Produced by Brian Coe, David King, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.) Kelly of the Foreign Legion [Illustration: Russell A. Kelly] Kelly Of The Foreign Legion Letters Of Légionnaire Russell A. Kelly To Which Is Added An Historical Sketch Of The Foreign Legion New York Mitchell Kennerley 1917 _Dedicated to the memory of that intrepid and valiant Frenchman, whose bravery, love of liberty, generosity, and friendship with Washington, made Americans, for all time, his grateful and devoted admirers--_ LE MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE CONTENTS Preface xi I. Voyage to Bordeaux--Enlistment 1 II. Training at Depot de Lyon 13 III. Off to the Front 33 IV. In the First Line Trenches 52 V. Removed to the Arras Secteur 78 VI. Battle of Artois; At La Targette and Neuville St. Vaast 85 VII. To the Rear for Recruiting 92 VIII. Supplementary--Battle of Artois--Souchez--Hill No. 119 104 IX. Epilogue 120 X. La Légion Étrangère 131 ILLUSTRATIONS Russell A. Kelly _Frontispiece_ Official Postal Card for Use of Soldiers 34 French Houses Burned by Germans 60 Kniffin Yates Rockwell 68 John Earl Fike 124 PREFACE The first seven chapters of this book are letters received from Russell A. Kelly, age 21, volunteer in the _Légion étrangère_. The letters, many of which were published in the _New York Evening Sun_, were sent to his parents in New York and have been retained in exactly their original form except for the omission of strictly personal matters.