It’s been almost a year since I’ve posted one word on this blog. Honestly this is because what little hobby time I have available has all been devoted to working on the rather elaborate terrain for my November 6, 1879 Battle of Charasiab game, which I hope to complete in the near future, and whose consturction I’ve been intermittently chronicling over the passt few years over at http://maiwandday.blogspot.com.
But Camerone Day lives on.
Today and tonight at Legion posts around the world, the modern-day spiritual descendants of the Company Danjou will commemorate the incredible accomplishment of those fifty men in the Hacienda de la Trinidad, where they fought for ten-hours against a total of two-thousand enemy soldiers and guerrilla fighters. Despite all becoming casualties or prisoners, Company Danjou managed to accomplish their mission. By tying up that vast number of enemy troops for the entire day, they prevented the gold convoy they were supposed to escort from being ambushed and taken by those same enemy forces. If the Mexicans had one small field piece or mountain gun on hand or within reach, the battle would have gone very differently, but they didn’t. What Colonel Milan the Mexican commander and many of his officers and men did have, was an innate sense of decency, which led them to defend the handful of Legion survivors from the rage of their Mexican comrades, and treat them as honorable prisoners of war.
In honor of the memory of those men of the French Foreign Regiment (the Legion’s official title back in 1863) as well their Mexican foes, both of whom stayed true to their missions despite almost unimaginable pain and suffering, I post these pics from the 150th Anniversary game we played on April 30th, 2013…
