I was walking through Belgium when the war started. Things began to
get hot and I went over to Paris. It was there that I enlisted in the
Foreign Legion.
Why did I do it?
Well, I'm not going to pull anything about wanting to rescue France, or
being fired by the flame of liberty or anything like that. They asked a
negro prizefighter--an American--the same thing. He ruefully regarded
the many bandages that adorned his more or less mangled body, and said:
"Well, sah, I guess mah curiosity got de best ob mah good sense."
Looking back on it, he answered for me, too.
As soon as I enlisted I became a number. It was No. 38,606, and I
think that when we started to fight there were about 65,000 men in the
legion. I don't know how many there are now. I do know that regiments
have been so decimated that they were consolidated. You must not
think of a regiment of the legion, however, as you do of an American
regiment with a fixed number of men. I have seen Zouave regiments with
43 companies and about 240 men in each company.
I was assigned to the First regiment of the legion, where there were
a number of other Americans, about whom I will tell you later. If the
Americans had all enlisted at about the same time probably they would
have had a separate regiment, but as they came in separately they were
scattered throughout the legion.
They sent us down to Lyons for about a month of training, which was
a lot more than was given at first. Some of the men practically got
uniforms and then went into the trenches. I knew a French sergeant
whose brother enlisted and was killed ten days later.
At Lyons wounded officers and non-coms, taught us soldiering without
an interpreter. All the commands were given in French, and the drill
masters executed them as they gave them. Lots of the boys didn't know
a word of French, but they soon learned to execute all the movements,
commence firing, cease firing, rush and retire, to the French commands.
That was all the officers cared about. All we needed was to be able to
fight in French.