TMA6008
Team Miniatures
He has mid-brown hair, moustache and mouche, and brown eyes, and his articulated wooden left hand enclosed in a white glove.
When the Legion moved to France, Capitain Danjou's wooden hand was taken to Aubagne where it remains in the Legion Museum of Memory. The hand is the most cherished artifact in Legion history and the prestige and honor granted to a Legionnaire to carry it on parade in its protective case is among the greatest bestowed on a Legionnaire.
April 30th is celebrated as "Camerone Day," an important day for the Legionnaires, when the wooden prosthetic hand of Capitaine Danjou is brought out for display.
The Battle of Camarón which occurred over ten hours on April 30, 1863 between the Foreign Legion of the French Army and the Mexican army, is regarded as a defining moment in the Foreign Legion's history.
A small infantry patrol, led by Captain Jean Danjou and Lieutenants Clément Maudet and Jean Vilain, numbering just 65 men was attacked and besieged by a force that may have eventually reached 3,000 Mexican infantry and cavalry, and was forced to make a defensive stand at the nearby Hacienda Camarón, in Camarón de Tejeda, Veracruz, Mexico.
The conduct of the Legion, who overwhelmingly outnumbered, refused to surrender, killing and injuring hundreds of enemy troops before finally succumbing, led to a certain mystique, and the battle of Camarón became synonymous with bravery and a fight-to-the-death attitude.