3-039-079 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Germans in Paris: General Blumenthal stopped at the entrance of the rue de Rivoli, 1871. Franco-Prussian War. General Blumenthal, Chief of the Staff to the Army of the Imperial Crown Prince of Prussia, halting with his companions at the entrance to the Rue de Rivoli. Here was a barricade, abutting on the Rue St. Florentin, roughly composed of artillery caissons or empty ammunition-waggons, ranged in two lines, transversely interlaced; the soldiers of the two hostile nations stood on guard, within ten or twelve paces of each other, on the opposite sides of this barricade. The French sentries were posted at intervals of three or four feet. They allowed quiet-looking foot passengers to go through singly, but no throng of numbers; and no horsemen or carriages were allowed to pass...French soldiers of the Line, backed in some instances by gendarmes or by National Guards, occupied these points, and prevented any stray parties of Germans from going farther...The streets, especially the Rue St. Honore and Rue de Rivoli, were continually patrolled by cavalry during the two days while the Germans remained'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.