Battle of Camarón

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The Battle of Camarón (French: Bataille de Camerone) was a last stand engagement fought on 30 April 1863 between the French Foreign Legion and the Mexican Army, during the Second French intervention in Mexico (1861–1867). A small French detachment of 65 men, led by Captain Jean Danjou, was escorting a supply convoy when it was surrounded near the village of Camarón de Tejeda in Veracruz by a force of around 2,000 Mexican troops. Refusing repeated calls to surrender, the legionnaires made a determined defensive stand at the Hacienda Camarón, holding out for nearly eleven hours until they were either killed, wounded, or captured. Although a tactical defeat, the action became a celebrated episode in French military history. The disproportionate resistance, which resulted in over 800 Mexican casualties, was regarded in France as a moral victory and a symbol of discipline, sacrifice, and esprit de corps. Danjou, who was killed in action, became an enduring symbol of the Legion's values, and...

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