On 21 May 1871, the army entered Paris. This marked the start of a terrible hunt for insurgents. It became known as Bloody Week. Summary executions, mock trials at the Châtelet and Luxembourg courts, and finally death in the Lobau barracks, the Luxembourg gardens or the Ecole Militaire. Many other places were used as slaughterhouses and mass graves. Parc Monceau, Parc Buttes-Chaumont and Square Saint Jacques are just a few examples.

Legal repression began in June 1871. No more killings, but imprisonment. More than 36,000 male, female and child prisoners were sent to all the Atlantic ports, from Rochefort to Cherbourg, to await trial before the war councils. These war councils, of which there were 26, operated until 1878. The women were divided between the prisons of Clermont (60), Rouen (76), Auberive (52) and Arras (62).

As the prisons were full, disarmed ships called pontons, as well as forts on the ocean islands, were used as places of confinement. Children as young as 8 rubbed shoulders with adults over 70. They stayed there for 2, 3 or even 6 months before a decision was taken against them: dismissal, confinement in a prison or deportation to New Caledonia. Convicted children under the age of 15 will be sent to the reformatory in Rouen. Nearly a thousand men, women and children died during the trial.

Those sentenced to forced labour, deportation to a fortified enclosure or simple deportation served their sentences in New Caledonia. Seven women were sentenced to death; their sentences were commuted to forced labour for life on the Iles du Salut in French Guiana.

Convoys to New Caledonia left from the ports of Brest, Toulon and Saint Martin de Ré. The crossing to New Caledonia took a minimum of 147 days. Scurvy wreaked havoc among the deportees.

A partial amnesty was voted on 3 March 1879. 5 boats arrived in Port-Vendres (66) between 1 September and 12 October 1879. A full amnesty was promulgated on 11 July 1880. The convoys unloaded the deportees in the port of Brest.

Pontoons and prisons on the Atlantic coast from Rochefort to Cherbourg

Rochefort sector
- Fort de l'Ile d'Aix
- Fort du Château d'Oléron
- Fort d'Enet
- Fort Boyard
- Fort Fouras
- Fort de l'ile Madame
- Fort de Noirmoutier
- Fort des Saumonards
- Fort de l'ile d'Yeu
- Pontons : La Foudre, L'Orne, L'Iphigénie, Le Pandore
- Rochefort Maritime Hospital

Lorient sector
- Belle-Ile detention centre
- Fort Port-Louis
- Pontoons : La Pénélope, La Prudence, La Vengeance

Cherbourg sector
- Fort des iles Chausey
- Fort du Hommet
- Fort de l'ile Pelée
- Fort de l'ile Saint Marcouf
- Pontons : L'Arcole, Le Bayard, Le Calvados, La Garonne, Le Rhône, Le Tage, Tourville, Ville de Nantes
- Hospital ship l'Impétueuse

Brest sector 
- Fort Quelern
- Brest prison
- Pontoons : L'Aube, L'Austerlitz, Breslau, Le Duguay-Trouin, Le Fontenoy, L'Hermione, La Marne, Le Napoléon, Le Tilsitt, Ville de Bordeaux, Ville de Lyon, L'Yonne
- Hôpital maritime de Brest
- Hospital ship La Renommée
- Hospital ship La Souveraine
- Lazaret de Tréberon