Tuesday, March 21, 1871. Yesterday afternoon, during the uprising and the flight of the Government by the insurgents, more barracks and the National Printing House were occupied. Then in the evening it was the turn of the Hôtel de Ville (Paris City Hall), from where Mayor Jules Ferry had fled shortly before. In his place, the Central Committee of the National Guard took over and the red flag was raised. But the Central Post Office, the Bank of France, and the Mont-Valérien fort—the one we talked about in the previous post and which was occupied today by government troops—were not taken. And this fort controls the road to Versailles. All of these were serious mistakes, such as the failure to oppose the retreating troops. Mistakes that will be paid for dearly in the future. General Vinoy, and much of historiography, states that the "most serious and irreparable mistake" was not to attack Versailles immediately, thus losing "all the unexpectedly gained advantages. At that moment, all the odds were in their favor. They should have attempted the attack," referring to the command of the National Guard. The problem is that the command and the Central Committee of the National Guard were taken by surprise by the spontaneous uprising and were unprepared to exploit the events to their advantage, mainly the disorganization of the government fleeing Paris and its own troops. Grave mistakes aside, credit must be given to the Central Committee of the National Guard for taking on the burden of giving a new form and new content to the political power won by the people of Paris.
