SOLDIERS WHOM OFFICERS MISTRUST

TROOPS' REFUSAL TO FOLLOW ORDERS HAD NEVER HAPPENED IN FRANCE

"Conscripts who were part of companies that included volunteers

and that officers led with authority, never, to my knowledge,  

disobeyed orders or surrendered on their own before March 18, 1871"

-- Marc Ambrose-Rendu, 
military historian, personal communication

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Context: The demoralization of defeat and contacts with Parisians during the siege:

The New Babylon

• Most conscripts are peasants suspicious of townspeople but those who lodge with Parisians come to appreciate them, personally and for their fervent patriotism.

• Those that live in unheated barracks or camp in parks are grateful for the soup and blankets given by people who are suffering too:

The new Babylon

 "I don't want to fight anymore! I want to return to my village!  

The working-class heroine gives milk to the hero, a hungry and demoralized Versaillais soldier. The movie follows the sources — with an exception: Please read on.

Those experiences explain why soldiers guarding the cannons let the guards take them, not to mention helping them seize arms in depots. As well, the army replaces officer losses by promoting soldiers from the ranks: Many must share their men's opinions. 

"An explosion seems inevitable," Trochu tells Thiers, warning against using troops stationed in Paris.

# # #

On the morning of March 18, supposedly reliable forces from outside the city assemble at place Concorde...

Jules Andrieu (who becomes Chief of Personnel during La Commune) follows a drummer who "beats without conviction," comes up to a group on the Champs-Élysées, speaks with them, shrugs his shoulders and goes back to drumming "with even less conviction." 

-- Jules Andrieu, Notes to Serve for a History of the Commune of Paris of 1871, 
"The Morning of  March 18,1871" (in French)

The soldiers who refuse to fire are sent to Algeria, and their superiors do not trust those who remain. Bismarck releases 100,000 prisoners so that the government can reconstitute an army, but officers are wary. 

The repatriated soldiers know nothing of Parisian events and are carefully isolated. They are paid better, given more meat and much more wine and spirits, and subjected to intense propaganda. Yet police records show that it is not fully effective. 

-- Tombs; Milza

Soldiers in Narbonne refuse to put down an insurrection. Algerians replace them. 

During Bloody Week conscripts are asked to do as little as possible:

• In spite of its infinitely superior force, the army takes a full week to conquer the city.

• "Soldiers do nothing but guard prisoners yet after marching a mile and a half, are too tired to fight."

 -- Military report cited by Tombs

• Army estimation of casualties, proof of taking few risks: four days in June, 1460; seven days of Bloody Week, 800.

-- La Commune by Pierre Milza

Many Communards think that conscripts will not fight them:

Drawing of the time, Internet, source not said

Think of the image of the soldier who smokes and does nothing.

The day after the fighting ends

 soldiers drink amicably with locals, "with whom they may well have fought."

-- General Cissey to Commander-in-Chief MacMahon, May 29,
 cited by Tombs

"Deserters:"

Regular mention of their death sentences 
shows that there were many.

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Next,
The officers' responsibility