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French Foreign Legionnaire, Third Company, First Battalion, Camerone, Mexico, April 30, 1863 This is a work-in-progress. The objective is a 2 figure diorama depicting Captain Danjou and a legionaire. |
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Thinking that the US was too occupied with the Civil War to mount any opposition, Napoleon III, Emperor of France, set about establishing a French colony in Mexico and sent the puppet-ruler Austrian Archduke Maximillian, to the country in 1863. French troops of the French Expeditionary Force had been in action as early as May 1862, first sent to Mexico to protect French interests from the threat of the expansionist policies of the US. This was at a time when several European nations were embroiled in the chaotic affairs of the region. The Legion was at first disappointed and then incensed that it was apparently not wanted in the new arena. In a move that might have been regarded as mutiny in another force, the junior officers of the Legion, with the tacit approval of their seniors, collectively addressed a petition direct to the Emperor of France asking that the Legion be allowed to go and fight in Mexico. They were not to know that the French Government had very nearly decided to give the Legion to Maximillian as it had given the earlier one to Spain. The ruse of having the petition signed only by the juniors did not deceive the French generals; they sacked the Legion colonel, Butet, and punished all the senior officers in one way or another - but the Legion, two battalions strong, was sent to Mexico. Its colonel was now Jeanningros, an efficient veteran of thirty years' service, including the battle of Moulay-Ishmael, Algeria. The Legion after landing at Vera Cruz on 28 March, found a cruel disillusion awaiting them. The regiment had expected to march inland to Puebla, the major Juarist centre, which the French had placed under siege. Instead, to its bitter disappointment, it was given the thankless duty of escort and convoy duty in the eastern section. This was low, swampy land, rife with hideous diseases such as yellow fever, cholera and typhus. This was soldiering without any frills and, apart from the incessant threat of guerilla sniping, without real action. On 29 April, just a month after the disembarkation, colonel Jeanningros was informed that an important road convoy was leaving Vera Cruz for Puebla. Apart from three million francs in gold, rations and ammunition, the convoy included essential seige equipment whose arrival was vital to the outcome of the siege of Puebla, which had been dragging on for a year. Colonel Jenningros decided to send a company of Legionnaires down towards the coast to meet the convoy on its way. The escort, the Third Company of the First Battalion of the Foreign Legion, started from Veracruz on April 30th, 1863 in order to meet the convoy. The only company available, it was ravaged by yellow fever and could muster only 62 NCOs and men on parade, all its officers laid low by sickness. Three other officers volunteered for duty - Captain Danjou the battalion adjutant, Lieutenant Vilain the pay officer and Second Lieutenant Maudet. They were a formidable trio. Danjou had been with the Legion for several years, serving with distinction in Algeria, Crimea and Italy. In the Crimea he had lost his left hand and now wore a wooden one in its place. Vilain and Maudet were apparently French, though they had enlisted as other nationalities. (As Frenchmen were not allowed to join the Legion, instead they posed as Belgians or Swiss.) They had come up through the ranks, had fought with efficiency and courage and had been commissioned because of their conduct at Magenta. These were the officers in command of the company of sixty-two sous-officers and legionnaires, Polish, Italian, German and Spanish. Mexican Intelligence was good, but even poor spies would have soon heard news of a bullion convoy. The local Mexican military leader, Colonel Milan, assembled two thousand troops - calvary and infantry - to intercept and capture it. He anticipated no great difficulty, especially as his calvary were efficient and armed with Remington and Winchester repeating rifles. Early on 30th April the 3rd Company started well ahead of the bullion train to check that the route was clear, and at 2:30 a.m. called at a Legion defensive post at a spot called Paso del Macho along the corridor. Here the company commander was appalled at the smallness of the escort and offered Danjou a platoon as reinforcement. Danjou refused and moved on, with himself in the centre together with the ration and ammunition mules and the company in two wings, about 200 yards apart. Behind was a small rearguard section. Danjou had no scouts out, though as the Legion had no horsemen, infantry scouts would have seen very little. Trailing the company at a distance were six hundred Juarist cavalry, led by Colonel Francisco de Paula-Milan. Just around 5 a.m. the 3rd Company passed through the abandoned hamlet of Camaron, or Camerone as the French call it. It consisted of no more than a farmhouse and outbuildings enclosed in a courtyard and some derelict huts near by. A mile out of Camerone, Danjou halted for breakfast and posted some sentries while water was boiled for coffee. It was the time of day legionnaires liked best. Unfortunately, they were never to taste it. Almost at once, the sentries gave the alarm - they had spotted the advance guard of the Cotaxala calvary of Don Hilario Psario, who had been dogging their tracks since the middle of the night. Danjou's bugler sounded the call to arms and the legionnaires formed a square. They had only one natural advantage in that open country; scattered profusely were clumps of tropical vegetation and waist-high grass; something of a barrier for horsemen. Colonel Milan, watching from a distance, decided that the fate of the 3rd Company was sealed, it would have to be wiped out for there was to be no witnesses to the ambush he had carefully prepared for the convoy. And if it was to be destroyed, it was vital to attack before it could reach the shelter of Camerone. Eight hundred horsemen charged straight into the attack. Steady volleys from their Minie single-shot rifles kept the Mexicans back. Colonel Milan, not risking a charge, maneuvered his men to surround the Legion company. Danjou ordered a steady withdrawal to the only cover available - the farm house at Camerone. But the loss of his ration and ammunition mules which had galloped off in fright was a serious blow. Now in smaller groups the Mexican calvary circled the Legion company as it moved, hung tightly and harassed the men with sniping fire. Danjou warily moved his men through the thickest of the country to give the Mexicans no chance to charge. Twice he halted and fired a volley, which emptied some saddles. But the horsemen had managed to cut off sixteen legionnaires, and when he reached the farmhouse, Danjou had only forty-six men, a few of them wounded. Even worse, he found that some Mexicans had reached the place before him and now held the upper floor and a barn in a corner of the courtyard. In was an impossible position, but Danjou was a veteran legionnaire and accustomed to impossible situations. He ordered barricades across the openings and even managed to set up a perimeter defence against the walls and sheds, though much of the courtyard was exposed to fire from the Mexicans on the top floor and Danjou could do nothing to get at these men. The calvary dismounted and tried several rushes, but the legionnaires beat them off. By 9 a.m. the sun was hot and Colonel Milan sent in an officer, Lieutenant Ramon Lainé with a demand for honorable surrender. Danjou refused, and Mexican assaults began almost at once, with the first assault by dismounted Mexican cavalry driven off by the Legionnaires. But Captain Danjou was mortally wounded at 11 a.m. when he was hit by a musket-ball fired by a sniper, probably from the barn. Shortly before he died, he made his men vow that they would not surrender, but would fight to the death if they must. The Legionnaires gave him their word. Lieutenant Vilain took command and the defence was as steady as ever, but his thoughts when he saw the arrival of the Mexican infantry - 1,200 men - can only be imagined. The firepower directed at the farmhouse was very heavy. The day became hotter and hotter and the legionnaires had no fluid other than in their water bottles and wine flasks. Colonel Milan once again offered the French the chance to surrender and received the single short but expressive answer of "Merde!" Vilain's command was valiant until he too fell - a bullet hit him about 2 p.m. Second Lieutenant Maudet, himself handling a rifle, now rallied the survivors. Waves of attackers tried to swamp the defence, but the disciplined Legion fire stopped every one of them. From time to time a legionnaire would cross the bullet-swept courtyard to help a wounded comrade. The Mexicans set fire to straw near the courtyard walls and the afternoon became a stifling agony for Maudet's men. By 5 p.m. he counted twelve men who could stand on their feet, though some could only do so by leaning against the wall. The sweltering heat drove them in desperation to drink their own urine and blood to keep from dying of thirst. The Mexicans ceased firing, and from their loopholes, the French could hear Milan haranguing his men, calling down shame upon them that two thousand attackers had not yet managed to silence such a pitiful handful of defenders. Then, with trumpets blaring and drums beating, a massive Mexican rush pulled Lieutenant Maudet and his small band out of the farmhouse and into the only shelter left - a few outhouses. By 6 p.m. Maudet had five men alive - Corporals Maine and Berg, Legionnaires Constantin, Leonard and Wensel. Collectively they had only a handful of ammunition. The approach on night could not help; it meant inevitable defeat. There are two versions of what happened next; it hardly matters which is the correct one, for both are incredible. By the other account Maudet fell badly wounded and two of his men were killed as the tiny band withdrew from room to room until they could go no farther. Then, dazed, shocked and deafened they stood shoulder to shoulder against a wall, their bayonets held at guard. Certainly, Maudet was badly wounded and two men died. Corporals Maine and Berg and Legionnaire Wensel, a Pole, survived. The Mexicans could hardly force themselves to kill these three men, but were about to go through the formality when a colonel, Combas, sabre in hand, forced his way through and held back his men. "Surely, you have to surrender now," he said to the legionnaires. Corporal Maine, glancing at his two comrades to check he was the senior survivor, said, "We will surrender if you leave us our arms and permit us to tend our wounded." Combas replied, "I can refuse nothing to men like you" and escorted the three to Colonel Milan. "This is all that is left?" the Colonel exclaimed. "Then these are not men, but demons!" From a prison cell, Corporal Berg smuggled a note out to his colonel. It ended with the words, "The 3rd Company is no more, but I must tell you it contained nothing but good soldiers." Berg was commissioned on his return from captivity - the Camerone prisoners were exchanged on a one-for-one basis - and continued an already extraordinary career. He had been an officer in the French Regular Army and had fought in Algeria and Syria but was cashiered and joined the Legion as a private. Returning to Algeria after Mexican service he was killed in a duel with a fellow subaltern. Corporal Maine was also commissioned and became a captain. The other survivors were all honoured: Wensel, Schaffner, Fritz, Pinzinger and Brunswick were made Chevaliers of the Legion of Honour. Magnin, Palmaert, Kunassec, Schreiblick, Rebares and Groski received the Military Medal. The Mexicans had killed 3 officers and 23 legionnaires; they had lost 300 of their own troops killed and possibly as many as 500 wounded. And they did not capture the bullion. Danjou's forethought in having it follow at a safe distance paid off; hearing the firing, the convoy halted until joined by Colonel Jeanningros and a relief force. Jeanningros reached Camerone next day and took in the scene with astonishment. He was even more astounded when his men discovered a single living legionnaire under the dead; this man had eight wounds and the Mexicans had left him for dead. He was able to give a coherent account of the action and is believed to have survived. It was noted that one survivor, drummer Lai, pulled himself out from a mound of dead comrades to tell the tale. Even more important for Legion tradition, Captain Danjou's wooden hand was found in the ruins of Camerone and taken away to become the Legion's most prized possession - a sacred relic. Camerone Day became the Legion's ritual occasion, and it is celebrated with all the pomp and ceremony that the Legion can give it. Danjou's hand is paraded before the 1st Regiment at the base depot and the account of the battle is read to every Legion unit each Camerone Day. The ashes of the Camerone dead are preserved in a reliquary carved as the Mexican eagle and are held in rotation in the chapel of each Legion regiment. The Mexican eagle became the badge of the 1st Regiment. Throughout their occupation of Mexico all French troops were ordered to halt when passing the farmhouse at Camerone and to present arms. The Mexicans were not so anxious to preserve the epic of Camerone and went to some trouble to reroute a railway line through the courtyard where so many of their men were killed. But they did leave part of the original wall, and in 1892 they permitted the French to erect a memorial with Latin and French inscriptions: "Here there were less than sixty opposed to a whole army. Its mass crushed them. Life abandoned these French soldiers before courage. The 30th of April 1863." Later a bigger monument was erected, and in 1963 the French Army flew a large Legion contingent to Camerone for a centenary commemoration service. The word "Camerone" is inscribed in gold on the walls of Les Invalides in Paris. Danjou's wooden hand rests in the Legion Hall of Honour in Aubagne. In memory of this historic battle, today, when there is no more ammunition left and all hope seems to be gone, the legionnaires motivate themselves to “faire Camerone” and fight to the last man. Creating the figure My Camerone Foreign Legionnaire is a quick Sideshow kitbash. The CSA kepi is modified at the front of the crown to have some height, I had to lop off some of the front in order to do this, after which I added some air-dried sculpting clay. The kepi/havelock was then painted matt white. The sun shade was sewn from white fabric. There is a possiblity that the sun shade was an integral part of the kepi cover (a havelock?) rather than being a separate item. The tunic is from the Sideshow Civil War accessory sets, this is the shell jacket from the Union Army 88th NY Regiment carded set. The blue piping was repainted dark bluish black and the entire tunic quick-dyed in black dye. The pants were from the Sideshow CSA trumpeter, it was double-bleached to a very light cream colour. The gaiters were also from the Sideshow 88th NY Regiment carded set, it was stripped of the strapings and brown threading and used reversed (Heavens forbid!). The elastic should be replaced with white coloured ones and reattached to the front bottom of the gaiters. The haversack was taken from the WW1 French infantryman set, the canteen scratchbuilt from sculpty with the black strap taken from the Sideshow Ulysses S. Grant binocular container. The cummerbund was sewn from a strip of blue fabric while the fringed epaulettes and shoulder boards were scratchbuilt from pieces of card and red tassle to depict a grenadier. A new leather attachment was created to hold the bayonet holder in a vertical position, this was painted black as were the front and back ammo pouches which were made of balsa wood and leather. The French Minie (which bears some resemblance to the Enfield) was substituted by an Enfield for the time being. The figure is the Sideshow WW1 American Marine. Peublo mud/stone ruins are made entirely out of styroform and wall plaster.
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