30. The Left bank falls¶
Core Argument¶
The fall of the left bank sealed the military fate of the Paris Commune, transforming a desperate defence into a wholesale slaughter. Walery Wroblewski, commanding the Commune’s southern forces, was forced into a fighting retreat after General Cissey’s artillery—over fifty cannon and machine-guns—pounded the Butte aux Cailles. Among the defenders was the legendary 101st battalion from the thirteenth arrondissement, undisciplined but ferocious fighters who held their ground against overwhelming odds. The strategic position became untenable when the garrisons of Forts Montrouge and Bicêtre abandoned their posts, allowing the Versaillese to occupy them and erect batteries against Ivry and the Butte. The general assault began at midday. The Versaillese took the Boulevard St. Marcel barricade by infiltrating through adjacent gardens, massacring twenty Federals who refused to surrender. The Ivry garrison spiked their guns and withdrew to Paris, springing a mine as they left. Wroblewski, ordered to fall back on the eleventh arrondissement, persisted until nearly encircled, then retreated in good order across the Austerlitz Bridge with his cannon and a thousand men. The entire left bank was now in enemy hands.
The Bastille and the Château d’Eau became the new centre of combat. Charles Delescluze, after a failed attempt to reach Vincennes for an armistice mediated by the American secretary, walked unarmed to the barricade at the Place du Château d’Eau and was killed—his death so swift that even the eleventh arrondissement mairie doubted it. Around midnight, Council members agreed to evacuate; the Committee of Public Safety’s entire battle plan was retreat. At 2 a.m., only Gambon could be found to support the Château d’Eau barricade; he went, but the barricade was already deserted under sweeping fire.
Versailles-controlled Paris descended into indiscriminate slaughter. The Siècle of 26 May reported a universal ‘furious madness’ where no distinction was made between innocent and guilty, and citizens were shot for a single word. The army blocked cellar ventilators to fuel the pétroleuse legend. Order-loving National Guardsmen, proud of their armlets, ransacked houses and demanded the honour of presiding over shootings. In the tenth arrondissement, former mayor Dubail personally led soldiers to hunt his former constituents. Prisoners were herded into mairies, barracks, and public buildings where drumhead courts organised mass shootings; when firing squads were insufficient, machine-guns mowed victims down. Wounded heaps cried out through the night. After dark, fires blazed: the Grenier d’Abondance lit the Seine beyond the fortifications, the Bastille column burned like a torch, and the Boulevard Voltaire was ablaze.