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On
the
29th April 1863 Colonel Jeanningros asked Captain Danjou to organize a
company as escort to a major convoy leaving Vera-Cruz for Puebla. It was
the 3rd Company’s duty tour but, noting that all its officers were
sick, Danjou proposed that he should command it. To assist him in his
task, he took the standard bearer, Second Lieutenant Maudet, and the
paymaster, Second Lieutenant Vilain. The
column left at one o’clock in the morning on 29th April, intending
initially to reach Palo Verde. Meanwhile the Mexicans, having learnt of
the passage of the convoy, organized a force of 800 cavalry and three
battalions of infantry-about 2,000 all told- to attack it. At
about 5.00 Danjou’s company stopped for a brief halt and, having
posted sentries, set about making a morning coffee, which was well under
way when sentries announced approaching cavalry. In seconds the coffee
was thrown away, the mules were re-loaded and the company was moving to
the outskirts of the village of Camerone –whence rang out the first
shot of the battle, that of a nervous Mexican sentry. The first cavalry
charge quickly followed and was as quickly broken up and repulsed by
well-controlled fire and by the use of the thick scrub into which Danjou
had moved his force. In the hubbub the mules took fright, broke loose
and disappeared with the rations, water and spare ammunition. The
sixty-five strong company had about sixty rounds each. Danjou decided to
stand and fight and engage the enemy, thus distracting their attention
from the valuable convoy, and rapidly moved his force to a defensive
position in the nearby hacienda, where they were to hold for the next
ten hours. By nine o’clock the sun was already high, the legionnaires
had no water, no food. Colonel Milian commanding the Mexicans called on
the legionnaires to surrender, they replied that they had ammunition and
had no intention of surrendering. The
legionnaires promised Danjou that, come what may, they would fight to
the bitter end. He was killed at about eleven o’clock. At this moment,
the three battalions of Mexican infantry arrived on the scene, and again
the legionnaires were called upon to surrender. They replied "Merde"
(shit). The situation worsened, the Mexicans had broken into various
rooms of the hacienda and having killed the legionnaire occupants, had
set fire to the rooms. For the wounded, intense heat, dust, smoke and no
water. The battle continued- Vilain was killed just before 2p.m and
Maudet took command, but by five o’clock he had only twelve men in a
state to fight. Again
Milian called on the legionnaires to surrender-they did not deign to
reply-and a fresh attack was launched against them: Maudet was by now
alone with a corporal (Maine) and four legionnaires (Leonhard, Catteau,
Wenzel and Constantin). Their
cartonchieres were empty-they fired a final salvo and leaving their
shelter charged the Mexicans with their bayonets-all fell before
reaching them. Maudet received two bullets. Legionnaire Catteau, who had
thrown himself in front of his officer to protect him, was hit nineteen
times. They were the last. It was 6p.m the battle was over. Maine,
Wenzel and Constantin, although wounded, were still standing. Of the
sixty-five strong company, two officers and twenty-two legionnaires were
dead, one officer and eight men mortally wounded and nineteen soon died
of their wounds in captivity: twelve others, all wounded, were captured.
When
Maine, Wenzel and Constantin were called upon to surrender, they said
that they would not do so unless they were allowed to keep their arms
and tend the wounded; Colonel Milan said, One can refuse nothing to men
like you. The
Mexicans lost more than 500. The Emperor Napoleon III had the title
"Camerone 1863" inscribed on the banners of the 1st Regiment;
and in 1892 on the site of the battle (Since then, when Mexican troops
pass by the monument, they present arms), a monument was raised on which
is inscribed: ILS
FURENT ICI MOINS DE SOIXANTE HERE,
THEY WERE LESS THAN SIXTY TO
THEIR MEMORY Emperor
Napoleon the 3rd decided that the name of Camerone would be written on
the flag of the Foreign Regiment and the names of Danjou, Vilain and
Maudet would be engraved in golden letters on the walls of the Invalides,
in Paris. Each
year on the 30th April every unit of the French Foreign Legion
celebrates the anniversary of Camerone. At Aubagne the Legion
headquarters the false wooden hand of Captaine Danjou, which was
recovered from the battleground is parade in a grande ceremony. Should
a Legionnaire find himself in prison during Camerone, then a Legion
tradition may come into force, giving him a reprieve, only however if
there is less than ten days remaining on the sentence on Camerone Day.
It is know as an amnesty in remembrance to those Legionnaires who
sacrificed their lives at Camerone in Mexico in 1863. |
