Editing Paris Commune (section)

=== Failed seizure attempt and government retreat ===

[[File:Les pièces de Montmartre.jpg|thumb|Troops sent by Adolphe Thiers seizing the cannons of Montmartre, paid for by the Parisian via a subscription. These were later taken back by the National Guards during the uprising of 18 March 1871, the starting point of the Paris Commune]]

Early in the morning of 18 March, two brigades of soldiers climbed the [[butte]] of [[Montmartre]], where the largest collection of cannons, 170 in number, were located. A small group of revolutionary national guardsmen were already there, and there was a brief confrontation between the brigade led by General [[Claude Lecomte]], and the National Guard; one guardsman, named Turpin, was shot, later dying. Word of the shooting spread quickly, and members of the National Guard from all over the neighbourhood, along with others including Clemenceau, hurried to the site to confront the soldiers.{{sfn|Horne|2012|loc=Chapter 17}}

[[File:Commune de Paris Les canons 18 mars 1871.jpg|thumb|left|Cannons taken back from the army by the national guards]]

While the Army had succeeded in securing the cannons at [[Belleville, Paris|Belleville]] and [[Parc des Buttes-Chaumont|Buttes-Chaumont]] and other strategic points, at Montmartre a crowd gathered and continued to grow, and the situation grew increasingly tense. The horses that were needed to take the cannon away did not arrive, and the army units were immobilized. As the soldiers were surrounded, they began to break ranks and join the crowd. General Lecomte tried to withdraw, and then ordered his soldiers to load their weapons and fix bayonets. He thrice ordered them to fire, but the soldiers refused. Some of the officers were disarmed and taken to the city hall of Montmartre, under the protection of Clemenceau. General Lecomte and his staff officers were seized by the guardsmen and his mutinous soldiers and taken to the local headquarters of the National Guard under the command of captain [[Simon Charles Mayer]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mayer Simon, Charles |url=https://maitron.fr/spip.php?article209181 |access-date=14 November 2022 |publisher=Le Maitron Dictionnaire Biographique |language=fr |location=Aubervilliers |archive-date=14 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221114001327/https://maitron.fr/spip.php?article209181 |url-status=live }}</ref> at the ballroom of the [[Château Rouge (Paris Métro)|Chateau-Rouge]]. The officers were pelted with rocks, struck, threatened, and insulted by the crowd. In the middle of the afternoon, Lecomte and the other officers were taken to 6 rue des Rosiers by members of a group calling themselves the Committee of Vigilance of the 18th {{lang|fr|arrondissement}}, who demanded that they be tried and executed.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|pp=16–18}}

[[File:Jacques Léon Clément-Thomas (1809-1871).jpg|thumb|upright|General Clément-Thomas, executed by the National Guards for trying to seize their cannons]]

At 5:00 in the afternoon, the National Guard had captured another important prisoner: General [[Jacques Leon Clément-Thomas]]. An ardent republican and fierce disciplinarian, he had helped suppress the armed uprising of June 1848 against the Second Republic. Because of his republican beliefs, he had been arrested by Napoleon III and exiled, and had only returned to France after the downfall of the Empire. He was particularly hated by the national guardsmen of Montmartre and Belleville because of the severe discipline he imposed during the siege of Paris.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|pp=18–19}} Earlier that day, dressed in civilian clothes, he had been trying to find out what was going on, when he was recognized by a soldier and arrested, and brought to the building at rue des Rosiers. At about 5:30 on 18 March, the angry crowd of national guardsmen and deserters from Lecomte's regiment at rue des Rosiers seized Clément-Thomas, beat him with rifle butts, pushed him into the garden, and shot him repeatedly. A few minutes later, they did the same to General Lecomte. Doctor [[Jean Casimir Félix Guyon]], who examined the bodies shortly afterwards, found forty bullets in Clément-Thomas's body and nine in Lecomte's back.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|p=19}}{{sfn|Gluckstein|2006|page=231}} By late morning, the operation to recapture the cannons had failed, and crowds and barricades were appearing in all the working-class neighborhoods of Paris. General Vinoy ordered the army to pull back to the Seine, and Thiers began to organise a withdrawal to Versailles, where he could gather enough troops to take back Paris.

[[File:Sainte Famille (d'après Murillo)La fuite.à Versailles. Paris Musées 20231104143226.jpg|thumb|upright|"The Holy Family": Thiers, Favre and Philippe d'Orléans, Count of Paris and pretender to the throne, fleeing to Versailles, caricature by Charles de Frondat]]

On the afternoon of 18 March, following the government's failed attempt to seize the cannons at Montmartre, the Central Committee of the National Guard ordered the three battalions to seize the Hôtel de Ville, where they believed the government was located. They were not aware that Thiers, the government, and the military commanders were at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where the gates were open and there were few guards. They were also unaware that Marshal [[Patrice MacMahon]], the future commander of the forces against the Commune, had just arrived at his home in Paris, having just been released from imprisonment in Germany. As soon as he heard the news of the uprising, he made his way to the railway station, where national guardsmen were already stopping and checking the identity of departing passengers. A sympathetic station manager hid him in his office and helped him board a train, and he escaped the city. While he was at the railway station, national guardsmen sent by the Central Committee arrived at his house looking for him.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|p=76}}{{sfn|Gluckstein|2006|page=4}}

On the advice of General Vinoy, Thiers ordered the evacuation to Versailles of all the regular forces in Paris, some 40,000 soldiers, including those in the fortresses around the city; the regrouping of all the army units in Versailles; and the departure of all government ministries from the city.