France. Armée. Légion étrangère; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
=Andrew C. Champollion=, New York, an American, painter by profession,
Harvard graduate, a big game hunter, went to the front March 1st, 1915.
He was a descendant of the Champollion, who deciphered the Rosetta
Stone, and grandson of Austin Carbin. His ancestors had followed
Napoleon’s Eagles through Italy and Egypt and this boy was killed by a
bullet in the forehead at Bois le Pietre, March 23, 1915.
In his last letter he wrote:—”Last night we slept in the second line
trenches (not so bad), but today we are nose to nose with the enemy on
the frontiest of fronts. It is the damnedest life imaginable. You are no
longer treated like an irresponsible ass, but like a man, while you live
the life of a beast or a savage.
=Guy Augustine=, of San Francisco, son of the U. S. Consul to Barcelona,
member of the Foreign Legion, was decorated with the Croix de Guerre for
bravery at Chalons-Sur-Marne, July 14, 1917.
=Sylvain Rosenberg=, New York, 23 years of age, son of Max Rosenberg,
with the 19th Company of the 251st Regiment, wounded on the Marne, Sept.
7, 1914;—in Argonne, Dec. 8, 1915,—cited in the Orders of the Day,—and
killed March 15, 1916, at Verdun.
=The Lafayette Escadrille=, No. 124, is an offspring of the Legion,
formed by Rockwell, Curtis, Thaw, Hall, Back, Chapman, Cowdin and
Prince, who kept pounding the Colonel of the Legion on the back, so much
that he gave his consent, to get rid of them. It has formed a nucleus of
All-Americans that became the start, or foundation, of that immense
fleet of aeroplanes that is to furnish the eyes that will find the weak
places in the enemy’s line through which the Allies will march to
victory. First Americans to carry their national flag into action as a
fighting unit, April 11, 1917.
Originally called the Franco-American Escadrille, but the name was
changed to satisfy pro-Germans, who claimed to be Americans, but these
aviators did not change their emblem. The Red Indian sign is still on
the machines. The old boys from the Legion are in the seats, and we hope
to see every man an officer, dressed in the uniform of his own country.
About the time the United States entered the war, the Americans of the
Legion offered their services to the American Government at home and
were not then accepted and the following letter, among others, was sent
to the New York Herald by a French lady:—
=”American Veterans in France.=
“April 28, 1917.
“Sir:—May I ask through your columns why it is that those few Americans,
brave enough to seek voluntarily, while their country was still neutral,
the ranks, of our army, have not yet been claimed by their own
Government, whose citizens they remain, while all at home are apparently
receiving commissions and honor, are these men to remain sergeants and
soldiers in the French Army, unrecognized and unhonored by their mother
country?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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