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Sidi Brahim, Camerone, Bazeilles. Three battles lost, all with the same dramatic structure: soldiers who choose to face death rather than capitulate and live! Several decades later, what was the deep-down intention, more or less conscious, that prompted outstanding leaders to choose battles such as these rather than victories to magnify and symbolise the soul of the chasseur, the legionnaire or the navy troops? Was it an attempt to mythicize the mission in the eyes of soldiers and leaders facing situations at the peak of their intensity and wondering : “Is it worth risking my life and that of my men?” How should we understand the recent transformation of the commemoration of these battles into spectacular, gigantic liturgies celebrating the soldier’s sacrifice like a Eucharist?