Editing Paris Commune (section)

=== Prisoners and exiles ===
[[File:Commune de Paris Prisonniers à Satory.jpg|center|450px|thumb|Communard prisoners at [[Satory]] camp]]

[[File:Commune de Paris éxécution de communards caserne Lobau.jpg|thumb|Mass execution of Communard prisoners in the Lobau barracks, engraving by Frédéric Lix]]

The French Army officially recorded the capture of 43,522 prisoners during and immediately after Bloody Week. Of these, 1,054 were women, and 615 were under the age of 16. They were marched in groups of 150 or 200, escorted by cavalrymen, to Versailles or the Camp de [[Satory]], where they were held in extremely crowded and unsanitary conditions until they could be tried. More than half of the prisoners, 22,727, were released before trial for extenuating circumstances or on humanitarian grounds. Since Paris had been officially under a state of siege during the Commune, the prisoners were tried by military tribunals. Trials were held for 15,895 prisoners, of whom 13,500 were found guilty. Ninety-five were sentenced to death; 251 to forced labour; 1,169 to deportation, usually to New Caledonia; 3,147 to simple deportation; 1,257 to solitary confinement; 1,305 to prison for more than a year; and 2,054 to prison for less than a year.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|pp=431–432}}

[[File:Théophile Ferré by Appert.jpg|thumb|upright|The Commune's deputy prosecutor [[Théophile Ferré]], who handed over six hostages for execution, was executed in November 1871.]]

A separate and more formal trial was held beginning 7 August for the Commune leaders who survived and had been captured, including Théophile Ferré, who had signed the death warrant for the hostages, and the painter [[Gustave Courbet]], who had proposed the destruction of the column in Place Vendôme. They were tried by a panel of seven senior army officers. Ferré was sentenced to death, and Courbet was sentenced to six months in prison, and later ordered to pay the cost of rebuilding the column. Serving part of his sentence in the [[Sainte-Pélagie Prison]] in Paris, he was allowed an easel and paints, but he could not have models pose for him. He did a famous series of still-life paintings of flowers and fruit.<ref>{{harvnb|Riat|1906|pp=120–122}}</ref>
He was released, but was unable to pay for the rebuilding of the column. He went into exile in Switzerland and died before making a payment.

In October 1871 a commission of the National Assembly reviewed the sentences; 310 of those convicted were pardoned, 286 had their sentences reduced, and 1,295 commuted. Of the 270 condemned to death—175 [[Trial in absentia|in absentia]]—25 were shot, including Ferré and Gustave Genton, who had selected the hostages for execution.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|pp=436–437}} Thousands of Communards, including leaders such as [[Félix Pyat]], succeeded in slipping out of Paris before the end of the battle, and went into exile; some 3,500 going to England, 2,000–3,000 to Belgium, and 1,000 to Switzerland.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|p=440}}

A partial amnesty was granted on 3 March 1879, allowing 400 of the 600 deportees sent to New Caledonia to return, and 2,000 of the 2,400 prisoners sentenced in absentia. A general amnesty was granted on 11 July 1880, allowing the remaining 543 condemned prisoners, and 262 sentenced in absentia, to return to France.{{sfn|Rougerie|2014|page=120}}