Article

"Le temps des cerises": The Ambulance Women in the

MARTIN MORUNO, Dolorès

Abstract

Although the women of the Paris Commune have frequently been depicted as ferocious fighters, setting fire to the streets of the capital, becoming well known as the pétroleuses; they also played a role in assisting the injured soldiers of the National Guard. Taking this two-month period in French political history as starting point, I will attempt to examine the contribution carried out by this group of women to medical assistance, following the call made by the feminine organization known as l'Union des femmes pour la défense de Paris et les soins aux blessés (The Women's Union for the Defense of Paris and the Treatment of the Injured), on the 11th of April 1871.

Reference

MARTIN MORUNO, Dolorès. "Le temps des cerises": The Ambulance Women in the Paris Commune. Bulletin of the UK Association for the History of Nursing, 2014, vol. 3, p. 44-56

Available at: http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:43776

Disclaimer: layout of this document may differ from the published version.

1 / 1 Manton, J. (1971) Sister Dora: the Life of Portelli, A. (2006) What makes oral history Dorothy Patterson. London: Methuen & Co. different. In: Perks, R and Thomson, A. (Eds.) Médecins Sans Frontières (n.d.) Founding of (2013) The oral history reader. Second Ed. MSF, Available at: London and New York: Routledge. http://www.msf.org.uk/founding-msf Sheer, B., and Wong, F K Y. (2008) The [Accessed 14th June 2014) development of advanced nursing practice Mortimer, B., in association with the RCN globally. Journal of Nursing Scholarship: An (2013) Si st er s. London: Arrow Books. Official Publication of Sigma Theta Tau Nestel, S. (1998) (Ad)ministering angels: International Honor Society of Nursing / Colonial nursing and the extension of empire Sigma Theta Tau, 40, 3, 204-211. in Africa. The Journal of Medical Humanities, doi:10.1111/j.1547-5069.2008.00242.x 19, 4, 257-277. doi:10.1023/A:1024908110021

µ/HWHPSVGHVFHULVHV¶: The Ambulance the most famous French songs of all times, Women of the Paris Commune making cherries an emblem of the blood spilt by the communards during the Dolores Martín Moruno government offensive led by Adolphe Institute for Ethics, History, and the Thiers from Sunday 21st until Monday 29th Humanities, University of Geneva of May 1871, this being the tragic episode

also called the bloody week that put an end Introduction to the revolutionary rule of the Commune In 1885, Jean-Baptiste Clément, (Clement 1885: 234; Tillier 2005: 15). songwriter and elected delegate of the Beyond the revolutionary hymn that it Montmartre district during the Paris represents today, Le temps des cerises also Commune, dedicated the words of a song reveals an interesting historical entitled Le temps des cerises µWRWKHEUDYH phenomenon: the scale of feminine citizen Louise, the ambulance woman involvement in the socialist uprising led by working in the Fontaine-au-Roi street, on Parisian workers against the authority of Sunday the 28th RI 0D\ ¶ Clement the French government provisionally based 1885: 234). This waltz, which evoked the in Versailles from March 18 to May 28, PHPRU\RIµDQRSHQZRXQG¶FDXVHGE\D 1871, also known as the Paris Commune. story of lost love, was to become one of

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Although the women of the Paris Parisian public hospitals) as well as those Commune have frequently been depicted undergone by the French army medical as ferocious fighters, setting fire to the services, the role of ambulance women has streets of the capital, becoming well been frequently treated in a summary known as the pétroleuses &OHPHQW¶V manQHU *XLYDUF¶K -220; Taithe dedication reminds us that they also played 1999: 136-7 and Martineaud 2004: 234). a role in assisting the injured soldiers of The invisibility of the ambulance women the National Guard (Thomas 2007; in the history of the Paris Commune can Gullickson 1996 and Eichner 2004). be explained on the one hand, because Taking this two-month period in French their activity has often been considered as political history as starting point, I will being a minor task in comparison with the attempt to examine the contribution carried work carried out by surgeons. On the other out by this group of women to medical hand, feminist historians have often assistance, following the call made by the written eulogies about the women of the feminine organization known as O¶8QLRQ Commune as fighters, but few of them des femmes pour la défense de Paris et les have taken their contribution to the health soi ns aux bl essés (7KH:RPHQ¶V8QLRQIRU care services seriously, as this occupation the Defense of Paris and the Treatment of seems only to reinforce the sexual division the Injured), on the 11th of April 1871 of labour in late nineteenth century French (Commune de Paris 1871: 225-6). society (Shafer 1993; Purvis 1992: 274). A The interest of analyzing the establishment third obstacle should also be mentioned, of this corps of ambulance women is that, one that makes the task of reconstructing even if the history of the Paris Commune WKLVDPEXODQFHZRPHQ¶VFRUSV particularly has been the subject of considerable difficult: that we are not dealing with research, only few works have shown nurses in the contemporary sense that this interest in examining the medical aspects term has acquired. It would be necessary to involved in this episode. Amongst these wait until 1878 to see the first regulation H[FHSWLRQV ZH ILQG 0DUFHO *XLYDUF¶K of secular nursing training in Parisian Bertrand Taithe and Jean-Paul hospitals, such as those of the Salpêtrière 0DUWLQHDXG¶V SXEOLFDWLRQV ZKLFK and Bicêtre and, therefore, we cannot emphasise the importance of this brief consider ambulance women as strictly period for studying the transformations of professional care workers (Diebolt and the Assistance Publique (the network of Fouché 2011: 229-245).

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Ambulance women were known by this Furthermore, the ambulance women of the name because they were responsible for Paris Commune seem to have some tending to the injured at makeshift first aid historical affinities with other feminine posts established in each district during the figures that had played a role in French Paris Commune. They belonged officially military history such as the launderers, the to the medical services of the National vivandières, and, notably, the canteen *XDUG EXW WKH ZRPHQ¶V FRPPLWWHHV women. The canteen women were coordinated their work in each quarter. In officially recognized by the French army this historical context, the term in 1794, during the Napoleonic wars and µDPEXODQFH¶PHDQVµQRWDVLPSO\DYHKLFOH would distinguish themselves for the for transporting the wounded but a efficiency of their health care and the WHPSRUDU\ ILHOG KRVSLWDO¶ ZKHUH elegance of their uniforms during the emergency surgical operations were Crimean war (1853-6) (Rappaport 2007: performed (Hutchinson 1996: 109-110). 56; Cardoza 2010). Even if we can Therefore, we should consider ambulance appreciate a frequent interchangeability women as historical figures that appeared between terms such as those of canteen during the secularization of the French and ambulance women, this latter group health care system implemented during the would prove their mastery in the practice Paris Commune, female figures that were of health care during the Paris Commune. diametrically opposed to the profile of the Nevertheless, their medical engagement nun that had monopolized for centuries the did not prevent them from also management of health care in hospitals accomplishing the role of fighters when it such as the Hôtel-Dieu, La Charité or was needed. Thus for instance, on the 12th Saint-Louis (Jones 1989). Indeed, the May, the famous heroine anticlericalism that characterized the (1830-1905), who was also an ambulance period of the Commune was to arouse woman during the Commune, made the suspicion against of any health worker following group declaration with other having had links with charity, such as the FLWL]HQV EHORQJLQJ WR WKH ZRPHQ¶V members of the Société française des committee based in Montmartre: secour s aux bl essés mi l i tai r es, who were The ambulance women of the Commune accused on various occasions of being declare that they belong to no company collaborators with the Versailles whatsoever. Their lives are entirely government (Dunant 1871). devoted to the revolution, their duty is to dress the wounds in the very arena of 46 | Page combat, the wounds inflicted by the first analyse the origin, structure and poisoned bullets of Versailles; and, when objectives of the association known as the the occasion requires, take up arms just as :RPHQ¶V 8QLRQ DV ZHOO DV FHUWDLQ the others. Long live the Commune! Long previous initiatives, which were put into live the Universal Republic! (Michel 1871) place during the Siege of Paris, in order to The complexity of these female figures led allow us to examine the challenges and me to reconsider their participation in the difficulties of ambulance women during health care assistance of the Paris the Commune. Commune in the light of historical 7KH:RPHQ¶V8QLRQ documents such as newspapers, posters The precarious economic situation in and military archives, as well their own which lived the Parisian population personal accounts and correspondence. explained the increasing discontent Amongst others, Louise Michel, André amongst workers and why they would defy Léo (1824-1900) or Victorine Brocher the authority represented by the French (1832-1921) worked for the revolutionary government, once the war against Prussia movement caring for the wounded was over. Parisians never accepted the soldiers. In most cases, they were deported defeat and, notably, women who felt to or condemned to exile after their defeat have done too much sacrifices to survive DJDLQVW7KLHUV¶DUP\ during the siege that lasted for five months of bitter cold, hunger, disease and As I shall show, the historical bombardment. While the Commune reconstruction of this corps of ambulance became officially into existence after the women can help us to better understand elections celebrated in the city by the the nuances of late nineteenth century political Left at the end of March, Thiers, French nursing history, if one establishes a the executive head of the French comparison between these working class government, began to prepare his own women and others who gave first aid in the army in order to declare a civil war against context of the Paris Commune, such as the those who that had proclaimed the social nuns or the lady volunteers closer to the democracy in Paris. Parisian women :RPHQ¶V Committee of the Red Cross, workers did not hesitate to organise who in majority would flee Paris because themselves to deal with the threat of their fear of being arrested as represented by the Versailles government collaborators with the national government DQGWKH\ZRXOGFUHDWHWKH:RPHQ¶V8QLRQ led by Thiers. With this aim in mind, I will only few days later. 47 | Page

7KH :RPHQ¶V 8QLRQ had for its make some definitive resolutions on the ideologues the young Russian aristocrat subject of training in all the committees of Elisabeth Dmitrieff (1851-1918), the different districts, in order to organize correspondent of in the the women's movement for the defense of Commune, and Nathalie Lemel (1827- Paris (Commune de Paris 1871: 225). 1921), a very active French unionist and 7KH:RPHQ¶V8QLRQDGGUHVVHGWKHZRPHQ manager of the canteen better known as La of Paris as the direct descendants of the Marmite, which was created at the start of women of the French revolution, who had the Siege of Paris, in September 1870 and marched to Versailles in October 1789 to would contribute in a decisive manner in show the monarchy of Louis XVI their the fight against hunger during the discontent at the prize of bread. As their Commune. In the call of the 11th April male comrades belonging to the First RQHFDQSHUFHLYH WKDWWKH:RPHQ¶V International, these female workers were Union defined itself as an association convinced that they had much to say in the orientated towards the organization of process of the radical democratization feminine forces at the service of the pursued by the Commune because they revolutionary movement. This group of were the most exploited part of the female Parisian female workers sent out a population in late nineteenth century call to all patriotic citizens in the following French society. terms: The situation of Parisian women workers Citizens of Paris, descendants of the was not at all idyllic. Most of them worked women of the Great Revolution, who, in in the industrial sector for between twelve the name of the people and of justice, and fifteenth hours in exchange for a marched to Versailles, taking Louis the salary that could range from 50 centimes ;9,FDSWLYH « &LWL]HQVDOOUHVROXWHDOO to two and a half francs per day; half that united, let us attend to the certainty of our earned by men. Furthermore, men cause! Let us prepare ourselves to defend considered women as potential enemies ourselves and take vengeance for our because they represented a much cheaper brothers! At the gates of Paris, on the labour force. Women were not only worse barricades, in the outskirts, no matter remunerated than their male counterparts, where! Patriotic citizens are called to they also were often obliged to resort to unite today, Tuesday 11th April at eight prostitution because of their lack of R¶FORFNWKLVHYHQLQJUXHGX7HPSOH «  resources, in order to buy food for their in the Grand Café de la Nation in order to children (Thomas 2007: 7). 48 | Page

In fact, one of their principal problems post based in Montmartre. It is said that implied by endless days of work, was the Louise Michel alerted the neighbors in high rate of infant mortality. In these order to defend the cannons. Thanks to a conditions, women workers no longer had crowd of people, largely composed of the possibility to breast feed their children. women, who angrily demanded milk and Victorine Brocher, mother of three food with which to nourish their children, children and ambulance woman described the soldiers who were under the command in her memoires that women workers of Lecomte, refused to open fire and should content themselves with milk subsequently joined the National Guard products like pure lait crème (full cream (Kathleen and Vergès 1991; Linton and milk), an ersatz that they used to give to Hivet 1997). their children. This confrontation between Parisians and One day my little one got angry, he spat up the French government, which is at the the milk that he had in his mouth, and in historical roots of the Commune, tells us the bottom of his glass I noticed a deposit much about the real motivations of the of milky looking white; in it there was women involved in the revolutionary starch and plaster, not a drop of milk was socialist government proclaimed only ten in this terrible concoction (Brocher 1976: days later. Far from following a utopian 112). battle for civil and political rights, an ideal The lack of milk and bread was one of the that was uniquely encouraged by a few IDFWRUV WKDW WULJJHUHG ZRPHQ¶V intellectuals, the fight of Parisian women participation in the outbreak of the was purely one to demand sufficiently paid insurrection that would lead to the work, with which they would be able to proclamation of the Paris Commune. On feed their children. In this sense, the the 18th March, Thiers intended to attempt :RPHQ¶V 8QLRQ DV ZHOO DV RWKHU the capture of cannons that had been LQGHSHQGHQW ZRPHQ¶V FRPPLWWHHs such as installed in Paris to defend the city from the Club de la Boule Noire established at the Prussian army during the siege. The 0RQWPDUWUH¶V GLVWULFW RIIHUHG ZRPHQ WKH National Guard, which was largely opportunity to fight against their poverty, composed of workers, refused to give back thanks to the recruitment of volunteer the cannons to the French government ambulance women, in coordination with DIWHU KDYLQJ VLJQHG %LVPDUFN¶V DUPLVWLFH the medical service of the National Guard. $W VL[ R¶FORFN LQ WKH PRUQLQJ *HQHUDO It is not surprising to see that the women /HFRPWH¶V WURops arrived at the lookout 49 | Page workers of Paris signed up en masse to be reorganization of the medical services of ambulance women, because the offer of the National Guard, a reform that would be working for one and a half francs was an put into place by doctor Charles Edme opportunity that they could not refuse. Courtillier, General Director of the The secularization of the medical services National Guard ambulances. On the 13th during the Commune April, he published an order in which he Ten days after the proclamation of the FRQVLGHUHG WKDW µWKH RUJDQL]DWLRQ RI WKH Commune, many anticlerical reforms were medical service of the National Guard was published, which abolished the financing FRPSOHWHO\ GHIHFWLYH¶ &RXUWLOOLHU  of religious organizations and nationalized 255). Therefore, Courtillier would attempt the properties belonging to religious to reform the medical military services by orders. In particular, nursing sisters, who introducing a system of ambulances, which during the Crimean war (1854-6) had been would have twenty doctors, sixty medical associated with the congregation of Saint students, and one hundred barricaders in Vincent de Paul, were considered in the HDFK FRPSDQ\ )XUWKHUPRUH µLQ HDFK context of the Commune as reactionary battalion (there were ten per company) figures, more concerned with souls than would be added two ambulance women, bodies, imposing the crucifix in hospitals who would march with the barricaders, and refusing scientific progress such as the and whose mission would be to give drink thermometer, vaccination of the WR WKH ZRXQGHG¶ &RXUWLOOLHU    population, realization of autopsies or When Courtillier underlined that the giving medical assistance to patients mission of ambulance women was to give suffering from venereal diseases. Moved drink to the wounded, he was associating by this virulent anticlericalism, the director them with the military figure of the of private ambulances during the canteen woman, who traditionally brought Commune, Doctor Narcisse Rousselle, did a can of water, wine or spirits in order to not hesitate to arrest the head of the French give drink the soldiers. 5HG &URVV¶ DPEXODQFHV 'RFWRU -HDQ- 1HYHUWKHOHVV &RXUWLOOLHU¶V LQLWLDWLYH DERXW Charles Chenu and to ban all nursing the introduction of women in the French sisters from his service (Rouselle 1871: 2; army medical services was not completely Bidard-Huberdière and Vicent-Leroy new. There were clear precedents during 1945: 33-35). the siege, when some similar projects had The secularization of the Assistance already been launched, such as the Comité Publique was also accompanied by the GHVIHPPHVGHODUXHG¶$VVDVDZRPHQ¶V 50 | Page association directed by Jules Allix that While the women of Montmartre numbered around 1800 members or the so- coordinated an ambulance in this district, called Battalion of Amazonian Women of Louise Michel worked in another based in the Seine, a group inspired by Félix Berry, Neuilly and Béatrix Excoffon organised a who wished to recruit woman in order to WKLUG RQH DW WKH )RUW G¶,VV\ ZKHUH $OL[ defend the barricades and to treat the Payen also worked (Michel 1898: 255). On injured under the orders of an experienced the sixth of May 1871, the writer and doctor (Maillard 1886: 245-272; Villiers social activist Victoire Léodile Béra, better 1910: 384-389). known as André Léo published an article &RXUWLOOLHU¶V decree about the introduction in the journal La Sociale HQWLWOHG µ7KH of ambulance women into the services of adventures of nine ambulance women in the National Guard was put into place by VHDUFKRIDSRVWRIGHYRWLRQ¶LQZKLFKVKH WKHFRPPLWWHHVRIWKH:RPHQ¶V8QLRQDV explained the obstacles that ambulance well as by other revolutionary clubs based women faced mainly due to the in each district such as the Montmartre discrimination that they suffered during Vigilance Committee. Indeed, the women the Commune. of Montmartre would play a particularly We are well aware that in every district of active role in the recruitment of candidates Paris, groups of devoted and courageous and in their training. As they wrote, their citizens have formed in order to assist in engagement with the ambulance corps was the defense of Paris. Some are engaged in an action inspired by values other than the preparation of our fighters, generally compassion, such as devotion to the very undernourished, with warm and revolution. healthy food, others go onto the battlefield The citizens of Montmartre, united in to bring first aid to the injured and dying assembly on the 22nd April, have decided [...] We are also aware, however, that in to put themselves at the disposition of the Paris there are a large number of [...] Commune to form ambulance groups Republicans who find this love shown by which will follow the corps engaging the women for the Republic unworthy and enemy and pick up our heroic defenders on distressing (Léo 1871). the battlefield. The women of Montmartre, She added to these general considerations, driven by revolutionary spirit wish to show some bitter impressions concerning an through their acts, their devotion to the episode that she experienced some weeks revolution (Documents concernant les before, and that provides us with some clubs et les comités de femmes, 1871). information about the perception that their 51 | Page male comrades had about the ambulance and told these female citizens a joke that ZRPHQ¶VUROH was in bad taste [...] They were there, in A group of citizens from the XVIIth effect, serious men, but only in the district, provided with a commission from company of that national guard [...] the municipality, wearing red crosses, and Elsewhere as much as in Neuilly [...] we led by a delegate of the committee, passed experienced these mixed feelings very through the gates of Clichy on the 2nd of strongly, on the one hand from officers May, and reported to a commander of the and surgeons, who without exception 34th battalion in order to offer their displayed an absence of warmth, which ser vi ces [...] The officer, forcing himself to ranged from the taciturn to the insulting; be polite, could hardly hide his on the other hand, from the national indifference for the mission of these guards we experienced respect and Republicans. The ambulances, the injured, fraternity which was often mixed with he didn't know, he didn't look after that si ncere emotion (Léo 1871). VRUWRIWKLQJ«7KHUHPXVWEHVRPHZKHUH There are many writings collecting the an ambulance Director, appointed by the impressions of ambulance women in the Commune, and a master surgeon; but barricades of Paris. They described the where? (Léo 1781) lack of bandages, medical supplies but, After having recounted the adventures in notably, the negative attitude of the which her colleagues and herself had been medical and military instances of the involved, Léo concluded with some Commune towards their efforts. In fact, comments about the repudiation that they FRPPXQDUGV¶ SHUFHSWLRQ ZRXOG VRRQ felt from the part of their comrades. While compare them with prostitutes because doctors and military autohorities they seemed to pursue suspicious and manifested only contempt towards immoral activities in the streets of Paris. ZRPHQ¶VSDUWLFLSDWLRQ/pRUHFRJQLVHGWKH Ambulance women would receive no sympathy that the national guards showed better treatment from the VHUVDLOOHV¶ towards them. government. Even though the Geneva So many formalities and obstacles are Convention should have protected the completely pointless. Paris, the revolution, health care personnel from the attacks that is there then too much devotion in their took place in both sides of the conflict, the desire to serve? [...] A young officer, Commune only recognised its validity on encouraged by his taciturn superior, the 13th May and Thiers would never thought he had the right to be impertinent respect it. As shown in the following 52 | Page announcement made by the National respectively, to escape from Paris during Guard, ambulance women were frequently the Commune (Dunant, 1871). YLRODWHGDQGNLOOHGDWWKHKDQGVRI7KLHUV¶ Furthermore, John Furley active militant army. of the British Red Cross described in But what adds to the horror of this horrified terms how the last volunteers butchery, is that a young woman, nurse in assisting the wounded in the streets of the battalion, was murdered by these Paris referred to the International wicked people, while she was treating the Committee of the Red Cross as if were the wounds of an injured person. Her youth, First International; an identification, which her devotion found no more mercy from was current amongst the communards these brigands than the Geneva Cross that mainly due to a profound lack of she wor e on her chest (Commune de Paris awareness about the nature of this 1871). humanitarian agency (Furley 1874: 339). To wear the insignia of the Red Cross The recently created Geneva Convention society, an emblem that had been proposed soon demonstrated the difficulties of its to protect the sanitary personnel in armed application with regard to insurrections conflicts, was in any case a symbol of such as the Paris Commune, where the neutrality during the Commune as both neutrality of medical staff was frequently sides used it for political purposes. From violated. As a result of this complex early April, the Communards accused the political situation, ambulance women FrencK 5HG &URVV¶ PHPEHUV RI KDYLQJ became twofold victims, as they did not hidden religious members and munitions only suffer the contempt of their male in its ambulances in order to ensure their FRPUDGHVEXWDOVRWKHKDWUHGRI9HUVDLOOHV¶ easy transportation to Versailles. This population, which judged them as DVVRFLDWLRQEHWZHHQWKH)UHQFK5HG&URVV¶ pétroleuses, the incendiary women who delegates and the Government of National had set fire to the Tuileries during the Defence led by Adolphe Thiers was not a bloody week, when ThLHUV¶ WURRSV NLOOHG casual one, as it must be remembered that about 20.000 insurrectionists in the streets Henry Dunant, the ideologist of the Red of Paris. Cross International Committee, helped the What we can learn from the ambulance Count and the Countess of Flavigny, women during the Paris Commune Director of the French Red Cross Society In conclusion, the historical reconstruction DQG RI WKH :RPHQ¶V &RPPLWWHH of this corps of voluntary ambulance

53 | Page women during the Paris Commune shows reconsidered as a form of power that that nursing cannot be exclusively secured a place for women in the context interpreted as a profession that was of modern wars, which furthermore, would gradually introduced into hospitals during KHOS µWKH H[SDQVLRQ RI ZRPHQ¶V SXEOLF the second half of the nineteenth and the UROHV DQG WKHLU ULJKWV DV FLWL]HQV¶ 'L[RQ first half of the twentieth centuries, but Vuic 2013: 22-29). also as an activity that forged its Even though the cherry season would be professional identity in close connection remembered by its brevity because -as with military life. Although ambulance &OpPHQWVDLGLQKLVVRQJµLWZDVWRRVKRUW¶- women established some historical and the major part of the reforms that were affiliations with other feminine figures, proposed during the Commune were not which had been already integrated in the completely applied, the initiative of French army such as the vivandières or the creating a secular corps of nurses would be cantinières, they would differentiate retrieved some decades later by themselves by defining their identity personalities such as the physician Désiré through their mastery of health care Magloire de Bourneville, who encouraged practices. the inauguration of the first school of On the one hand, the process of nurses at the Salpêtriere hospital in 1878 secularisation put forward during the Paris (Taithe 1999: 137). Therefore, the history Commune defined the profile of the of French secular nursing cannot only be ambulance women by contraposition to the written in the light of great personalities nuns, who had been traditionally such as Anna Hamilton, also called the responsible for caring for the sick in French Nightingale, but must also take into hospitals. On the other, the tensions consideration other less well known EHWZHHQ WKH )UHQFK 5HG &URVV¶ PHPEHUV historical agents that were represented by and the delegates of the Commune implied Louise, the brave ambulance women, who that ambulance women were also regarded was helping the wounded in the last as an alternative to the model represented barricade that remained standing during by the bourgeois ladies dedicated to the Bloody week, at the Fontaine-au-roi charitable work, who escaped mostly from street. Paris at the beginning of the insurrection. There were many young women called What we can learn from this study of the Louise during the Commune but, the ambulance women in the Paris Commune woman to whom Clément was referring is that nursing needs to be carefully was probably not Louise Michel as legend 54 | Page has led us to believe, but rather an organismes du ministère de la défense, anonymous ambulance woman that was Vincennes, LY 23. described in the first page of the journal Le Commune de Paris (1871) Réi mpr essi on du Figaro the 2nd June, 1871 in the following Journal Officiel de la République Française sous la commune du 18 mars au 24 mai . Paris, terms: V. Bunel, 225-6. On Monday morning, at a crossroads in &RXUWLOOLHU &K (   µ3DUWLH 2ILFLHOOH¶ LQ Belleville, lay the corpse of a woman Commune de Paris Réi mpr essi on du Jour nal stained all over with blood and mud. The Officiel de la République Française sous la head that must have been pretty, almost commune du 18 mars au 24 mai, Paris, 255. distinguished, kept in death an expression Diebolt E and Fouché N (2011) Devenir of ferocious hate. The right arm was infirmière en France, une histoire atlantique extended, and one could guess that in the (1854-1938). Paris, Publibook. final moments, the women had not joined 'L[RQ9XLF .   µ:DUWLPH 1XUVLQJ DQG hands to ask God for the forgiveness that 3RZHU¶ LQ '¶$QWRQio P, Fairman J A and Whelan J C (eds.), the men would not give her (Magnard Routledge Handbook on the Global History of Nursing London and New 1871) York, Routledge, 22-29. References Dunant H (1871), Demarches faites à Paris Bidard-Huberdière E and Vicent-Leroy F M pendant la Guerre 1870-1. Diverses notes (1945) Une ambulance chirurgicale pendant G¶+HQU\ 'XQDQW, MS. 2088. Geneva, la Commune. Paris, Jouve. Bibliothéque de Genève (BGE). Brocher V (1976) 6RXYHQLUV G¶XQH PRUWH Eichner C J (2004) Sour mont i ng t he vivante. Paris, Maspero. Barricades: Women in the Paris Commune Cardoza T (2010) Intrepid Women: Bloomington, Indiana University Press. Cantinières and Vivandières of the French Furley J (1874) Épreuves et luttes d'un Army. Bloomington and Indiana, Indiana volontaire neutre. Paris, Jean Dumaine. University Press,. *XLYDUF¶K 0   1870-1871. Chirurgie et Clément J B (1885) Deux chansons politiques. médecine pendant la Guerre et la Commune. Paris, Dumoilin. Un tournant scientifique et humanitaire. Paris, Commune de Paris (1871) Affiches du comité Louis Pariente. central de la garde nationale, vol. 1-4. Gullickson G (1996) Unruly Women of Paris: Réserve de livres rares. Paris, Bibliothèque Images of the Commune. Ithaca, Cornell Nationale de France. University Press. 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