Editing Battle of Craonne (section)

===7 March: Fighting===
[[File:Chemin des Dames - IMG 3111.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.8|alt=Photograph shows Route D18 CD on the Chemin des Dames with Heurtebise Farm at left.|The view is east along the Chemin des Dames with Heurtebise Farm at left. The French advance came toward the viewer.]]

At 9:00&nbsp;am, the French Imperial Guard artillery unlimbered on the east end of the Chemin des Dames ridge and opened fire. The Russian artillery replied, but the range was {{convert|1500|m|yd|0}}, too long to inflict much damage on either side.{{sfn|Nafziger|2015|p=241}} Blucher was with Vorontsov until 10:00&nbsp;am when he rode off to learn the whereabouts of Wintzingerode's column.{{sfn|Petre|1994|p=130}} Ney had been told to wait for the order to attack, but the bombardment caused him to send his troops forward. He ordered Pierre Boyer to attack Ailles with Meunier advancing on his left.{{sfn|Petre|1994|p=125}} One account stated that Curial's division operated with Meunier's troops from the beginning.{{sfn|Nafziger|2015|p=242}} Napoleon was partly responsible for Ney's blunder because he did not explain his battle plan to the marshal. Sending his men into the attack without artillery support was Ney's fault alone. The soldiers of both Meunier and Pierre Boyer were stopped in their tracks by the Russian cannons.{{sfn|Petre|1994|p=126}} Boyer de Rébeval's division arrived on the field at 11:00&nbsp;am, but Charpentier's division was slowed by sleet-covered roads.{{sfn|Nafziger|2015|p=241}}

At about 11:00&nbsp;am Heurtebise Farm burst into flame and was abandoned.{{sfn|Petre|1994|p=126}} Vorontsov ordered Krasovsky's advanced troops to pull back to the main line. The 2nd Jäger Regiment from the second line moved forward and occupied Ailles.{{sfn|Nafziger|2015|p=241}} Because of Ney's premature attack, Boyer de Rébeval's division had to be diverted from the main attack to support the right flank.{{sfn|Petre|1994|p=125}} At 11:30&nbsp;am, Ney's artillery began pounding the Russian left flank and Ney personally led Meunier's men forward to the top of the slope. Nansouty advanced up the [[Paissy]] spur and pushed back the cavalry on the Russian right flank{{sfn|Petre|1994|p=126}} despite being charged by three Cossack regiments and four squadrons of hussars led by Benkendorf.{{sfn|Nafziger|2015|p=243}} At noon, Boyer de Rébeval attacked and seized the Marion Woods.{{sfn|Petre|1994|p=126}} Early in the action, a bullet hit Victor in the thigh, putting him out of action.{{sfn|Nafziger|2015|p=243}} On the Russian side, Krasovsky was also quickly wounded and compelled to leave the field. Boyer de Rébeval's advance was carried out by Auguste Julien Bigarré's brigade with Jacques Lecapitaine's brigade in reserve. They were supported by six batteries of Guard artillery plus 12 their own guns. Since Boyer de Rébeval's men were [[Marie-Louise (conscript)|raw conscripts with only 20 days of service]] their musketry and cannon fire was not very effective.{{sfn|Nafziger|2015|p=242}}

By 1:00&nbsp;pm, the Russians threatened to drive the troops of Meunier and Boyer de Rébeval off the ridge.{{sfn|Petre|1994|p=126}} Boyer de Rébeval brought up Lecapitaine's brigade on Bigarré's left. Vorontsov committed Andrey Savvich Glebov's brigade from the third line into the fight. The 19th Jäger and Shirvan Infantry Regiments pressed forward but [[Antoine Drouot]] moved up two Guard artillery batteries and their fire halted the Russian attack. At 1:30&nbsp;pm Napoleon ordered [[Emmanuel de Grouchy]] to commit his cavalry in an effort to get the attack moving. Grouchy sent [[Louis Ernest Joseph Sparre]]'s dragoon brigade forward. Sparre's troopers drove off the Pavlograd Hussars{{sfn|Nafziger|2015|p=243}} and then swept into Parkinson's Horse Artillery Battery Nr. 9, cutting down the gunners. Both Grouchy and Sparre were wounded and the dragoons were forced to retreat. Boyer de Rébeval's division fell back into the Marion Woods where it rallied.{{sfn|Nafziger|2015|p=244}}

At 1:45&nbsp;pm, Laferrière's 3rd Guard Cavalry Division charged the large Russian battery in the center. The elite horsemen got among the cannons but were unable to break the Russian foot soldiers behind the guns, who were formed in squares. Laferrière was badly wounded{{sfn|Nafziger|2015|p=244}} and his horsemen were met by intense fire. However, by the time the Russians forced the Guard cavalry to retire, Charpentier's division reached the field and easily captured the Quatre Heures Woods. They were soon followed by Curial's division. By 2:30&nbsp;pm, Charpentier's troops linked up with Nansouty's horsemen on the French left and together they began to force back the Russian right flank. Nansouty reached the end of the Paissy valley before being turned back by cannon fire. By this time Ney had brought Meunier's division onto the ridge and the Guard artillery moved forward. Pierre Boyer reported seeing an Allied force to the north; this was Kleist's corps moving east.{{sfn|Petre|1994|p=127}}

That morning, having failed to reconnoiter the roads, Winzingerode selected a bad route. Meanwhile, Kleist selected a more direct route and the two columns crossed at [[Chevregny]] at 11:00&nbsp;am, causing a traffic jam.{{sfn|Petre|1994|p=130}} Kleist finally arrived at Festieux at 4:00&nbsp;pm. Blücher caught up with Winzingerode at 2:00&nbsp;pm at [[Bruyères-et-Montbérault]] and realized there was no chance to carry out the intended attack on Napoleon's east flank.{{sfn|Petre|1994|p=131}} Anxious that Sacken and Vorontsov were in danger, Blücher ordered those generals to retreat.{{sfn|Nafziger|2015|p=244}} Sacken received his orders at 3:00&nbsp;pm. He instructed his cavalry to assist Vorontsov and sent his infantry north toward Laon. Vorontsov withdrew 22 dismounted guns and his wounded. He formed his infantry into a checkerboard of mutually-supporting squares and began to retreat to the west on the Chemin des Dames plateau.{{sfn|Nafziger|2015|p=245}}

At 2:30&nbsp;pm Napoleon decided to launch the decisive blow. The reserve artillery was brought forward and placed in battery beside the guns belonging to Victor's divisions and the Guard. Under the orders of Drouot, 88 guns pummeled the Russian infantry with [[grapeshot]]. The divisions of Friant and Curial pressed forward, supported by cavalry.{{sfn|Petre|1994|p=128}} By 3:00&nbsp;pm, the 2nd and 6th Jäger Regiments abandoned Ailles to Pierre Boyer's division. Napoleon appointed [[Augustin Daniel Belliard]] to replace the wounded Grouchy and switched the cavalry divisions of Roussel d'Hurbal and Colbert to the French left flank.{{sfn|Nafziger|2015|p=246}} Earlier, Napoleon asked Charpentier to take command of Victor's corps.{{sfn|Nafziger|2015|p=245}} Four French cannons astride the main road were particularly effective in punishing the withdrawing Russian infantry.{{sfn|Nafziger|2015|p=247}}

The Russians fell back in good order to a position {{convert|800|yd|m|0}} southwest of Ailles. At 4:00&nbsp;pm Vorontsov withdrew again to the hamlet of Troyan near Cerny.{{sfn|Petre|1994|p=128}} Alexey Petrovich Nikitin prepared an ambush with 36 guns from Sacken's corps. When the 6th Jägers fell back through their position, Nikitin's guns opened a deadly fire on the pursuing French.{{sfn|Nafziger|2015|p=247}} Vasilshikov's cavalry intervened just as Benkendorf's horsemen were on the verge of being overwhelmed by the cavalry of Exelmans, Pac and Laferrière. Seeing Colbert's horsemen swarming around several Russian infantry squares, Vasilshikov ordered Sergey Nicolaevich Lanskoy to lead the Mariopol and Alexandria Hussar Regiments to charge. This attack drove off Colbert's troopers but the Russian hussars were in turn driven back by Nansouty's cavalrymen. Vasilshiov sent forward three dragoon regiments and Nansouty's cavalrymen were stopped as Lanskoy's hussars rallied in the rear.{{sfn|Nafziger|2015|p=248}}

The Russians retired to another position on the Chemin des Dames plateau before crossing the Ailette at Chevregny. The French artillery took the crossing under fire and caused some confusion and loss, but Vorontsov's corps got safely away to the north bank. Since other Allied forces were in the area, the French pursuit ended about 7:00–8:00&nbsp;pm. The French army bivouacked along the Chemin des Dames ridge as follows: Charpentier's infantry and the Guard cavalry at Filain, Colbert at [[Aizy-Jouy]], Belliard at [[Ostel]], Ney to the north of Ostel, Napoleon, Mortier and the Guard infantry at Braye-en-Laonnois. [[Étienne Tardif de Pommeroux de Bordesoulle]]'s cavalry camped at Heurtebise Farm to establish a link with Marmont's corps at Berry-au-Bac.{{sfn|Petre|1994|p=129}}