3-039-054 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Assemblage of Paris republicans at the Column of July, Place de la Bastille, 1871. Franco-Prussian War. 'During Friday and Saturday, the 24th and 25th [February], some foolish manifestations in celebration of the anniversary of the Revolution of 1848 took place on the Place de la Bastille. These were renewed on the Sunday, when fully 20,000 people were assembled on the Place. From ten o'clock in the morning until six in the evening, detachments of National Guards, glad of any excuse for not returning to their ordinary work, came to deposit wreaths of immortelles on the pedestal of the column erected in commemoration of the Revolution of July, and to defile upon the Place'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.