The
pictures of my amateur website:
"livres-legion-etrangere"
are pulled out of my books and
of "Kepis Blanc"
( Formal monthly magazine
of the French
Foreign Legion)
Camerone
:
The
official account of the combat of CAMERONE:
The
French Army Besieged Puebla.
The Legion had
the role of ensuring, on a hundred and twenty kilometers, the circulation
and the safety of the convoys. Colonel JEANNINGROS, which ordered,
learns, April 29, 1863, which a large convoy carrying three million
into numerary, of the material of seat and the ammunition was on
the way for
Puebla. Captain DANJOU, his executive officer, decided it to send
to the front of the convoy a company. The 3rd company of the foreign
Regiment was indicated but it did not have officers available. The
Danjou captain takes itself of it the command and second lieutenants
MAUDET, carry-flag, and
UNPLEASANT, payer, voluntarily joingnent themselves with him.
April 30, at 1 o'clock in the morning, the 3rd company, strong of
three officers and sixty two men, gets under way.
It had traversed approximately 20 kilometers, when, at 7 o'clock in
the morning, it stops in Palo-Verde to make the coffee.
At this time, the enemy reveals himself and the combat engages at
once.
The Danjou captain makes form the square and, while beating a retreat,
victoriously pushes back several loads of cavalry by
inflicting to the enemy severe losses.
Arrived at height of the inn of Camerone, vast masonry comprising
a court surrounded by a three height meters wall, it decides to be
cut off there to fix the enemy and to delay the moment thus as much
as possible when this one will be able to attack the convoy.
While the men organize with haste the defense of this inn, a Mexican
officer, putting forward the large superiority of the number, summons
the Danjou captain to go. This one made answer: "We have cartridges
and we do not return". Then, raising the hand, it the Jura to
defend oneself until death and made lend to its men the same oath.
It was ten hours. Up to 6 hours of the evening, these sixty men, who
had not eaten nor not drunk since the day before, in spite of extreme
heat, the hunger, thirst, resist to two thousand Mexicans: eight hundred
riders, thousand two hundred infantrymen.
At
midday, the Danjou captain is killed out of a ball in full chest.
At 2 hours, the Vilain second lieutenant falls, struck of a ball to
the face. At this time, the Mexican colonel succeeds in putting fire
at the inn.
In spite of the heat and the smoke which come to increase their sufferings,
the légionaries hold good but a number of them are struck.
At 5 hours, around the Maudet second lieutenant, remain only twelve
statesmen to fight.
At this time, the Mexican colonel gathers his men and says to them
from which shame they will be covered if they do not manage to cut
down this handle of brave men (a légionary which includes/understands
Spanish progressively translated his words).
The Mexicans will give the general attack by breaches which they succeeded
in opening, but before, colonel MILAN still addresses a summation
to the Maudet second lieutenant; this one pushes back it with contempt.
The final attack is given. Soon, it remains around Maudet only five
men: the MAINE corporal, légionaries CATTEAU, WENSEL, CONSTANTIN,
LEONARD. Each one keeps a cartridge: they have the bayonet with the
gun and, taken
refuge in a corner of the court, the back with
the wall, they face: with a signal, they discharge their rifles with
bearing end on the enemy and precipitate on him with the bayonet.
Under lieutenant Maudet and two légionaries fall, struck with
death.
Maine
and its two comrades will be massacred when a Mexican officer precipitates
on them and saves them; it shouts to them: "Go! ". - "We
will go if you promise to us to raise and to look after our casualties
and if you leave us our weapons". Their bayonets remain menaçantes.
"One does not refuse anything with men like you! "the officer
answers.
The sixty men of the Danjou Captain held until the end their oath;
during eleven hours, they resisted to two thousand enemies, three
hundreds killed some and wounded as much.
They have, by their sacrifice, by saving the convoy, fulfilled the
mission which had been entrusted to them.
The emperor Napoleon III decided that the name of Camerone would be
registered on the flag of the foreign Regiment and that, moreover,
the names of Danjou, Vilain and Maudet would be engraved in gold letters
on the walls of the Invalids in Paris.
Moreover, a monument was high in 1892 on the site of the combat. It
carries the inscription:
"THEY WERE HERE LESS THAN SIXTY
OPPOSE A WHOLE ARMEE
SA MASSES CRUSHED THEM
LIFE RATHER THAN COURAGE
GAVE UP THESE FRENCH SOLDIERS
APRIL 30, 1863
With THEIR MEMORY The FATHERLAND RAISED EC MONUMENT".
Since then, when the Mexican troops pass in front of the monument,
they
present the weapons.
Le sous-lieutenant
MAUDET,
34 ans.
Le capitaine
DANJOU,
35 ans
Le sous-lieutenant
VILAIN,
27 ans
Le colonel MILAN,
cdt les troupes mexicaines à CAMERONE
according to "the combat of Camerone"
April 30, 1863. Gouaches original of
Daniel LORDEY, Painter of the Armies, for the Institution of the Invalids
of
the Foreign Legion, illustration of the official account of the combat.
Printed on the presses of "White Kepi" (the monthly magazine
of the Foreign
Legion).
Portraits of the Danjou Captain, the Second lieutenants Maudet and
Vilain
and Cnl Milan.
Some covers of books on Camerone. (personal collection)
French version
