3-039-030 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Red Republican insurgents attacking the Hotel de Ville, Paris, 1871. Franco-Prussian War: '...outbreak against the late Provisional Government...a party of 200 or 300 insurgents, mostly wearing the uniform of the National Guard...drew up in front of the Hotel de Ville, where they began to load their rifles...they cried "Vive la Commune!" signifying their wish for the establishment of a more revolutionary Government...the insurgents began to fire upon M. Vabre and his two companions...the Gardes Mobiles in the rooms above opened the windows, and fired...The little group shown at the gate of the Hotel de Ville, to the left hand, is that of Colonel Vabre and his two companions, who were unable, for some time, to retire inside the building. The conflict lasted half an hour, when the insurgents, who had collected in the Avenue Victoria, hoisted a white handkerchief in token of submission, and the firing ceased. About thirty of them were overtaken and arrested. Nearly a hundred persons lay upon the ground, but many of these were not wounded at all; they got up and sneaked away. A dozen were severely wounded, and five or six were killed'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.