Henri Danette (1823-1865) was a French cavalry officer who served as a Mexican Army captain during the Franco-Mexican War. He was killed in the Battle of Veracruz in 1865.
Biography[]
Henri Danette was born in France in 1823, and he became a cavalry officer in the French Army and served in the Second Italian War of Independence before being sent to Mexico during the Franco-Mexican War. He was commissioned a captain in the Mexican Army, commanding Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico's Royal Lancers. In 1865, he was assigned by Marquis Henri de Labordere to escort the Countess Marie Duvarre's carriage from Mexico City to Veracruz, and he was forced to work with the American outlaws Joe Erin and Ben Trane, whom he had earlier failed to capture, and whom he disliked for Erin's excessive rudeness and Trane's gentlemanly character. While escorting the convoy, Danette once captured a Mexican rebel, whom he set free before ordering his lancers to compete to kill him. He later helped the Marquis switch the gold from the Countess' carriage to the supply wagon after the Marquis discovered that the Americans and the Countess intended to betray them, and he also helped defend Veracruz's garrison from Mauricio Ramirez's rebel army. During the ensuing battle, Danette was wounded by a grenade thrown by Trane, and Erin picked up Danette's lance and impaled the immobilized Danette through the neck while looking him in the eye and smiling at his enemy.
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