March 18 — “Vive la Garde Nationale!”
- March 16, 2021
Heavy fighting in the streets of Paris. French troops refuse orders to open fire on unarmed citizens and turn on their officers. Fighting continues throughout the day.
- Author
Fetridge – The Rise and Fall of the Paris Commune
At 4am the rappel was heard in all the streets, a sound indicative of barricades and murder. An attack was to be simultaneously made, on Montmartre by General Sasbielle, of the 2nd army corps; another by General Faron, on Belleville; a third by General Wolif, of the 1st army corps, on the Place do la Bastille; and a fourth, under General Hanrion, of the same corps, on the cité. At 4 o’clock the Buttes of Montmartre were completely surrounded by the 88th, 137th and 122nd regiments of the line, a battalion of the 17th chasseurs à pied, and a few guardians of the peace. Mitrailleuses were in battery in Eue Houdon, Rue Durantin, Rue des Martyrs and Eue Virginie, seven-pounder guns were planted in all streets leading up to Montmartre, and soldiers of the line were posted in the streets as sentinels to prevent pedestrians from going towards the Buttes. The windows were crowded with spectators, and groups of women and children were formed in the streets discussing, some with frightened and others with angry looks, the events which were transpiring.
A regiment of the army of Faidherbe, the 88th of the line (since disbanded for fraternizing with the insurgents, and never more to exist in the French army), which had only arrived the day before in Paris, made its appearance at the base of Montmartre, and separating into different columns, arrived by the Rue Lepic, Chaussée Clignancourt and Boulevard Ornano, forming their junction at the Tour of Solferino, the culminating point of the Buttes, which was occupied by some 50 National Guards, who were disarmed before they had time to give the understood signal.
This signal consisted in three discharges of cannon, fired in quick succession. From this moment the heights were occupied in a military point of view.
The women of the neighborhood were loud in their denunciations against the National Guards who had surrendered, declaring, if they had been left in charge, the canaille of Versailles would have met with some resistance. One immense virago was gesticulating in a most fearful manner, calling the regular officers of the line scoundrels, assassins and dogs.
There seems to have been some mismanagement in the organization of the plan of attack, as it is evident that many of the cannon seized at Montmartre as early as 5am were still guarded by the troops at 8am; no horses, or not sufficient in number, had arrived to remove them all. At this hour the National Guards began to show themselves, one at a time, crawling out of all sorts of places, to mix with a crowd of other guards and soldiers of the line coming up the hill with their muskets la crosse en l’air (reversed), shouting “Vive la ligne,” and “Vive la Garde Nationale,” while others, who had captured a lieutenant-colonel of the line, were shouting “a mort! A mort!” and not a soldier came to succor him. Seeing matters were assuming a serious aspect, the regulars in charge of the cannon commenced harnessing the horses to the gun-carriages, and some 12 pieces began moving down toward the city by the Rue Lepie, but at the corner of the Rue des Abbesses another crowd opposed the passage of the guns. Men, women and children caught hold of the bridles of the horses, and the artillerymen, not wishing to run over them, desisted in their attempt to make a passage. A moment after, a company of 60 infantry arrived to protect the artillerymen and force a passage. They had hardly commenced to move when a heavy column of the National Guards of Belleville arrived to help their friends of Montmartre. At the same moment General Susbielle, appearing with an escort of gendarmerie and Chasseurs d’Afrique, gave them an order to form in sections and occupy Place Pigalle.
The National Guards commenced now to arrive in great numbers, fraternizing with troops of the line who had either reversed their muskets or abandoned them altogether. The General gave the order to the troops of the line to advance and open a passage for the guns; the soldiers refused to move, shouting “Vive la Garde Nationale!” The Chasseurs d’Afrique received the order to “draw sabres,” but the line refused to open for them, and several shots were fired from the body of insurgents, when the captain gave the order “En avant!” and all the swords issued from their scabbards. “Vive la République!” cried the crowd, “La Ligne et la Garde Nationale!” The chasseurs hesitated, as before them were many men of the regular army, and in the end they sheathed their swords.
“En avant!” repeated the captain, when several balls whistled past his head. Five or six men only followed him, but they were received with blows from the soldiers’ muskets; one of the insurgents seized the reins of the captain’s horse, but he fell, his head cleft in two; another grasped the reins on the other side, and in an instant the arm was severed from the body, and for a moment still hung quivering to the reins; two others shared the fate of the first, when the rider and horse both fell pierced by a shot at the same time, the insurgents discharging their pieces in the midst of the chasseurs and gendarmes, killing and wounding great numbers.
The attack of the regular troops on the crowd was repulsed, the fraternizing soldiers firing on the former without hesitation, the crowd shouting “Vive la République!”
The excitement of the masses was now extreme. The 152nd battalion of the National Guards arrived, having forced a post of the line and captured a mitrailleuse. Two other posts in that vicinity were also forced, and the crowd received the insurgents with “Vive la République!” The 88th regiment of the line, which was stationed at the corner of Boulevard Ornano and Rochechouart, withdrew their bayonets from their muskets, shouting “Vive la Garde Nationale!”
The officers endeavored to resist, but were made prisoners and carried off. The soldiers then fraternized with the newcomers, and seizing two mitrailleuses, were joined by a portion of the 87th of the line, to whom the pieces had been confided. The officers then, in consequence of the wavering of the troops who had up to this time remained faithful, or in consequence of the menacing appearance of a large and compact body of insurgents from Belleville, issued the order to retire, and thus permitted the new comers to occupy the place without firing another shot.
At the same time the artillerymen at the corner of the streets removed their pieces rapidly towards the Place de Clichy. This retrograde movement began between eight and nine o’clock; and the calm and sensible citizens of this quarter had commenced to congratulate themselves that the horrors of the morning had subsided, when from the Place Pigalle a mitrailleuse was heard belching out wounds and death. Belleville representatives were firing on troops of the line who refused to fraternize. A panic now seized the crowd, and the masses fled in every direction.
Source: Fetridge, W. Pembroke – The Rise and Fall of the Paris Commune in 1871: With a full account of the bombardment, capture, and burning of the city (New York, Harpers & Brothers, 1871)
Source URL — https://roarmag.org/2021/03/16/paris-commune-150-march-18-2/
Digital subscriber 
Print & Digital subscriber