3-043-837 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Civil War in Paris: barricades in front of the Hotel de Ville, 1871. 'Thousands of armed National Guards, in half-military half-civilian dress, many of them uncouth, shabby, and dirty, were thronging the Place de l'Hotel de Ville all day, mingled with Garibaldian volunteers or Francs-Tireurs, Gardes Mobiles, soldiers of the Line who had deserted their regimental standards, Zouaves, and artillerymen. A line of new brass cannon...extended across the place. There were seventy or eighty of these guns. The men had piled their chassepots or muskets on the ground in military fashion. The approaches to the Hotel de Ville...were closed to a hostile force by solid barricades...The hollow parts of the streets near the barricades...were flooded, as a precaution against bombshells, which, it was supposed, would not explode if they fell into five or six inches of water. There was a narrow space at each end of the barricade for people to pass in and out. The Hotel de Ville was surmounted with a red flag. Its windows were partly defended with sandbags and mattresses, and mitrailleuses were mounted upon tables and desks. Here was the new Government of the Red Republican faction, called the Commune of Paris, installed after the elections on Sunday week'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.