Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/317

 heights of Menilmontant, of Charonne, and the upper end of the Faubourg St. Antoine.

This attack, directed and constantly overseen by Marshal de MacMahon, whose headquarters were established first at Trocadéro, and afterwards at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, enclosed the city from the southwest to the northwest in advancing to the northeast and southeast.

But while continuing the exterior movement, the operation within the city produced new and serious obstacles owing to the multiplicity of the transversal streets, which at one time discovered the march of the army to the insurgents, and at another suddenly separated the different corps, and by interrupting their communications, rendered it difficult for them to make their attacks in concert.

The army of France numbered from 90,000 to 100,000 men, commanded in chief under the orders of Marshal de MacMahon, by Generals Ladmirault, Douay, De Cissey, De Clinchant, Du Barail, and by General Vinoy at the head of the army of reserve. General de Cissey specially conducted the operations on the left bank, where he was seconded by General du Barail, who took with his cavalry the forts of Montrouge, Bicêtre, and Ivry.

The movements on the right bank were developed under the directions of Generals Ladmirault, Clinchant, Vinoy, and Douay, the first two acting at the beginning of the attack in the northern quarters (Batignolles and Montmartre), while the other two occupied the Champs Elyseés and its neighborhood. According to the necessities of the action, they supported each other reciprocally.

This investment, by successive zones, was executed with so much precision, that as the army advanced from one zone to attack another, the one just quitted was cleansed of every element of insurrection. The inhabitants could circulate freely without meeting a single Federal uniform, and