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 30th 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
OPPOSES A TOUTE UNE ARMEE
SA MASSE LES ECRASA
LA VIA PLUTOT QUE LE COURAGE
ABANDONNA CES SOLDATS FRANCAIS
LE 30 AVRIL 1863
HERE, THEY WERE LESS THAN SIXTY
AGAINST A WHOLE ARMY
ITS NUMBER CRUSHED THEM
BUT LIFE RATHER THAN BRAVERY
LEFT THESE FRENCH MEN
ON THE 30TH OF APRIL 1863.
TO THEIR MEMORY
THE COUNTRY BUILT THIS MONUMENT.
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.
