Camarón 1863: Captain Danjou's Wooden Hand and the Legion's Oath

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

On April 30, 1863, during the French intervention in Mexico, a convoy of 60 wagons carrying siege guns, ammunition, and three million francs in gold was moving to reinforce the siege of Puebla. Warned of an ambush, the French Foreign Legion sent the 3rd Company of its 1st Battalion ahead, but sickness had left it without officers. Captain Jean Danjou, the battalion's adjutant major, volunteered to lead it, joined by Sub-Lieutenants Napoléon Vilain and Clément Maudet. With 62 legionnaires they set out at 1 a.m., stopped for coffee at Palo Verde, and by 8 a.m. had sighted Mexican cavalry. Colonel Francisco de Paula Milán committed roughly 2,000 men to destroy them before they could warn the convoy.

Danjou formed a hollow square to beat off cavalry charges, then took his men into the walled Hacienda de la Trinidad at Camarón, with no food or water, to pin the Mexican force in place. There he had them swear on his wooden prosthetic hand to fight to the death. He was shot in the chest around 11 a.m., Vilain fell at 2:30 p.m., and command passed to Maudet. Near 6 p.m., with five men left and no ammunition, the survivors fixed bayonets and charged. The convoy got through, and the Legion now parades the wooden hand every April 30.

• Danjou had lost his real hand in Algeria when his musket exploded, and had the wooden one made so he could stay in the army.
• Offered surrender by Captain Ramón Laine, Danjou replied that he had plenty of ammunition and would keep fighting.
• In the final charge, legionnaire Victor Catteau threw himself in front of Maudet to absorb the volley.
• Corporal Philippe Maine surrendered only on condition the last three men keep their weapons and Maudet receive treatment, prompting the line that these were not men but demons.
• The 65 legionnaires inflicted over 800 casualties, and Mexican soldiers passing the Camarón monument still salute it.