Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/110

 the cause of order. They reorganized the franc-tireurs, created twenty war battalions, twenty batteries of cannon, and fifteen of mitrailleuses. They requisitioned horses, pillaged the arsenals, gave orders for immense supplies of powder, petroleum, gun-cotton, and nitro-glycerine; and on the 30th of March the preparations were completed, and active operations commenced. They had 70,000 National Guards in marching order, furnished with rations for eight days, and excited to the highest possible pitch of enthusiasm.

On the 31st their plans were developed, and on the 1st of April they had concentrated their troops to the south and northwest of Paris. On the morning of the 3d the whole army of the insurgents set out for Versailles by three different routes—one column by the St. Germain road, a second by that of Sèvres and a third, commanded by Duval, by that of Chevreuse. Three simultaneous attacks appear to have been contemplated in the plan devised by the Commune. The first commenced toward Sèvres, early in the morning; and the musketry fire was so sharp that as the Versailles train arrived the passengers were obliged to put up the cushions against the windows to protect themselves from the shower of balls. The train from Paris was obliged to put back.

Numerous battalions of National Guards issued from the forts of Issy and Vanves, but on that side the engagement was one principally of artillery. The insurgents, in advancing on Meudon were fired on by the cannon of the regulars, and much damaged. The first moment of surprise being passed, the battalions formed themselves in line of battle along the road; but the palace battery on the heights of Meudon raked the valley, and obliged them to fall back on the reinforcements arriving by the gates on the south of Paris. An attempt was then made to open fire with the pieces of cannon brought with them,