“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: