Editing Paris Commune (section)

=== 22 May: Barricades, first street battles ===
[[File:Commune de Paris barricade Place Blanche.jpg|thumb|A barricade on [[Place Blanche]] during Bloody Week, whose defenders included [[Louise Michel]] and a unit of 30 women]]

On the morning of 22 May, bells finally were rung around the city, and Delescluze, as delegate for war of the Commune, issued a proclamation, posted all over Paris:

{{blockquote|In the name of this glorious France, mother of all the popular revolutions, permanent home of the ideas of justice and solidarity which should be and will be the laws of the world, march at the enemy, and may your revolutionary energy show him that someone can sell Paris, but no one can give it up, or conquer it! The Commune counts on you, count on the Commune!<ref>''Proclamation de Delescluze. delegue a la Guerre, au peuple de Paris'', ''[[Journal officiel de la République française|Journal officiel]],'' 22 May 1871</ref>}}

The Committee of Public Safety issued its own decree:

{{blockquote|TO ARMS! That Paris be bristling with barricades, and that, behind these improvised ramparts, it will hurl again its cry of war, its cry of pride, its cry of defiance, but its cry of victory; because Paris, with its barricades, is undefeatable ...That revolutionary Paris, that Paris of great days, does its duty; the Commune and the Committee of Public Safety will do theirs!{{sfn|Milza|2009a|p=386}}}}

[[File:Maximilien Luce - A Street in Paris in May 1871 - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''A street in Paris in May 1871'', by [[Maximilien Luce]]]]

Despite the appeals, only fifteen to twenty thousand persons, including many women and children, responded. The forces of the Commune were outnumbered five-to-one by the army of Marshal MacMahon.<ref>Da Costa, Gaston, ''La Commune vecue'', 3 vol. Paris, Librairies-impremeries reunies, 1903–1905, III, p. 81. Serman, William, ''La Commune de Paris'', p. 348</ref>

Once the fighting began inside Paris, the strong neighborhood loyalties that had been an advantage of the Commune became something of a disadvantage: instead of an overall planned defence, each "quartier" fought desperately for its survival, and each was overcome in turn. The webs of narrow streets that made entire districts nearly impregnable in earlier Parisian revolutions had in the centre been replaced by wide [[boulevard]]s during [[Haussmann's renovation of Paris]]. The Versailles forces enjoyed a centralised command and had superior numbers. Equally important, they had learned the tactics of street fighting from 1848 and earlier uprisings. They avoided making frontal attacks on Commune barricades. They tunnelled through walls of neighbouring houses to establish positions above the barricades, and gradually worked their way around and behind them, usually forcing the Communards to withdraw without a fight. The majority of the barricades in Paris were abandoned without combat.<ref>Lissagaray (1896) pp. 349–351</ref> On the morning of 22 May, the regular army occupied a large area from the Porte Dauphine; to the [[Champ de Mars]] and the [[École Militaire]], where General Cissey established his headquarters; to the Porte de Vanves. In a short time the 5th corps of the army advanced toward [[Parc Monceau]] and [[Place Clichy]], while General [[Félix Douay]] occupied the [[Place de l'Étoile]] and General Clichant occupied the [[Gare Saint-Lazare]]. Little resistance was encountered in the west of Paris, but the army moved forward slowly and cautiously, in no hurry.

No one had expected the army to enter the city, so only a few large barricades were already in place, on the [[Rue Saint-Florentin, Paris|rue Saint-Florentin]] and [[Avenue de l'Opéra]], and the [[rue de Rivoli]]. Barricades had not been prepared in advance; some nine hundred barricades were built hurriedly out of paving stones and sacks of earth. Many other people prepared shelters in the cellars. The first serious fighting took place on the afternoon of the 22nd: an artillery duel between regular army batteries on the [[Quai d'Orsay]] and the Madeleine, and National Guard batteries on the terrace of the Tuileries Palace. On the same day, the first executions of National Guard soldiers by the regular army inside Paris took place; some sixteen prisoners captured on the [[Rue du Bac, Paris|rue du Bac]] were given a summary hearing, and then shot.<ref>Milza, Pierre, "La Commune", p. 391</ref>