ROSSEL REPLACES CLUSERET--THE RIVALRIES--THE DEFENCE OF THE
FORT OF ISSY.
The last act of the second Executive Commission was to name Rossel
delegate at War. On the same evening (the 30th April) it sent for him.
He came at once, recited the history of famous sieges, and promised to
make Paris impregnable. No one asked him for a written plan, and there
and then, as on the stage, his nomination was signed. He forthwith wrote
to the Council, "I accept these difficult functions, but I want your
entire support in order not to succumb under the weight of these
circumstances."
Rossel knew these circumstances through and through. For twenty-five
days chief of the general staff, he was the best-informed man in Paris
as to all her military resources. He was familiar with the members of
the Council, of the Central Committee, the officers, the effective
forces, the character of the troops he undertook to lead.
At the outset he struck a wrong chord in his answer to the Versaillese
officer who had summoned the fort of Issy to surrender. "My dear
comrade, the first time you permit yourself to send us such an insolent
summons, I shall have your flag of truce shot. Your devoted comrade."
The cynical levity smacked of the condottiere. Certainly he who
threatened to shoot an innocent soldier, and bestowed his _dear_, his
_devoted comrade_ upon a collaborator of Gallifet, was foreign to the
great heart of Paris and her civil war.
No man understood Paris, the National Guard, less than Rossel. He
imagined that the _Pere Duchesne_ was the real mouthpiece of the
workmen. Hardly raised to the Ministry, he spoke of putting the
National Guard into barracks, of cannonading the runaways; he wanted to
dismember the legions and form them into regiments, with colonels named
by himself. The Central Committee, to which the _chefs-de-legion_
belonged, protested, and the battalions complained to the Council, which
sent for Rossel. He set forth his project in a professional way in
sober, precise words, so different from the Pyatical declamations, that
the Council believed it beheld a man and was charmed. Still his project
was the breaking-up of the National Guard, and the Council no more than
the Executive Commission got a general plan of defence from him. He
certainly demanded that the municipalities should be charged with
concentration of arms, the horses, and prosecution of the refractory,
but he made no condition _sine qua non_.
He sent in no report on the military situation. He gave orders for the
construction of a second enceinte of barricades, and of three citadels
at Montmartre, the Trocadero, and the Pantheon, but never personally
concerned himself about their execution. He extended the command of
General Wroblewski over all troops and forts on the left bank, but three
days after restricted it again to bestow it upon La Cecilia, who had
none of the qualities necessary in a superior commander. He never gave
the generals any instructions for attack or defence. Despite certain
fits and starts, he had in reality so little energy that he named Eudes
commander of the second active reserve at the very moment when, against
formal orders, this latter left the fort of Issy, which he had commanded
since the reoccupation.
The Versaillese had recommenced firing with perfect fury. The shells,
the bombs, battered the casemates, the grapeshot paved the trenches with
iron. In the night of the 1st-2nd, the Versaillese, always proceeding by
nocturnal surprises, attacked the station of Clamart, which was taken
almost without a struggle, and the castle of Issy, which they had to
conquer foot by foot. On the morning of the 2nd the fort again found
itself in the same situation as three days before. A part of the village
of Issy was even in the hands of the soldiers. During the day the
francs-tireurs of Paris dislodged them at the point of the bayonet.
Eudes, who in vain demanded reinforcements, went to the War Office to
declare that he would not remain if Wetzel were not discharged. Wetzel
was replaced by La Cecilia, but Eudes did not return to the fort, and
left the command to the chief of his staff.
Thus since the 3rd it was evident that everything would go on as under
Cluseret, and the Central Committee grew bolder. It had been thrown more
and more into the shade, for the Commission of War kept it at a
distance. Its sittings, more and more confused and void, were little
attended--by about ten members, sometimes even by less. The enterprise
of Rossel against the legions gave it back a little authority and
daring. On the 3rd, in accord with the _chefs-de-legion_, they resolved
to ask the Council for the direction and administration of the War
Office. Rossel got wind of the affair, and had one of its members
arrested; the others in great numbers, the _chefs-de-legion_ with their
sabres at their sides, went up to the Hotel-de-Ville, where they were
received by Felix Pyat, deeply moved by the odd conceit that they came
to lay hands on him. "Nothing is getting along at the War Office," said
they. "All the services are in disorder. The Central Committee offers
itself to direct them. The delegate will conduct the operations, the
Committee will see to the administration." Felix Pyat approved of the
idea and submitted it to the Council. The minority took umbrage at the
pretensions of the Committee, and even spoke of having them arrested.
The majority left the matter to the Committee of Public Safety, which
issued a decree admitting the co-operation of the Central Committee.
Rossel accepted the situation and announced it to the chiefs of corps.
The Commission of War continued, in spite of all this, to squabble with
the Committee.
Our men paid dearly for these small cabinet revolutions. Tired out,
badly commanded, they were negligent of their watches, and thus exposed
to every surprise. The most terrible one took place in the night of the
3rd-4th May at the redoubt of the Moulin Saquet, held by 500 men at
this moment. They were sleeping in their tents, when the Versaillese,
having seized the sentinels, entered the redoubt and butchered about
fifty Federals. The soldiers pierced the tents with their bayonets,
slashing the corpses, and then made off with five pieces and 200
prisoners. The captain of the 55th was accused of having betrayed the
watchword. The truth is not known, as--incredible fact!--the Council
never inquired into the affair.
M. Thiers announced this "elegant _coup-de-main_"[147] in a bantering
despatch to the effect that they had killed two hundred men; that "such
was the victory the Commune might announce in its bulletins." The
prisoners, taken to Versailles, were received by the elegant rabble who
killed time in the cafes of St. Germain, now become the headquarters of
high-life prostitution, or who went to the heights to see the shells
battering the walls and the Parisians. But what were these insipid
amusements by the side of a convoy of prisoners, whom they could beat,
spit upon, and revile, a thousand times renewing the agonies of Matho?
The simply bestial ferocity of the soldiers was much less horrible.
These poor wretches firmly believed that the Federals were thieves or
Prussians, and that they tortured their prisoners. There were some who,
taken to Paris, for a long time refused all nourishment in dread of
poison. The officers propagated these horrible stories; some even
believed them.[148] The greater part, arriving from Germany in a state
of extreme irritation against Paris,[149] said publicly, "We shall give
these scoundrels no quarter," and they set the example of summary
executions. On the 25th April, at the Belle-Epine, near Ville-Juif, four
National Guards, surprised by mounted chasseurs, called upon to
surrender, laid down their arms. The soldiers were leading them when an
officer appeared, and, without further ado, discharged his revolver at
them. Two were killed; the two others, left for dead, were able to drag
themselves as far as the neighbouring trenches, where one of them
expired.[150] The fourth was transported to the ambulance. Paris,
erstwhile besieged by the Prussians, was now tracked by tigers.
These sinister forebodings of the lot reserved to the vanquished made
the Council indignant, but did not enlighten it. The disorder grew
greater with the danger. Rossel set nothing going. Pyat, whom he had
often silenced with a word, abhorred him, and never ceased undermining
his authority. "You see this man," said he to the Romanticists, "well,
he is a traitor--a Caesarian! After the Trochu plan, the Rossel plan." On
the 8th May he had the direction of the military operations transferred
to Dombrowski, leaving only nominal functions to Rossel, who, apprised
of this that same evening, hurried to the Committee of Public Safety and
forced it to revoke the decree.[151] On the 4th Felix Pyat sent orders
to General Wroblewski without informing Rossel. The next day Rossel
complained to the Council of the Committee of Public Safety of this
mischievous interference, which embroiled everything. "Under these
circumstances I cannot be responsible," said he, and demanded the
publicity of the sittings, as he had always been received in private
audience. Instead of forcing him to communicate his plan, they amused
themselves with making him pass a sort of Freemason examination. The
antediluvian Miot asked him what were his democratic antecedents. Rossel
extricated himself very cleverly. "I will not tell you that I have
studied the question of social reforms profoundly, but I abominate this
society which has just betrayed France in so dastardly a way. I do not
know what will be the new order of Socialism. I like it on trust, and it
will anyhow be better than the old one." Everybody put him the questions
he chose personally, and not through the medium of the president. He
answered them all with sangfroid and precision, disarming all their
scruples, and carried away cheers, but nothing more.
Had he possessed the strong head he was credited with, he would long
since have fathomed the situation, understood that for this struggle
without precedent new tactics were wanted, found a field of battle for
these improvised soldiers, organised the internal defence, and awaited
Versailles from the heights of Montmartre, the Trocadero, and
Mont-Valerien. But he dreamt of battles, was at bottom but a bookish
soldier, original only in speech and style. While always complaining of
want of discipline and of men, he allowed the best blood of Paris to be
shed in the sterile struggles without the town, in heroic challenges at
Neuilly, Vanves, and Issy.
At Issy above all. It was no longer a fort, hardly a strong position,
but a medley of earth and rubble-work battered by shells. The staved-in
casemates opened a view upon the country, the powder magazines were laid
bare, half of bastion 3 was in the moat, one could drive up to the
breach in a carriage. Ten pieces at most answered the fire of sixty
Versaillese ordnance pieces, while the fusillade of the trenches aimed
at the embrasures killed almost all our artillerists. On the 3rd the
Versaillese renewed their summons to surrender; they were answered with
the word of Cambronne. The chief of the general staff left by Eudes had
also made off, but happily the fort remained in the valiant hands of
the engineer Rist and of Julien, commander of the 14th battalion of the
eleventh arrondissement. It is to them and to the Federals who stood by
them that the honour of this prodigious defence belongs. Here are a few
notes from their military journal.
"_4th May._--We are receiving explosive balls that burst with the noise
of percussion-caps. The waggons do not come; food is scanty and the
shells of seven centimetres, our best pieces, will soon fail us. The
reinforcements promised every day do not appear. Two chiefs of
battalions have been to Rossel. He received them very badly, and said
that he had the right to shoot them for having abandoned their post.
They explained our situation. Rossel answered that a fort defends itself
with the bayonet and quoted the work of Carnot. Still he has promised
reinforcements. The Freemasons have planted their banner on our
ramparts. The Versaillese knocked it down in an instant. Our ambulances
are full; the prison and corridor that lead to it are crammed with
corpses. An ambulance omnibus arrives in the evening. We put in as many
of our wounded as possible. During its passage from the fort to Issy the
Versaillese pepper it with balls.
"_5th._--The fire of the enemy does not cease for a moment. Our
embrasures no longer exist; the pieces of the front still answer. At two
o'clock we receive ten waggons of shells of seven centimetres. Rossel
has come. He looked at the works of the Versaillese for a long time. The
_enfants-perdus_ who serve the pieces of bastion 5 are losing many men;
they remain steadfast. There are now in the dungeons two yards deep of
corpses. All our trenches, riddled by artillery, have been evacuated.
The trench of the Versaillese is sixty yards from the counterscarp. They
push on more and more. The necessary precautions are taken in case of an
attack to-night. All the flank pieces are loaded with grapeshot. We have
two mitrailleuses above the _terre-plein_ to sweep at once the moat and
the glacis.
"_6th._--The battery of Fleury regularly discharges its six rounds on
us every five minutes. A cantiniere has just been brought to the
ambulance, wounded in the left side of the groin. For four days past
three women have gone into the thickest of the fire to tend the wounded.
This one is dying and bids us remember her two little children. No more
food. We eat only horse-flesh. Evening: the rampart is untenable.
"_7th._--We are receiving as many as ten shells a minute. The ramparts
are totally uncovered. All the pieces, save two or three, are
dismounted. The Versaillese works almost touch us. There are thirty more
dead. We are about to be surrounded."
FOOTNOTES:
[147] _La Guerre des Communeux_ by a superior officer of the Versaillese
army.
[148] On the 12th May, at the barricade of Petit-Vanves, an officer of
engineers of the Lacretelle division, second corps, Captain Rozhem, was
taken prisoner. When brought before the commander of the trenches, "I
know what is in store for me," said he; "shoot me." The commander
shrugged his shoulders and took him to Delescluze. "Captain," said the
delegate, "promise that you will not fight against the Commune and you
are free." The officer promised, and, deeply moved, asked Delescluze for
permission to shake hands with him. This is one fact among a hundred
such. Is it necessary to add that from the 3rd April to the 23rd May the
Federals did not shoot _one single_ prisoner, officer or soldier?
[149] Appendix X.
[150] This fact was established through the minute inquiry which the
Council charged three of its members to make. Two of these, Gambon and
Langevin, are by their characters above all suspicion. They received the
declaration of the wounded man and saw one of the bodies, the two others
not having been found.
[151] It never appeared in the _Officiel_, but was announced in the
_Vengeur_; for Felix Pyat abused his functions in order to give his
journal the first news of the official decisions. This time he was a
little too quick.