The other interesting incident for our period is the defence of the chateau during the Battle of Paris 1814 (an event that is often ignored by historians or quickly glossed over). General Daumesnil, who had lost a leg at Wagram 1809, held the chateau with a garrison of at least 300 men. Although the Allies had a vast army for their attack on Paris, they took one look at the chateau and deemed it too tough a nut to crack. Previously Napoleon had reduced the height of the curtain wall towers to adapt them for modern artillery and made the chateau an arsenal.

It lay on the extreme right of the French defensive line and, since the Allies wanted the munitions held within, they offered Daumesnil generous surrender terms. Indicating his wooden prosthesis he famously responded 'I will surrender the castle when you return me my leg.' Subsequently the Allies simply masked the chateau but Daumesnil refused to surrender the fortress until he received a direct order from Louis XVIII to do so. There is a statue before Vincennes Hotel de Ville (town hall) of Daumesnil pointing to his wooden leg and delivering his defiant words. It is an unusual statue and well worth photographing.

What make Vincennes a hard nut to crack was that it was a major ammunition fabric with an huge powder reserve, collected by Dausmenil. And the allied siege artilery was far away.

Another anecdote about Dausmenil : in 1815, he was again in charge, again besieged, but this time the Allies tried to threaten him : "Surrender or we will blow you up". Dausmenil, showing the powder reserve : "I will start, and we will meet in the air". Then they tried briderry : "My refusal will be the dowry of my children".