Free Amazing Tales for Making Men Out of Boys by Neil Oliver Page A

the faces of his comrades for the last time, taking in every detail. Their future was simple. They’d already been through the ammunition pouches of the fallen and had just one round apiece.
    “Load your weapons,” ordered Maudet.
    He looked toward the shattered doorway through which they had come and through which he planned to leave, for good or ill.
    “On my command, fire,” he said. “Then follow me and we’ll finish this with our bayonets.”
    With Maudet leading the way, the survivors plunged headlong into legend. Their lieutenant fell, mortally wounded.
    The firing stopped. The Mexicans pressed forward and, as the smoke of gunfire cleared, in one corner of the courtyard stood the last three defenders of Hacienda Camarón. Their ammunition was spent and they were standing shoulder-to-shoulder, muskets raised and bayonets fixed. The attackers were moving forward as one, ready to finish the job, when an officer’s voice ordered them to halt. It was a Mexican colonel named Combas, and with saber in hand he shouldered his way through the encircling soldiers until he could see with his own eyes who it was that had defied them for so long.
    When he saw the trio standing firm—Corporal Berg, Corporal Maine and Legionnaire Wensel—he asked of them, “Surely you must surrender now?”
    It was Corporal Maine who replied, having first glanced left and right to check that he was the senior of the surviving men.
    “If we may keep our arms and tend our wounded, then we will surrender,” he said.
    “To men such as you,” said Combas, “one may refuse nothing.”
    And so it was that the three were brought before the Mexican commander, Colonel Milan. On hearing what had happened in those last hours and minutes and moments he said, “ Pero, non son hombres—son demonios! ” Truly, these are not men, these are demons!
    Picking their way back through the buildings of Camarón, the Mexicans found a few more men of the 3rd Company still alive and, true to their word, saw to it that those wounded defenders were well treated.
    All were imprisoned, but eventually returned to the Legion in exchange for Mexican prisoners taken elsewhere. While still incarcerated, Corporal Berg managed to get a message back to Jeanningros. Among other things he informed his commander, “The 3rd Company is no more, but I must tell you it contained nothing but good soldiers.”
    On release from his Mexican prison cell, Berg was commissioned and fought in other wars in other places—before dying in Algeria in a duel with a fellow officer. Corporal Maine rose up through the ranks too, finishing his army career as a captain.
    In their defense of the Hacienda Camarón the men of the 3rd Company lost three officers and 23 Legionnaires. The Mexican Army lost 300 men and saw a further 500 or more wounded. They never did capture the convoy—by leaving it to follow two hours behind him Danjou had ensured it was in a place of safety when the fighting started. The wagons carrying the gold simply waited on the road until they could be collected by a relief force sent out by Jeanningros.
    The city of Puebla fell to the French on May 17, followed by Mexico City itself on June 7. A year later, on June 12, Emperor Maximilian and Empress Carlota entered Mexico City in triumph.
    Thereafter the story was a less than happy one for the French occupation. Distracted by its own civil war, the United States of America had had no option but to turn a reluctantly blind eye to events unfolding in the lands of its southern neighbor. President Abraham Lincoln had made it known that he supported the Mexican Republicans opposed to France, but was unable to send any help.
    Following his assassination on April 14, 1865, Lincoln was succeeded by his Vice President, Andrew Johnson. Immediately after the end of the war, Johnson sent General Ulysses S. Grant to the Mexican border at the head of an army 50,000 strong. The message was clear and unequivocal—France was to withdraw