Confident after their victory over the surprised French at Ampfing, the Austrians continued on the offensive, only to find the town of Haag abandoned by the French. Now convinced the French would continue to fall back to the west, Archduke John decided to aggressively continue the pursuit. To speed up his forces' movement, he split his army into four columns that would take four routes to arrive at the crossroads town of Hohenlinden and continue the pursuit from there. Two columns would march west along separate roads, while a column under General Kienmayer would take a northerly route and a column under General Riesch would take a southerly route. All four columns were ordered to aggressively attack any French resistance they encountered as it was believed to be only a rear guard.
Little did Archduke John know that French General Moreau had decided to make his stand at Hohenlinden. While Moreau had initially planned an offensive, the surprise of the Austrian offensive caused him to reconsider his plans. Having detected the Austrians at Haag and the other column to the north, he decided to form a defensive line around Hohenlinden and hold the center and left, while attacking on the right. General Richepanse was given command of the attack on the right flank, and when General Decaen told Moreau that his men could not march to Hohenlinden in time to support the center, the plan was changed so Decaen's division would follow Richepanse's in the attack on the right.