Mr. Washburne to Mr. Fish
Sir: It is impossible to arrive at the truth in regard to the fight which took place on Sunday last between the insurgents and the Versailles troops. It was a singular sight to my family on that Sunday morning to watch from the upper window of my residence the progress of a regular battle under the walls of Paris, and to hear the roar of artillery, the rattling of musketry, and the peculiar sound of the mitrailleuses. The result was undoubtedly very unfavorable to the insurgents, but it did not discourage them, for they commenced immediately rallying their forces for another attack. Late in the afternoon they began their movement, which continued till late into the night, going out of the city in different directions. At half past six o’clock yesterday morning I was awakened by the cannon at Mont Valérien, which had opened on the rear guard of a large column of insurgents that was on its way to Versailles. The firing caused the guard to retreat into the city in indescribable confusion. What has become of that part of the column which passed beyond Mont Valérien is not known, although some of the insurgents say that yesterday afternoon it was marching victoriously on to Versailles. Two other columns of troops are also said to have passed out, and there was quite a serious fight in the vicinity of Chatillon, resulting in the retreat of the insurgents pell-mell. The day of yesterday was one of great excitement in the city. The national guards were roaming around everywhere, singly, in squads, in companies, and in regiments. In the afternoon a body of several hundred women formed at the Place de la Concorde and took up their line of march to Versailles, in poor imitation of those who marched upon the same place in the time of Louis the Sixteenth. They paraded up the Champs Elysées and through the avenue Montaigne. A portion of them passed over the Pont d’Alma, while the others took the route to the Point du Jour. Many of them wore the “bonnet rouge,” and all were singing the Marseillaise. Whenever they met an omnibus they stopped it, caused the passengers to get out and took possession themselves. One old woman, sixty years of age, mounted on the top of an omnibus, displayed the red flag, and gave the word of command. How far they went and what became of them I do not know. It is very curious to read the different accounts which are given of yesterday and Sunday in the various red journals. Their violence knows no bounds. The insurgent official journal publishes a decree of the commune impeaching Thiers, Favre, Picard, Simon, and Pathuan, and also seizing and sequestrating their property. Insurrectionary journals are springing up like gourds in the night, and each tries to surpass the other in revolutionary fervor and violence. If this thing continue it is not unlikely that all the papers opposed to the commune will have to go under. Indeed, the “L’Action,” the journal of Lissagaray, of this morning, openly demands the suspension, “sans phrase,” of all the journals in Paris hostile to the commune. The insurrectionists, who had for one of their watchwords “a free press,” have suppressed by force the “Figaro” and the “Gaulois,” destroyed the issues of the “Constitutionnel,” driven out of the city the “L’Électeur Libre,” the “Bien Publique,” the “Ami de France,” and one or two other journals. A very significant note addressed by the commune to the director of the [Page 324] “Paris Journal,” a paper of a very large circulation, appears this morning. I will give you the names of some of these new papers that have made their appearance since the insurrection of the 18th of March:
Le Rappel, L’Action, Le Père Duchêne, Le Vengeur, Le Mot d’Ordre, L’Affranchi, Le Cri du Peuple, La Révolution, La Montagne, L’Avant Garde, La Commune, La Sociale.
We have reports of great commotion in the councils of the commune. Assi, who was the head man in the comité central of the national guard, and elected a member of the commune, is now imprisoned at the prefecture of the police. Lullier, another member of the comité central, was arrested by his associates in the committee, and also cast into prison. He has since escaped, and publishes a letter in which he says the depot of the prefecture is transformed into a prison of state, where, the most rigorous precautions are taken against all the prisoners. The official journal of the insurrectionists of yesterday makes the following announcement: “Citizen Cluseret is appointed delegate to the ministry of war, conjointly with the Citizen Endes. He will enter his duties immediately.” As I write this dispatch at 3 o’clock this afternoon, to send to London to-night by General Starring, everything is quiet in the town as far as I can learn, yet a good deal of firing is heard in the direction of Mendon. Colonel Hoffman went to Versailles this morning. I need, hardly add that the greatest uneasiness continues in the city among all classes of people. Matters cannot long remain in their present position. It is impossible for Paris to hold out against all France. The communal insurrection seems to have been suppressed in all the cities of Prance except Paris.
I have, &c.,