Editing Battle of Craonne (section)

===6 March===
By 5:00&nbsp;pm on 6 March, Meunier captured Vauclair Abbey from the Russians. Meunier and the Old Guard battalions captured Heurtebise Farm several times, but its Russian defenders threw them out each time and remained in possession of the place.{{sfn|Petre|1994|p=122}} The Russian forces involved were the 13th and 14th [[Jäger (military)|Jäger]] Regiments.{{sfn|Nafziger|2015|p=237}} That evening, Meunier withdrew a little to the north while the Old Guards occupied part of the Chemin des Dames ridge that they seized. [[Pierre François Xavier Boyer]]'s division was at [[Bouconville]] in support of Meunier, one Old Guard brigade was at Craonne and the other was at Corbeny, Exelmans' horsemen were at [[Craonnelle]] and [[Joseph Boyer de Rébeval]]'s division was at [[La Ville-aux-Bois-lès-Pontavert]]. The divisions of Colbert, Laferrière, [[Philibert Jean-Baptiste Curial]], [[Henri François Marie Charpentier]] and [[Nicolas-François Roussel d'Hurbal]] were at Berry-au-Bac. Still south of the Aisne were Mortier at [[Cormicy]], [[Jean-Toussaint Arrighi de Casanova]] at [[Roucy]] and Marmont more distant at [[Braine, Aisne|Braine]].{{sfn|Petre|1994|p=122}} With him, Mortier had the infantry divisions of [[Charles-Joseph Christiani]] and [[Paul-Jean-Baptiste Poret de Morvan]] and the cavalry division of [[Jean-Marie Defrance]].{{sfn|Nafziger|2015|p=236}}

Blücher planned to have Vorontsov defend against a French attack on the Chemin des Dames ridge, while Sacken remained in support farther west at [[Braye-en-Laonnois]].{{sfn|Nafziger|2015|p=237}} While Napoleon was facing Vorontsov, Wintzingerode's cavalry, followed by Kleist, York and Langeron, would move east on the north side of the [[Ailette (river)|Ailette River]], then strike Napoleon's right flank and rear. Wintzingerode's cavalry was supposed to gather at [[Filain, Aisne|Filain]] before setting out on its march and was expected to arrive at Festieux at dawn. One difficulty was that Wintzingerode's horsemen would first have to move west along the Chemin des Dames ridge to reach Filain.{{sfn|Petre|1994|p=123}} When Wintzingerode arrived at Filain during the night, he found that the cavalrymen of Yorck and Langeron were already in camp with their horses unsaddled. In the circumstances, Wintzingerode decided to wait until daybreak to start on his march, but he neglected to order a reconnaissance of the roads.{{sfn|Petre|1994|p=130}}