At eleven o'clock all was over. The Place de la Concorde had held out
two days, the Butte aux Cailles two, La Villette three, the Boulevard
Voltaire two days and a half. Of the seventy-nine members of the
Council filling functions on the 21st of May, one, Delescluze, had died
on the barricades; two, J. Durand and R. Rigault, had been shot; two,
Brunel and Vermorel (who died some days after at Versailles),[200] were
wounded severely; three, Oudet, Protot, Frankel, slightly. The
Versaillese had lost few men. We had 3,000 killed or wounded. The losses
of the army in June, 1848, and the resistance of the insurgents had been
relatively more serious. But the insurgents of June had only to face
30,000 men; those of May combated against 130,000 soldiers. The struggle
of June lasted only three days; that of the Federals eight weeks. On the
eve of June the revolutionary army was intact; on the 21st May it was
decimated. The most valiant defenders had fallen at the advanced posts.
What might not these 15,000 men, uselessly sacrificed outside the town,
have done within Paris? What might not the brave men of Neuilly,
Asnieres, Issy, Vanves, Cachan, have done at the Pantheon and
Montmartre?
The occupation of the fort of Vincennes took place on Monday the 29th.
This fort, disarmed in conformity with the stipulations of the treaty of
peace, had been unable to take any part in the strife. Its garrison
consisted of 350 men and twenty-four officers, commanded by the
_chef-de-legion_ Faltot, a veteran of the wars of Poland and of
Garibaldi, one of the most active men on the 18th March. He was offered
a perfectly secure asylum, but answered that honour forbade his
deserting his companions in arms.
On the Saturday a Versaillese staff colonel came to negotiate a
capitulation. Faltot demanded passports in blank, not for himself, but
for some of his officers of foreign nationality, and on the refusal of
the Versaillese, Faltot committed the fault of applying to the Germans.
But MacMahon, in prevision of a siege, had solicited the assistance of
the Prince of Saxony, and the German was on the look-out on behalf of
his brother officer.[201] During the negotiations General Vinoy had
managed to hold communication with the place, where a few disreputable
individuals offered to reduce the intractable Federals. Among the latter
was Merlet, garde-general of engineering and artillery,
ex-non-commissioned officer, able, energetic, and quite resolved to blow
up the place rather than surrender it. The powder-magazine contained
1,000 kilogrammes of powder and 400,000 cartridges.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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