Editing Paris Commune (section)

===24 May: Burning of Hotel de Ville; executions of Communards, the archbishop and hostages===
[[File:Commune de Paris 24 mai incendie de l'Hôtel de Ville.jpg|thumb|Fire at The [[Hôtel de Ville, Paris|Hôtel de Ville]], the headquarters of the Commune, attacked by the Versailles Army and burned by the National Guard]]

At two in the morning on 24 May, Brunel and his men went to the Hôtel de Ville, which was still the headquarters of the Commune and of its chief executive, Delescluze. Wounded men were being tended in the halls, and some of the National Guard officers and Commune members were changing from their uniforms into civilian clothes and shaving their beards, preparing to escape from the city. Delescluze ordered everyone to leave the building, and Brunel's men set it on fire.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|pp=397–398}}

The battles resumed at daylight on 24 May, under a sky black with smoke from the burning palaces and ministries. There was no co-ordination or central direction on the Commune side; each neighborhood fought on its own. The National Guard disintegrated, with many soldiers changing into civilian clothes and fleeing the city, leaving between 10,000 and 15,000 Communards to defend the barricades. Delescluze moved his headquarters from the Hôtel de Ville to the city hall of the [[11th arrondissement of Paris|11th arrondissement]], and set fire to the Hotel de Ville. More public buildings were set afire, including the [[Palais de Justice, Paris|Palais de Justice]], the [[Paris Police Prefecture|Prefecture de Police]], the theatres of [[Théâtre du Châtelet|Châtelet]] and [[Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin|Porte-Saint-Martin]], and the [[Saint-Eustache, Paris|Church of Saint-Eustache]]. Most of the Palais de Justice was destroyed, but the [[Sainte-Chapelle]] survived. Fires set at the [[Louvre Palace]], [[Palais-Royal]] and [[Notre-Dame de Paris|Notre-Dame]] were extinguished without causing significant damage.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=pGTJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA11 ''The Paris Commune 1871''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200522201026/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pGTJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA11 |date=22 May 2020 }}, Robert Tombs, p. 11</ref>

[[File:Exécution de communards parisiens par les troupes versaillaises.jpg|thumb|Execution of Communards by Versailles troops]]

As the army continued its methodical advance, the [[summary execution]]s of captured Communard soldiers by the army continued. Informal [[military court]]s were established at the {{lang|fr|[[École Polytechnique]]|italic=no}}, [[Place du Châtelet|Châtelet]], the [[Luxembourg Palace]], [[Parc Monceau]], and other locations around Paris. The hands of captured prisoners were examined to see if they had fired weapons. The prisoners gave their identity, sentence was pronounced by a court of two or three gendarme officers, the prisoners were taken out and sentences immediately carried out.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|p=401}}

Amid the news of the growing number of executions carried out by the army in different parts of the city, the Communards carried out their own executions as a desperate and futile attempt at retaliation. Raoul Rigaut, the chairman of the Committee of Public Safety, without getting the authorisation of the Commune, executed one group of four prisoners, before he himself was captured and shot by an army patrol. On 24 May, a delegation of national guardsmen and Gustave Genton, a member of the Committee of Public Safety, came to the new headquarters of the Commune at the city hall of the 11th arrondissement and demanded the immediate execution of the hostages held at the prison of [[La Roquette Prisons|La Roquette]]. The new prosecutor of the Commune, [[Théophile Ferré]], hesitated and then wrote a note: "Order to the Citizen Director of La Roquette to execute six hostages." Genton asked for volunteers to serve as a firing squad, and went to the La Roquette prison, where many of the hostages were being held. Genton was given a list of hostages and selected six names, including [[Georges Darboy]], the Archbishop of Paris, and three priests. The governor of the prison, M. François, refused to give up the Archbishop without a specific order from the Commune. Genton sent a deputy back to the Prosecutor, who wrote "and especially the archbishop" on the bottom of his note. Archbishop Darboy and five other hostages were promptly taken out into the courtyard of the prison, lined up against the wall, and shot.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|pp=403–404}}