3-039-145 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Civil War in Paris: rout of the Communists at Nanterre by the fire of Mont Valérien, 1871. '... the Communists made a flank movement...with the object of enveloping the troops. To arrest this, General Faron directed a counter-movement by Le Val Fleury and the heights of Châtillon, which was conducted by General Deroja...A rapid but irregular cannonade was kept up for an hour; but the whole of the operations were watched from the observatory at Mont Valérien, and at half-past twelve a signal was made to General Faron, from the observatory, that Forts Issy and Vanves had just been abandoned...The bridge [of Neuilly] was at that time occupied by a mass of troops from Versailles, who, on the advance of the National Guards, fell back steadily without firing a shot, and, turning to the left, retreated under cover of the guns of Mont Valérien. Great was the exultation of the National Guards. They pressed forward in close, dense columns, bawling the "Marseillaise" and shouting, "Ils se sauvent, les laches!" and so they marched on until they got to the Rond-Point of Courbevoie, which is just opposite one of the bastions of Valérien. When the columns were well engaged on this circular space, they were directly exposed to the guns of that fortress'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.