Battle of Camarón (Camerone)
Camarón de Tejeda, Veracruz, Mexico
What happened
A company of 65 French Foreign Legion soldiers under Captain Jean Danjou fought a Mexican force of about 2,000 under Colonel Francisco de Paula Milán. During the French intervention in Mexico, a small Foreign Legion company escorting a supply convoy was surrounded near the village of Camarón. The legionnaires took shelter in a farmhouse and held out for nearly eleven hours, refusing repeated calls to surrender. Danjou fell, and in the end the last few survivors were captured.
Why it matters
Why it matters: Mexico won the battle, but in France the stand became a symbol of discipline and sacrifice. The Foreign Legion still remembers it every year on 30 April, 'Camerone Day'.
What came next
Most of the captured legionnaires were freed in a prisoner exchange that July. France withdrew from Mexico a few years later.
Did you know?
Danjou had a wooden hand, after losing his own in an accident in 1853; it is now the Legion's most treasured relic and is carried in a parade every Camerone Day.
Timeline
- 5 May 1862Mexico defeats the French at Puebla.
- 30 April 1863The Battle of Camarón.
- 14 July 1863Most captured legionnaires are freed.
- 1892A monument is put up on the battlefield.
- 1964Mexico raises a monument to its soldiers in the village.