Editing Paris Commune (section)

===23 May: Battle for Montmartre; burning of Tuileries Palace===
[[File:Combats dans la rue Rivoli.jpg|thumb|Communards defending a barricade on the [[rue de Rivoli]]]]
[[File:Commune de Paris nuit du 23 au 24 mai incendies dans Paris.jpg|thumb|Fires lit by the Commune during the night of 23-24 May]]
On 23 May the next objective of the army was the [[butte]] [[Montmartre]], where the uprising had begun. The National Guard had built and manned a circle of barricades and makeshift forts around the base of the butte. The eighty-five cannon and twenty rapid-firing guns captured from the army at the beginning of the Commune were still there, but no one had expected an attack and they had no ammunition, powder cartridges or trained gunners.<ref>Lissagaray (1896), p. 318</ref>

The garrison of one barricade, at Chaussee Clignancourt, included a battalion of about thirty women, including [[Louise Michel]], the celebrated "Red Virgin of Montmartre", who had already participated in many battles outside the city. She was seized by regular soldiers and thrown into the trench in front of the barricade and left for dead. She escaped and soon afterwards surrendered to the army, to prevent the arrest of her mother. The battalions of the National Guard were no match for the army; by midday on the 23rd the regular soldiers were at the top of Montmartre, and the tricolor flag was raised over the Solferino tower. The soldiers captured 42 guardsmen and several women, took them to the same house on rue des Rosier where generals Clement-Thomas and Lecomte had been executed, and shot them. On the [[Rue Royale, Paris|rue Royale]], soldiers seized the formidable barricade around the [[La Madeleine, Paris|Madeleine church]]; 300 prisoners captured with their weapons were shot there, the largest of the mass executions of the rebels.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|p=394}}

On the same day, having had little success fighting the army, units of national guardsmen began to take revenge by [[Fires in the Paris Commune|burning public buildings]] symbolising the government. The guardsmen led by [[Paul Brunel]], one of the original leaders of the Commune, took cans of oil and set fire to buildings near the rue Royale and the [[rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré]]. Following the example set by Brunel, guardsmen set fire to dozens of other buildings on [[Rue Saint-Florentin, Paris|rue Saint-Florentin]], [[rue de Rivoli]], [[Rue du Bac, Paris|rue du Bac]], rue de Lille, and other streets.

The [[Tuileries Palace]], which had been the residence of most of the monarchs of France from [[Henry IV of France|Henry IV]] to Napoleon III, was defended by a garrison of some three hundred National Guard with thirty cannon placed in the garden. They had been engaged in a day-long artillery duel with the regular army. At about seven in the evening, the commander of the garrison, Jules Bergeret, gave the order to burn the palace. The walls, floors, curtains and woodwork were soaked with oil and turpentine, and barrels of gunpowder were placed at the foot of the grand staircase and in the courtyard, then the fires were set. The fire lasted 48 hours and gutted the palace, except for the southernmost part, the {{lang|fr|Pavillon de Flore}}.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=1956 |title=Paris |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |edition=14th |volume=17 |page=293}}</ref> Bergeret sent a message to the Hotel de Ville: "The last vestiges of royalty have just disappeared. I wish that the same will happen to all the monuments of Paris."<ref>Joanna Richardson, ''Paris under Siege'' Folio Society London 1982 p. 185</ref>

The Richelieu library of the [[Louvre Palace|Louvre]], connected to the Tuileries, was also set on fire and entirely destroyed. The rest of the Louvre was saved by the efforts of the museum curators and fire brigades.<ref>Rene Heron de Villefosse, ''Histoire de Paris'', Bernard Grasset (1959). The father of the author of this book was an assistant curator at the Louvre, and helped put out the fires</ref> The consensus of later historians is that most of the major fires were started by the National Guard and several organised Communard groups; but that few if any fires were started by women.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|pp=396–397}} In addition to public buildings, the National Guard also started fires at the homes of a number of residents associated with the regime of Napoleon III, including that of historian and playwright [[Prosper Mérimée]], author of [[Carmen (novella)|''Carmen'']].{{sfn|Milza|2009a|pp=396–397}}