The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-05-27 00:00:00

TUE CIVIL WAR IN FRANCE.

THE CAPTURE OF PARIS.

One of the Special Correspondents of The Talus,
writiog front Verssilies the 22a4 loot., has sent the
foll.ming particulars of the entry of the troops into
Paris :

The yrest event of yetterday came opon every one by Bur.
prlte. It hot been expec•ed, hot not for yettorklay.
•• • - - • -

Eno the Marshal Cm.mmdtna-In Chief looked forward
to at least el s more days ot sapplog and mounting of bid-
torte* and Petukl breaching before his army would be able to
make the thi,l movement.

A certain nuinher of the treops were Meld° ti• e cote, tn,e
before spy one but themselves kIlb• Of li, sod "tutted did
the lonia du Jour were shelled for eearly two hour, alter
they had fallen Into po.seinlon of the forcesot Versailles.
Ii e man, M. Clement, an officer of Euglueere, played a
pr enivent part In this historical •It :Ir. Soon after midday,
precut ithig autimuly in advance eta party of Ms teen, lets,
were I) log In me:ointment between the nearest parallel suit
the Pt rat de S'. diem', he crept up to the bestion aLil found
it and the ramparts ar Hider; without a dr gle sentinel.
Keeping near the groumt, he waved a white handkerchief
it was seen y the smell petty of Engineers who were lying
outside line last parallel, and elm by hieutemilit ve,, of
the Freuch Nary. At first the denial seas hot
uuderstoo4 ; but al. ele meet ccutitmed to \fa.,
the handkerchief vi ilently, and beckon to those
who saw Wm to come on Immediately. It was with
difficulty IGO men could be collected in the tie:lckes, but
about that r umber &Unwed and occupied the &meted
poen i in. lii the meantime the word was peened from poet
10 pout in their sear, and a battalion wee soon on Its way
after them. By half-past three o'clock dispositions had been
elf,ced tor cccueying both Auteuil and the Point du Jour
with • It tlideht force, and prccetilleg to the other gates both
right and We The gates and drawbridge of Auteuil had
Mee di meddled several days provieualy, but the 'interreds
had eubitatuted an enormous barricade, which shut off the
iron bridge uultieg the Railway station with the Viaduct.
The Itivisicin of ,:meral Verge marched direct mrn Auteuil.
Scarcely had the dret columu arrived there, when volley. of
musketry were opened by the Insergoute conceded In hnuies.
, A few of the troops were put hors dr combat by this lire, but
the artillery of the Dlviston turned thetr pieces on the ram.
parte agate t the enen.y Mitamilleuses were ale, be u iht
I Into riquisithin by the troops, and a Phin an hour the In-
. mugente had fled to • cEstauco.
The Divielon if Geneva lional entered by the gate of St.
. Cloud, which Is at the Poiht du Jour, and occupied the
salient between the ramparts and the viaduct. Here there
was a mcond bastion of c inshierable solidity. The soldiers
entered the half.ruined barred.a and casemate., and made
prisoner. of • Lumber of Insurgents whom they found con.
ceded there.
. .

Immediate treparatlons were then made for the advance
right and left, Out ai the enemy was still keeping up a tire
from 7-pounders and filltrailleusea, along the bsstions be-
been Vaugtrard and SlontrQuge, a regular assault of theme
positions by the division under I ateral Clary MY determined
upon. I have already annmviced that it has been successful
The Divisions began to march In by the Gates of Vangtrard
and SI • otrouge. At MO 4;0104 k this morning Lt Sluetto was
occupied without 11411i0111 reslitanc4.

A Division subsequently advanced to Pasty to Ides that
which had taken Ls Muette. and the Division el General
inoy Is believed to be now at the Trona& ro.
Such was the suddennese with which the occupation of the
Point du Jour had bees effected that, as I have ttated, the
tiring from the military batteries continued for a coasters,
able time after the drat of the troops were In it. it was not
till four o'cicck that the order to cease tiring in that direc-
tion left tie head et tatters la the meantime hundreds of
people stood on the Avenue and ler act of aleudou watching
the cannonade, and t elite log that all the posts of the Insur-
gents were still occupied by the enemy. I could see crowds
of the Parisians on the left hank of the urine close to the
bridge of Jena. Even the officers sad men in the batteries
did not know why the order to cease bring had teen sent
round.
7 35 p.m.

- - - -
I have lust returned, after having followed it the rear of
General Vincey's last column, going to take op portions in
the neighbourhood of the Trocadero. I have been into
Pad,, have wandered all over the Point du J, ur, visited
Auteuil, and have walked along by the buttons between the
the Gate of St. Cloud at the Point du Jour and the Oats of
Auteuil. Having watched the other side of the eery.
Bridge, I WAS surprised on pasahog along the eiovres road
to °Lomita that very ROM damage had been dons
to the houses at the end if It near the enceinte. One
or two bore the marks of shells, but the fact that
namely all had escaped, and what I saw at the enceinte ant
within it, show, that the artillery practice of the Versatile.
deie had been exceedingly good. throughout the bombard-
ment. The people no the Sevres road had kept their Moons
0; en amid all the terrible firing Only some two or three
houses had been closed. They stood at a 'Liter us angle to
the batter!. of Menden tor one of them was ctodked
.. J. iin '.• pour cwt., do bombardment." Between the last of
1 the houses and the tempo: te, awl at • Mittenoo of riot inure
than RO yards from the latter, were the nomly cut trenches
which the troops bad c. nstructed. Good gabions pro-
tected them in front, and there was a plentiful
supply of for:lnca trig all Shout The doom of the
" Porte were no longer to be seen, except in the little
bit. 'a the road% eon The drawbridge had succumbed
bodily, and its glace wog supplied with some planks.
floe postioove was in ruins. and the stone walls on either
Getty bate eon the gains and the parapet of the fortifications
. had been crumbled brio rubiosO ; the elects fr m the Point
I du Jour to Auteni/ Lad teen ploughed uo in such a manner
I that not ay aril of it was to be seen et bouts shell hole. To
' eay that the parapet tool bee a riOdled would tot be Conroe,.
It le smashed here and there, end at intervals eve ry where,
but in no place between the it. G des I am referring to is the
. earthwork inside the p :roost laid bare, nor has a breech,
• properiy so cotton!, been any where mode. The I:nors and gate
walls el both gates are ienteohed through, hut all alone,
despite serious disflguretrent, tire parapet is stroog still.
To come back to the Point do Jour—that is as much strain
•as the teen of St. Ciumi. Fern toe gate to the II AIM', Sta-
tion there la tot a Angle habitable house; not three have
rode, end not one has ite windows and wail. intact. Every
lamppost has been tcattercd about the root In small
, sea a 0hr00,..• who ho 4 molo heavhl nf Ma b,wo
bardinent might be pardoned for etioposing that the
streets had been mazadamizot with the fragments of
shahs. Strange to say, the etairoase leading from the
Ito kingo nice of the Railway Station to the Ilco over
head is wide jotted ormearly so, and ny tin means I was enabled
to ascend and walk throeigh ehut Viaduct which I have been
looking at from a distance as shells have been battering it
for the last six wee ho. It is much knocked about, and so Is
the bribe onetime:oh it, which in a ogles of arches @pans
the river, but both will tee serviceable still after some repair.
Huge atones, dleplacod from their setting...end broken Into
mall pt.., lie scattered ou the bridge and los approach.,
loom the Viaduct I could roman immense conflagration to
the ntighbourbond of the Champ de Mare, and a combat
betweee the troops at d the in.urgents nem going en In
tho Place de la Concorde and the Roe de Rivoll, all down
to the Trocachro, reserves were in war. log with their
chime/rota staskod on each aide of the road, but them was
no f Rioting along the QUSPI. General Vinoy bad established
. himself in his riew Head 9 !offers, and the 70 eke or 0.1,000
men already to the heart of the city are believed to be
quite at tliotent to diatom of the last desperadoes of
tore Commune. The sounds of battle were heorti from more
than °nepotist, and yet every one spoke of the Insured! n
as in its last agonies. Men add women orce more held up
their heads led snapped their Alger. at Deleschirs, Dom-
browski, and the Commune, but there wan sad evidence all
around us of what this rebeliton had done There In the
little cemetery behind the ramparts lay the unburied and
mangled remains of 32 National Guards who had been killed
as the batteries joist above. The whole place was a piuture of
rain and desolation.
Paseino out of the Point du Jr Sr by the opening where the
Porte du qt. IA end bud stood, whole sod entire, even after
the Prussian bombsrdmeot, but where there is soot • vestige
of it IM.ger than a xplintor now, I wolkud along the glacis In
the direction of Auteuil. I was surprised to Seed that, at a
distance of lees than an eighth of a mile from the latter
place, the military had filed their gohlon., sapped right up
the pads, and to within fur or five yards of the fosse. The
trenches had been cut AMU the Bole de Boulogne.
Nothing, however, like enough of the .parapet and the
earthwork above bad been thrown down to fill up the fosse.
Indeed, no effort whatever had teen made In the way of
Riling up, except at either side of the two Port., so that an
assault at any otherthan there point. would have been a very
difficult undertaking. On the glade I cam the dead and de-
composed body eta man cotta uniform. Ho lay on Ms ride
with one hand under Me head end the other raised In the
alr. A gentleman who lives close by stated that the decessecl,
with two or three other men, had come out to fire stray shots
at the ratifiers In the trencher As he lay there to-day I per-
ceived that he had been pierced by several r fle balls.
The gates at Auteuil have disappeared as completely
as those at Point nu Jour and at the Railway Station
behind the iron railway bridge over the road all the
habitatione are, so to speak, In a heap. The Francis
term •• tb. In,'.,' best describes what is left of Auteuil
and its surroundings. Stone, mortar tron bridge metal,
lan pposis, treee, are smashed, pounded, and scattered.
No Wile who viatoed Auteuil In happier times would recog-
nize even the soot on which It stood As ape cimets of suns
coasted boinhordroont the Point di, Jour and the three bar-
racks behind the innlot. ih it lie between them may be
cited among the most complete that even modern artliiery
I has etteceficitai in producing.
Monti.

The latest accounts from Para state that the troop; a-r-e
In
poseeaelon of the Plact do 11 I' ,ncorde and the Place Vol-
dome It le also etattd that the Let rtes ore to their power,
cod that It la asp< Cad they Trlll have the 11.1 tel de Vale to.
night. . .

A vory large number of prisoners Ilene teen brought, In here
te

Vet:SAMS., May 71, 7 45 p.m
Immeciator one weep... ...i.e...., I wan
Into Pad., where for Nome hours I w Itemised the lighting I
forted teat wady this morning all the important p witioue of
Moutmarcre hod been taken t.y the two Corps d'Armee of
Generals Used and Ladmitault. She latter General had
occupied the station of St Gaon and the Place of Cechy, and
he had advanced to Montmartre by an external movement,
keeping for some distance outride the ramparts. At the
game time General Limn made • direct movement
from Inside the c:ty by the Parc de &tonneaux.
Jo Ibis manner Montmartre had been almost W.f.!,
asarounded There was S hard contest, but the troops
succeeded In entering the Better. A large number of
the Insurgents were kale,' In the action, and about 4 eOO wore
made prisoners The number of cannon and tnitrallleuaes
taken wee very considerable, amounting to soma remittals.
iselicvnle in ea I, the hands of toe indulgents se are also
the hohd tie Ville and the Tuned.. The Iled hg wee
eolith g on them when flail Pads at hat'-past tire o'clock
All the time i wee In the city senora fighting WM going on
lICTONI the Place de la Concorde het.. el the Insurgent,
needled,'g the menden of the Ministry of Marine, at the
corner or the Rue Royale, and the troops on the other alde of
the river In the Pa:ace of the C irpe Ugislatif A gunboat
which the Insurgents had under the Pont Royal, close to the
Tented., was firing c instantly. 'lhe Insurgent., in the Rue
de 'neon and the garden ni the Teller!e, were tiring mltrell
louses and lines, and the troops along the I; itilevard at the
edge of the Place des Invalid., c'ose to the river, were
&Meek!c g item with four-pounder gun.. Pet Vanvel
11112 firwe on the Insurgent positions in the neighbonr-
hood of Montrofle. ard the Faun erg It. Germain, and the
Pederallets w.• shelling vane. from Forte Montrouge and
Blaine. There was musketry skirmishing at varlet.
points In the Faubourg St. Germain. Ihe Insurgents occupy
houses, from which they keep up • rapid fire to impede the
march of General (limey's troops. Among the prisoner' taken
to-lay many have been recognized se old Reds who were ac-
tively eugaged in the in errection of June, 1818. A move-
ment boo been ordered s klch will result In completely
stettii.g In the Insurgents within a circle ft. reed by the
whole Amy of Paris. The Madeline is the ham, of the
Int/Itery. Santai hive have broken out In the city.

THE LOUVRE AND TUILERIES UN FIRE.

TgRsAIL LEA, May 24, SI °ruing.

Yesterday the Government tvoepe dislodged the Federal.
from the Yealr.onrg S. Germain and utust quarters, and are
continuing their victerlene march
The Louvre and the Turevica ore In Eames, the Federe*n
having net tire to them with petrolouni.
It Is believed that they Wlll try to escape out of Pale on
the clue 'd Belleville and retain.

kiMousy via killed yesterday.
Large numbers of prisoners have arrived here Ehis morn-
ing. Moat of them are without u Atoms, and of repulsive
appearauca.
Afternoon.
in addition to the Louvre and the Tuileries, the insuri sate
have let fire to the Palace of the Legion of Honour and the
Connell of lila,. l/itier buildings have been set on ent by
them.

U." tr. pa have aiiiied—oi-the left is RI "si the hart. Of
Beth...llle. to the centre so tars, the I ouvre and the Mlles,
and on the right as far as the Otwervatio,
All the mill tgratin. have been kin.lit.l by the insnrgent.
.1111 petroleum, the fumes of which Impregnate the who!a
etint.sol. re QI (i.e city.