27. The invasion continues

Wellred

Core Argument

On 22 May 1871, the Versaillese army poured into Paris, meeting a defence already fractured by confusion and a fatal disregard for military discipline. Dombrowski reported the breakthrough to the Committee of Public Safety, which remained ignorant of the true military situation. Delescluze’s proclamation repudiated hierarchy and command, leaving Federals unwilling to leave their own streets. The War Office was evacuated at five in the morning without destroying its papers—documents that would later supply the courts-martial. Montmartre’s eighty-five cannon remained mute for seventeen hours, lacking cartridges, fortifications, and initiative. Similar paralysis gripped the Ecole Militaire. The Council of the Commune met at nine, issuing no strategic direction; Félix Pyat theatrically signed a roll of honour and then fled. By midday, Cissey’s forces had taken the Ecole Militaire. Barricades were thrown up rapidly, but many remained unfinished.

The night before the assault, Paris had been subdued yet industrious. Citizens were requisitioned to build barricades from paving-stones, mattresses, and earth-filled sacks; women and children worked alongside men. These barricades were low—hardly a man’s height—and flew the red flag. Behind each, thirty men could hold off regiments. Yet the Federals lacked coordination and military knowledge. They built hundreds of scattered, undermanned barricades instead of two hundred strategic, defensible ones, mistakenly expecting a frontal attack while the Versaillese executed flanking movements. By evening, the Versaillese line stretched across Paris, facing only embryo barricades. Though 130,000 strong and able to break through to the disarmed centre, the soldiers and chiefs hesitated, fearing Paris would attack them from houses and sewers. They needed the night to recover from their conquest and to realise the Committee of Defence had prepared nothing.

At Versailles, Thiers announced the entry to the Assembly, promising complete expiation; deputies rushed to watch the slaughter from safe heights. By nightfall, the Ministry of Finance was burning. Dombrowski was briefly arrested on suspicion of treason but released. Despite the chaos, many revolutionaries resolved to fight to the death for the Social Revolution.