many Coalition squadrons turned back to safety. Some of them did manage to get to the French guns and crossed the battery, with the Guard cavalry immediately countercharging and driving them off. With the gun line now out of danger, Nansouty, with the aid of Sebastiani's cuirassiers launched a pursuit of the repulsed enemy horse, encountering and breaking an Austrian cuirassier regiment, the "Knesevich" Dragoon regiment and two Bavarian "chevaulegers" regiments, all under the personal command of Field Marshal-Lieutenant Franz Splény de Miháldy. Then, with a manoeuvre resembling that of Kellermann at Marengo, Nansouty wheeled his men left and rushed onto the enemy infantry, breaking them. The "Grenadiers-à-Cheval" were in the thick of the fighting and, with an offensive comeback of the Bavarian cavalry, they were momentarily in a dangerous situation, but were duly rescued by the "Gardes d'Honneur" regiment. Nansouty then took his entire cavalry and broke the remaining enemy squares and cavalry, pushing some of these men into the Kinzig river. Meanwhile, Nansouty's action left Sebastiani free to silence the Bavarian grand battery, skilfully using Saint-Germain's cuirassier division and Exelmans's light division of his Corps. Nansouty received a light wound during this battle, but his role at Hanau is compared by a Russian author to that of Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz at the Battle of Zorndorf.