28. The street battles continue¶
Core Argument¶
Chapter 28: The Street Battles Continue¶
By the morning of the final assault, the Versaillese had already captured the Batignolles, aided by the Prussians surrendering the neutral zone. Montmartre fell around midday, not through battle but through panic and desertion that reduced its defenders to a mere hundred. At the site where Generals Lecomte and Clément-Thomas had been executed on 18 March, the Versaillese now executed forty-two men, three women, and four children. Systematic massacre and looting followed in the captured districts. On the left bank, resistance proved more tenacious: Varlin held the Croix-Rouge crossroads until it was reduced to rubble; Lisbonne defended the Rue Vavin for two days. Wroblewski refused to abandon the forts and fortified the Butte-aux-Cailles and the Boulevards d’Italie, de l’Hôpital, and de la Gare. Dombrowski was mortally wounded in the Rue Myrrha. By 8 p.m., the Versaillese line stretched from the Northern Railway station to the Place Vendôme and Place de la Concorde, then along the Rue du Bac and Boulevard d’Enfer to Bastion 81. Only half of Paris remained in Federal hands.
At nightfall, the Tuileries, the Légion d’Honneur, the Conseil d’Etat, and the Cour des Comptes were set ablaze. The flames rising from the burning palace toward Versailles signalled that monarchical monuments would no longer shelter monarchy. The Hôtel-de-Ville became the centre of the Commune’s defence, its interior crowded with ammunition wagons and wounded National Guards lying on bloodied mattresses. One commander, horribly mutilated by a ball, still waved a red flag. Dombrowski’s corpse lay on a blue satin bed, lit by a single taper. Delescluze, now barely able to speak, signed orders. Discipline was collapsing: the Central Committee issued a manifesto demanding the dissolution of the Assembly and Commune, the withdrawal of the army from Paris, and a provisional government of delegates from large towns—an ultimatum that sowed further disorder. Bergeret received verbal authorisation to fire the Tuileries, but a suspicious figure demanded written confirmation. Meanwhile, Raoul Rigault, acting alone, had Chaudey shot at Sainte-Pélagie prison, along with three gendarmes captured on 18 March.