Kelly of the Foreign Legion: Letters of Légionnaire Russell a. Kelly

These are the actual letters of a young American who left everything to fight in a foreign army, knowing full well what awaited him. Russell Anthony Kelly enlisted in the French Foreign Legion shortly after war was declared in 1914, and within months he was dead. What remains is his voice, direct from the training camps and the trenches of the Western Front. Writing to his parents with startling candor, Kelly describes the voyage to Bordeaux, the bewildering mix of men from across Europe who made up the Legion, the brutal training, and the terrible confusion of combat around Bouzy, Arras, and Souchez. His letters capture the chaos and terror of early WWI warfare with the raw immediacy that only a participant can provide. After less than a year of service, Kelly was killed in action. These letters were deemed so vivid and significant that they were published in the New York Evening Sun, preserving a young soldier's intimate testimony before it was silenced forever. This is history from inside the mud and blood, told by a boy who never came home.