Strategy or What?

Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of France, master of strategy and conqueror of most of Europe sure knew how to freak the enemy. He didn't rely so much on brilliant innovation while strategizing, rather he spent time studying the innovations of others and then thought about how it could be reused in the present context. He relied on flashes of insight to tell him what to do. When he first set out to conquer with a badly impoverished army from southern France, he goaded them saying that there was wealth to be had out there in the world and that they should go and get it. He advanced into Italy, and the Italian and Austrian generals identified Turin and Milan as strategic objectives. The Italian army spread out to defend Turin, and the Austrian army fanned out to defend Milan. Napoleon headed towards neither and went in between them. This confused the hell out of the Italian army which sent out troops looking for him, which allowed him to pick them off at his leisure at various points that were advantageous to him. He then headed not towards the Austrians defending Milan, but towards Austria. This panicked the Austrians who then set off in pursuit to defend their country. Napoleon picked a town along the way, set up in the middle of the town and allowed his artilery and then the infantry to take out the Austrian army on the bridge leading into the town.

This concept of finding the right thing to do at the right time came to be known as "Napoleon's Glance" - as recorded in a work On War by Carl von Clausewitz, a Prussian, who ended up fighting on the losing side in many battles with Napoleon. He went away and pondered over twenty years on the genius of Napoleon and what made him tick, and came up with the concept of the coup d'oeil, meaning a stroke of the eye, or glance.

The source for this is the book, Napoleon's Glance by William Duggan.