Government Forces Storm Walls of Paris

From this moment there was war in the streets, but a war without method, without guidance, without a chief, a war without discipline, the struggle of despair.

Continuing The 1871 Paris Commune,
our selection from Histoire de la France contemporaine by Gabriel Hanotaux published in 1903. The selection is presented in six easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in The 1871 Paris Commune.

Time: 1871
Place: Paris

He was believed and followed; the gate was crossed: the troops of Versailles entered Paris. M. Thiers looked on at this unexpected movement from the top of the battery at Montretout. At one moment the soldiers were seen coming out again, and a cry rose around him, “We are repulsed.” But confidence was soon restored. By the aid of glasses “two long black serpents were distinguished gliding toward the gate of the Point-du Jour, through which they entered.” The officers in command, on being informed, stopped the fire directed upon the ramparts. The troops slipped inside from one place and another along the wall, without at first penetrating into the town.

From this moment there was war in the streets, but a war without method, without guidance, without a chief, a war without discipline, the struggle of despair. Each quarter, each group, fought for itself. The positions that had been prepared for the internal defense were guarded or abandoned, as chance willed.

In the night between the Sunday and the Monday seventy thousand men under arms from Versailles had slipped in some way along the fortifications forming a vast semicircle from La Muette to the Champ-de-Mars, by the Auteuil viaduct. General Douay had advanced by Auteuil and Passy to the Trocadéro. There was some fear that the ground was mined. But Ducatel, walking some paces in advance of the General, declared that there was nothing to fear.

On Monday, May 22nd, in the morning, a proclamation of Delescluze was posted up announcing the entrance of the men of Versailles. It was a call to arms: “Room for the people, for the bare-armed fighting men! The hour of the revolutionary war has struck!”

During this day the Versailles troops occupied Paris as far as the Palais de l’Industrie, the left bank along the quay, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Champ de Mars, the Ecole Militaire, and soon Vaugirard, the Invalides, the Palais Bourbon, the Montparnasse station; on the right bank the whole region included between the Saint-Lazare station and the Place Clichy. One would say that the end was now possible in a single blow. M. Thiers telegraphed to the prefects on May 21st, 6. 30 1 p.m.: “The Saint Cloud gate has just fallen under the fire of our guns. General Douay has hastened to the spot and is at this moment entering Paris with his troops. The corps of Gernerals Ladmirault and Clinchant are moving forward to follow him.”

If the Versailles troops had hurried the movement, perhaps they would have profited by the confusion of the Fédérates and rapidly taken the whole town. But it was desirable to avoid a check at any cost; the explosion of mines was feared; the advance was surrounded with precautions; it was made with prudence and often with sapping, suspected houses being searched.

In the night between Monday and Tuesday the insurgents took fresh courage. A burning sun illumined the city. The alarm-bell sounded: the call to arms was beaten. The Fédérates descended from the suburbs. All came and, conscious of great numbers, lent mutual courage. The barricades were occupied; fresh ones were thrown up; it is said that there were five hundred in Paris. The central quarters formed, as it were, a formidable block, having as its front the defenses formed by the Place de la Concorde, the Rue Royale, the Boulevard Malesherbes, the Place Clichy, on the right bank; the barricades of the Rue du Bac, of the Rue Vavin, the Rue de Rennes, the Rue de la Croix Rouge, the Rue du Pantheon on the left bank; and as a redoubt Montmartre, the Buttes-Chaumont, Pere la Chaise, the Gobelins, the Butte-aux-Cailles. It was a fortress inside a fortress. The real battle was about to open. The psychological condition was no longer the same. On both sides a hideous rage blinded all these men to the sense of humanity.

On Tuesday, the 23rd, at four o’clock in the morning, the troops that had bivouacked in the street resumed the attack. Montmartre was the objective. A smart fight was expected. The height was carried about two o’clock, almost without a blow. It is said that this formidable operation was rendered easier by the agency of money. Dombrowski, beaten at La Muette, fell back. He was mortally wounded; and he died uttering words that showed his preoccupz1tion — “And they say that I betrayed them!” His body was carried to the Hotel de Ville, and laid in Mlle. Haussmann’s bed, and on the following day the Fédérates accompanied it with a kind of funeral procession to Pere la Chaise.

The fighting was terrible in the Faubourg St. Honoré, in the Boulevard Malesherbes, at the Madeleine, in the Rue Royale, on the Terrace of the Tuileries. Brunel was in command there; he, too, had come from prison.

However, this position was turned by the capture of Montmartre. Brunel, in obedience to the orders given by Delescluze, began the conflagration by setting fire to the houses in the Rue Royale, which were close to the barricades.

The Tuileries and the Louvre were surrounded. Bergeret held a council of war in the great hall of the Tuileries. He had the rooms soaked with petroleum, caused barrels of powder to be brought up, and gave the order for burning the palace.

On the left bank, the troops that were marching upon the Pantheon were stopped at the Croix-Rouge, at the Rue de Rennes, at the Bellechasse barracks. They moved on, however, as far as the quay by the Rue de Légion-d’Honneur. But before retreating the Fédérates set fire to the Rue de Lille, the Palais du Conseil d’Etat, and the Courdes Comptes, to the Palais de la Légion-d’Honneur, where “General” Eudes, before decamping, did not forget to deliver his stroke.

After two hours’ fighting, the Fédérates who had defended the barricade in the Rue Vavin fell back, but first they blew up the magazine of the Luxembourg. The whole of the left bank was shaken as if by an earthquake. At the town hall of the Eleventh Ward, where Delescluze was dying, he was speaking in low tones, and his appearance was so heart-breaking that in the midst of such a day he still appealed to the emotions of those present. In accordance with his orders, the defense of the Bastille and the Faubourg Saint-Antoine was prepared.

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