886 their King, Charles le Gros had a bodyguard of foreigners: an
example followed by St. Louis in the year 1226. In the protracted wars
between France and England in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
these mercenaries formed the major part of both armies.
The last mercenaries used by England were twenty-two thousand Hessians
hired from the landgrave Frederick II of Hesse-Casse, Prussia, and for
whom they paid about £3,191,000, or $16,000,000, to assist in the war
against the American colonies. These were the troops that Washington so
decisively defeated at Trenton on Christmas night, 1776.
The Foreign Legion continued under all the French rulers, and Napoleon
frequently acknowledged their great worth to him.
After the Napoleonic wars the Legion was known as The Royal Foreign
Legion. In 1831 a new law was enacted reorganizing the Legion and
establishing its headquarters in Algeria. In 1835 the Legion was the
subject of one of the most remarkable transactions in history; it was
sold by King Louis Philippe to Queen Maria Christina of Spain for a sum
equal to about one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars, being the
estimated value of its arms, uniforms and equipment.
The Legion proceeded to Spain landing at Tarragona, four thousand
strong; it fought valiantly for four years in the first Carlist war, and
when that war ended in the early part of 1839 only five hundred
Légionnaires survived.
Within a few weeks after the old Legion landed in Spain, a new Legion
was organized by France and sent to Algeria, where it did most effective
work.
In the Crimea war the Legion was part of Canrobert’s division at the
battle of the Alma; and during the siege of Sevastopol it was repeatedly
mentioned in reports for its brave and successful efforts. In this
campaign the Legion lost eighteen hundred officers and men, and as a
reward for their gallantry the Emperor gave the Légionnaires the right
to become French citizens should they desire to.
The Legion was part of Maximilian’s forces in Mexico and on April 30th,
1863, near the village of Camaron, a detachment of three officers and
sixty-five Légionnaires held at bay two thousand Mexican cavalry for ten
hours, when the survivors numbering only twenty were captured. As a
reward the word “Camaron” is inscribed on the colors of the First
Regiment.
Four thousand two hundred and thirty-seven officers and men of the
Legion died in Mexico.
In the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 the Legion performed remarkable
services as a rear guard, to cover the retreat of the French army.
The Legion in time of peace consists of two regiments, the _Premier_ or
First, and _Deuxième_ or Second, they being kept separate and distinct.
The headquarters of the First Regiment is at Sidi-Bel-Abbés which is in
the northwestern part of Algeria, forty-eight miles inland by rail from
Oran, a port on the Mediterranean. The headquarters of the Second
Regiment is at Saida, also in Algeria.
The First Regiment has the great distinction of having had its flag
decorated with the Cross of the Legion of Honor, only ten regiments of
the three hundred and odd composing all branches of the French army
having this great honor. It is the boast of its soldiers that “the
Legion of Honor dwells with us.”
This regiment’s flag carries the motto
“Honneur et Discipline”;
the flags in the other regiments of the French army hear the motto
“Honneur et Patrie.”
So these wanderers from all countries, after enlistment are without a
country.
At the beginning of the present war these two regiments were mobilized,
and there being a large number of volunteers, each regiment was divided
into four regiments and designated as _régiments de Marche_, or marching
regiments. Each _régiment de Marche_ was divided into four battalions,
being known as A, B, C and D; a battalion consisted of four companies;
each company of four sections; each section of four squads, and there
were sixteen men to a squad. This arrangement accounts for four thousand
and ninety-six men, and as there were additional officers and attachés,
a full _Régiment de Marche_ was frequently composed of as many as four
thousand four hundred men.
The four _régiments de Marche_ of the First _Régiment étrangère_ were,
therefore, about seventeen thousand strong.
The Second _Régiment étrangère_ was, in the same way, divided into four
_régiments de Marche_, and was of the same numerical strength as the
First _Régiment étrangère_. Hence, the Foreign Legion in April and May,
1915, when its ranks were full, consisted of about thirty-four thousand
troops.
The First _Régiment de Marche_ of the First _Régiment étrangère_ was
composed mostly of Garibaldians, the second of Swedes, Spaniards,
Russians, Canadians, English, Americans, and others, while the third and
fourth were mostly Greeks.
The designation of Russell A. Kelly was as follows:
Soldat KELLY, Russell. No. 24641
1 Régiment étrangère
2 Régiment de Marche
Battalion B
2 Compagnie
4 Section
15 Escouade
The Légionnaires who survived the battle of June 16th, 1915, being very
few in number, were assigned some weeks later to the Second foreign
regiment, then located in the Champagne district, to the east of Rheims.
On September 25th, that regiment took part in a very severe attack on
the German lines between Souain and Perthes-le-Hurlus, about
twenty-seven miles from Rheims. This attack continued on the 26th, 27th
and 28th and was entirely successful, for they finally captured the
redoubt of Bois Sabot, but at the cost of more than half of the
regiment. This engagement is now designated as the battle of Champagne,
and is considered one of the most important battles of the war.
The Legion, after being recruited and generally strengthened, next took
part in the very severe fighting in December at Hartmannsweilerkopf in
the Vosges.
It did exceptional work in the severe battles around Verdun in February
and March. The following despatch was sent from Paris March 7th, 1916:
“The unanimous French military opinion is that the recapture of
Douaumont by the French infantry line, the Foreign Legion and
chasseurs, on Feb. 26th, was one of the finest feats in military
annals and equal to Gen. Galliéni’s famous charge at Sedan in 1870.”
In the summer of 1916 the French government revived the ancient
Fourragère decoration; this consists of a braided cord about 34 inches
long, terminating in an aiguillette; one end is fastened on the
soldier’s left shoulder, and then extended under his left arm and
fastened on his left breast so that the aiguillette hangs below this
second fastening.
It is not awarded for individual merit, but is conferred on a military
unit, as a section, company, battalion, or sometimes an entire regiment;
it is a reward for two distinct citations for unusual bravery or
heroism.
Almost the first award made was to the entire Second _Régiment de
Marche_ of the First Foreign Regiment. The two citations entitling the
regiment to this revived decoration were, first, for its extraordinary
work during the battle of Artois, which began May 9th and ended June
19th, 1915; and second, for equally meritorious and successful action
during the battle of Champagne, which took place from September 20th to
October 17th, 1915.
For several years prior to the present war, the Germans very bitterly
attacked the French Foreign Legion by articles in their newspapers and
magazines, as well as pictures in their moving picture shows and songs
in their café concerts. One very violent attack was a play entitled,
“The Hypocrite,” which was first produced February 24th, 1914, at the
Künstler Theatre, Berlin.
In a ray of green light a legionary advanced toward the front of the
stage with a sign inscribed “We are the légionnaires of Africa” written
in French; it continued in German, “All that you behold here is strictly
true; we show you what we suffer and how we die.”
The play was received with great applause, although the critic of the
_Berliner Tageblatt_ had the fairness to write, “This drama of the
Legion is a sluggish and untimely melody of the boulevard.”
Germany’s arguments against the Legion were summarized in the Spring of
1914 as follows, viz.:
FIRST. They deny the right of a modern state to have recourse for its
defence to the services of foreign subjects and they say they have been
confirmed in this by the fact that all states, except France, have
successively renounced the employment of foreign soldiers.
SECOND. That the contract on enlistment is harsh as the duration of the
services is too long, the pay is insufficient and the service imposed is
excessive.
THIRD. That France takes advantage of the wretchedness of the applicants
and secures their enlistment while they are in ignorance of the severity
of the service.
FOURTH. That recruiting is carried on by crimps who abuse their victims
by getting them drunk and by false promises, and it results in forming a
scandalous mixture of starving men, adventurers and bandits, devoted to
drunkenness and the most infamous morals.
FIFTH. That it is applicable to minors, recruits being taken at the age
of eighteen years.
SIXTH. That Germany has, more than any other country, the right to
occupy itself with that which is going on in the Legion, by reason of
the great number of its subjects who serve there.
Mr. Gaston Moch issued a book in Paris in 1914, before the war, entitled
“The Question of the Foreign Legion,” in which he fully discusses these
arguments from the French side.
The Foreign Legion is, therefore, acknowledged to be the last of the
mercenaries, a connecting link between the present day and the days
before the beginning of the Christian era.
Transcriber's Notes:
Missing or obscured punctuation was corrected.
Typographical errors were silently corrected.
Spelling and hyphenation were made consistent when a predominant form
was found in this book; otherwise it was not changed.
Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
End of Project Gutenberg's Kelly of the Foreign Legion, by Russell A. Kelly