HALLUCINATIONS OF AN ENCLOSED POPULATION

"PARISIANS DREAMED OF A REGENERATED FRANCE

THAT WOULD POWERFULLY SOAR TOWARD THE LIGHT..."

AS DURING THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

-- Lissagary

The only source of information was carrier pigeons sent off by balloon:

 Gambetta Leaves by Balloon, October 1870 by Jacques Didier and Lucien Guiard, no date / zoom

The daily service begins on November 4, but is too costly to have much effect.

A result of isolation: Parisian troops try to connect with the last French army, not knowing that it has been defeated and that the town of Orleans has fallen.

The Prussian Army Enters Orleans by Ludwig Braun in "History of the Franco-German war" by Colonel Rousset (Tallendier), 1911

The statue is of Joan of Arc. The capture of Orleans was her first victory, which makes its fall more bitter yet.

After heavy losses, three days and nights in sub-zero weather and wounded dying of the cold, the French learn that Orléans has been lost because the French general refused to attack when he had the advantage. He is Aurelle de Paladines: The next page returns to him.

-- A vivid account: La Commune by Pierre Dominique, 1970

That was the last French army. Its defeat means that freeing Paris from the outside has become impossible. 

The innumerable, obscure losses...

My Paris Commune

 An ambulance. Three wounded. Three dead.

...make Parisians more determined yet.

The commander whose casualties are shown above writes,

"There is among the defenders of the Republic an enthusiasm, and audacity, that is altogether comparable to that of 1793.* If [social] republicans were at the head of this movement, we could proclaim the Republic in Berlin in 10 days!" 

-- Gustave Flourens, head of the Belleville guard, December 6, 1870

 in cited in My Paris Commune (in French)

* They look back to the Revolution, when conscripts in aristocratic armies did flee from ultra-motivated French volunteers, and believe that 500,000 Parisians, armed, trained and ardently motivated, will overwhelm the 200,000 Prussians, who are unfree and forced to fight.

But:

• German soldiers too have a reason for fighting: Please read on.

• The Prussian proximity makes surprise impossible, due to spies and noise: Parisians "... are so glad to fight that they let us know an hour in advance."

-- Bismark cited by Pierre Dominique

• How would masses of troops get through the narrow city gates? During the battle of Buzenval — described below  — one-third of the troops are stuck behind them.

• Should the Parisians succeed in breaking the encirclement, what then? Can they force the Prussians to leave France, helped by guerrillas alone?

• How find supplies in an area that Prussian requisitions have already ravaged?

• Do they really want to camp out in the terrible cold? 

-- All remarks in Tombs (Bismarck quote excepted)

# # #

The Prussiens are so sure of victory that they proclaim their Empire even before the French accept the armistice:*

* Proclamation of Empire, January 18, 1871; armistice, January 28

The Proclamation of the German Empire at Versailles, January 28, 1871, by Anton von Werner (the court painter, who was present), 1885 / zoom

Proclaiming the German Empire in the Hall of Mirrors, 

which is an ode to Louis XIV and his wars,

 was revenge for French deliberately devastating southwestern Germany 

(in 1672 and 1688-1689)

Louis XIV crosses the Rhine in the presence of his enemies, Hall of Mirrors, © Coproduction RMN – EPV, permission to reproduce to be asked /zoom

A version of the work lost during World War II included this painting.

Destruction by the French armies,

which went far beyond the usual practice of unpaid troops 

living off the land, 

began the cycle of vengeance between Germany and France:

For Louis's propaganda and a German schoolbook,

please click.

# # #

Instead of explaining an offensive's practical realities, the government chooses an attack that it knows suicidal.

(The second battle of Buzenval, January 19, 1870)

Remarks made at the council of war:

• Clément-Thomas, whom we have met already and who will soon become Commander of the Guard, speaks "of hot heads that need cooling off." 

-- Dominique, 253

• Another general: "These clowns want their heads blown off. All right." 

  -- Tombs, Bivouac, 129

My Paris Commune cites similar sources.

Departmental archives of Hauts-de-Seine, account (in French) / zoom

 

The attack aims at Versailles, the Prussian headquarters "defended by a heavy band of trenches, fortifications, obstacles and guns."

"As those who planned it knew well, the enterprise was morally dubious: it had virtually no chance of success. But it would show the National Guard [the militia, which until then had been kept out of the fighting] and the left that there was no panacea."  

-- Tombs, pp.128-9. 

• Casualties: 600 Prussians; 4000 French, including at least 1400 neighborhood militia.

• Prussians destroy the town of Saint-Cloud and château of Meudon in reprisal.

• The métro station "Buzenval" in blue-collar eastern Paris was opened in 1933. The name shows the intensity with which the population recalled the battle, even after the infinitely bloodier struggles of World War I.

To avoid signing the capitulation, the Commander of Paris resigns:

Trochu and troops at Bastille, illustration in Claretie

"General Trochu ... knew that with the army eliminated ... defending Paris was a 'heroic folly.'

I don't think anyone could have saved Paris in 1871 or have won that war. Trochu himself did not believe that piercing the siege was possible and avoided pursuing sorties that would add to the casualties. So the impression of indecision. And as no relieving army came even close to the Prussian rear, he became the scapegoat for an impossible situation."

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

His replacement is General Joseph Vinoy, who had helped suppress resistance to the Emperor's coup d'état:

(Armistice signed on January 28)

Parisians believe that they have been betrayed.

# # # 

Twelve years after the battle of Buzenval

 an homage to its combattants was built

on the way to the battlefield,

at the roundabout of Courbevoie at La Defense,

now multinationals' headquarters:

 Statue, Louis-Ernest Barrias ; photo, Bernard Cerquiglini / zoom 

The pigeon on the goddess's head shows the statue's size.  

 

"The city of Paris wears the greatcoat of the National guard, her head that a wall encircles looking toward the invader as she leans on a cannon. Her face is drawn, somber, menacing. At her feet a wounded guard tries to load his gun for the last time." 

-- Official description

 No important member of the government 

attended the inauguration,

probably because many survivors of the battle 

had gone on to fight for La Commune. 

Cries for the amnesty of deported Communards

 interrupted the speeches.

-- My Paris Commune 

*    *    *

Next,
Treason?