France // Foreign Legion - Capt. Danjou / Souvenir
Overse: On vertical bi-color of green and red, an image of Capt. Danjou in unifrom, inscribed with the words "DOMAINE" above, and "CAPITAINE DANJOU"
Reverse:On a vertical bi-color of red and green, an image of the Flaming Bomb insignia of the French Foreign Legion, above the words "INSTITUTION DES INVALIDES", and below LEGION ETRANGERE"
This is a French Foreign Legion commemorative pennant for Capt. Danjou, one of the most revered and ledendary officers of the French Foreign Legion.
It has always been the Legion's perverse pride that in defeat comes triumph. On April 30, 1863, a company of 62 NCOs and men under the command of Capt. Danjou, on a routine mission near Camerone, Mexico, found themselves under attack by a force of some 2000 Juaristas. Danjou's men fell back into two ruined farmhouses. After several hours' siege, Mexican Col. Milan offered Danjou a chance to surrender. Danjou replied, "Merde."
By 5 p.m. only 12 Legionnaires were alive. They had no food or water and little ammunition. The sweltering heat drove them in desperation to drink their own urine and blood to keep from dying of thirst. The Mexicans, feeling a bit silly that 2000 of them were having such trouble with a mere handful of the enemy, attacked. There was a flurry of hand to hand combat and seven Legionnaires died. Faced with annihilation, the five Legionnaires still standing did something that entirely justifies the aura of romanticism that has grown up around the Legion: they fixed bayonets and charged. Two were killed and the other three survived only through the intervention of Mexican Col. Combas, who demanded that his men cease fire and pleaded with the Legionnaires to surrender. The last Legion officer, Cpl. Maine, replied that they would only give up under the conditions that they are allowed to keep their weapons and that their wounded would be cared for. Combas replied, "I can refuse nothing to men like you." Combas escorted the three to Col. Milan. "This is all that is left?" he exclaimed. "Then these are not men, but demons!"
Each year, in every unit of the French Foreign Legion, the battle of Camerone is celebrated on April 30. Capt. Danjou's wooden hand is paraded before the troops at Aubagne as the Legion's most sacred relic.
Purchased at an antique shop in Paris, France in 1998, by Ben Zaricor.
See ZFC0533 - French Foreign Legion - 6th Rgt.
ZFC0537 - French Foreign Legion - 2nd Rgt.
ZFC Noteworthy Flag
Item is Framed
