82. Franchini, Les guerres, 105.
83. G. Prokos, Opérations coloniales, II, 164.
84. Pfirmann, Le Sergent Pfirmann, 59-60.
85. Martyn, Life in the Legion, 176-7.
86. Carpeaux, La chasse aux pirates, 114-15, 270.
87. Commandant Chabrol, Opérations militaires au Tonkin (Paris: Charles-Lavauzelle, 1896), 267.
88. Carpeaux, La chasse aux pirates, 34-35.
89. Martyn, Life in the Legion, 130-31.
90. Chabrol, Opérations, 269.
91. Carpeaux, La chasse aux pirates, 180.
92. Carpeaux, La chasse aux pirates, 53.
93. Martyn, Life in the Legion, 170.
94. Le soldat Silbermann, Cinq ans á la Légion, 143.
95. Lyautey, Lettres du Tonkin et de Madagascar, 259.
96. Bôn-Mat, Souvenirs d'un légionnaire, 138—9.
97. Carpeaux, La chasse aux pirates, 64-5.
98. A.-P. Maury, Mes campagnes, 178.
99. Chabrol, Opérations, 18.
100. Pfirmann, Le Sergent Pfirmann, 157.
101. Carpeaux, La chasse, 37.
102. Le Poer, A Modern Legionary 182.
103. Martyn, Life in the Legion, 171-2.
104. Pfirmann, Le Sergent Pfirmann, 69, 74, 82-3.
105. Carpeaux, La chasse, 94-5, 185-6.
106. Prokos, Opérations coloniales, II, 134.
107. Sylvère, Flutsch, 64.
108. Colonel Tournyol du Clos, “La Légion étrangère au Tonkin (1883-1932),” 859-60.
109. Chabrol, Opérations militaires, 297-304.
110. Lyautey, Lettres de Tonkin, 182.
111. Carpeaux, La chasse aux pirates, 84.
112. Le Poer, A Modern Legionary 127.
113. Carpeaux, La chasse aux pirates, 46-9.
114. Sylvère, Flutsch, 64.
115. Le Poer, A Modern Legionary 127.
116. Carpeaux, La chasse aux pirates, 42, 215-16.
117. Chabrol, Opérations, 19.
118. Carpeaux, La chasse aux pirates, 100.
119. Carpeaux, La chasse aux pirates, 238-39.
120. Prokos, Opérations coloniales, II, 138, 167-8.
121. Chabrol, Opérations, 196-200.
122. Claude Farrère, Extrême-Orient (Paris: Flammarion, 1934), 55-57.
123. Carpeaux, La chasse aux pirates, 201, 203, 213.
CHAPTER 12
1. Martyn, Life in the Legion, 184-5.
2. Captain Jacquot, Mon Journal de Marche du Dahomey, 1892-1893, unpub lished manuscript in possession of the author. No page numbers, 20-21 July 1892.
3. SHAT, 10H 3.
4. General Viscount Wolseley, The Soldier's Pocket-Book for Field Service (London: Macmillan and Co., 1886), 414-15.
5. SHAT, 10H 3.
6. SHAT, Dahomey carton 1, 13 April 1892.
7. Henri Paul Lelièvre, Campagne du Dahomey, 2 août 1892 au 6 novembre 1892, unedited manuscript, ALE Aubagne, 98-98bis.
8. Lieutenant Colonel A. Ditte, Observations sur la guerre, 40-1.
9. Jean-Louis Lentonnet, Carnet de campagne du lieutenant-colonel Lentonnet (Paris: Plon, 1899), 140.
10. A. S. Kanya-Forstner, The Conquest of the Western Sudan: A Study in French Military Imperialism (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1969), 272. Kanya-Forstner continues: “The dreary lines of chained bearers which accompanied the Voulet-Chanoine expedition were the same as those which followed the armies of Samori. The much vaunted villages de liberté, supposedly the Military's chief contribution to the fight against the slave trade, were little more than a means of alleviating the labour shortage along the supply lines. Freed slaves who were not sent to the villages where they could be used as porters were usually conscripted into the tirailleurs just as prisoners had been drafted into the armies of Umar” (272-3).
11. Charles Balesi, From Adversaries to Comrades-in-Arms: West Africans and the French Military, 1885-1918 (Waltham, Mass.: Press Crossroads, 1986), 41.
12. Kanya-Forstner, Western Sudan, 228.
13. André Lebon, La Pacification de Madagascar, 1896-1898 (Paris: Plon, 1928), 242.
14. See Porch, The Conquest of the Sahara, Chapter XII.
15. The military and administrative dividing lines in the French colonies were enough to confuse Frenchmen, let alone foreigners. The French essentially had two colonial armies. The Armée d'Afrique, which included the Legion, nominally made up the 19th Corps metropolitan army. However, its responsibilites were for North Africa. The armée coloniale, the old troupes de marine, belonged to the navy until 1900, when it was transferred to the war ministry. These marines provided regiments of white volunteers as well as white officers and NCOs for native regiments raised in sub-Saharan Africa, Indochina and eventually Madagascar. A number of marine regiments made up principally of conscripts also served in France.
Administrative divisions were equally confusing. Algeria, considered part of metropolitan France, fell under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior. Tunisia and Morocco were protectorates, and therefore overseen by the quai d'Orsay, the French foreign ministry. France's remaining possessions were administered by the navy until a colonial ministry was finally created.
16. Martyn, Life in the Legion, 186-7.
17. “O it's Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an Tommy go away’; / But it's ‘Thank you Mister Atkins,’ when the band begins to play.”
18. Martyn, Life in the Legion, 188. According to Alexandre d'Albeca, La France au Dahomey (Paris: Hachette, 1895), the second ship was named simply the “Saint-Nicolas.”
19. Jacquot, Mon journal, 27 August 1892.
20. Martyn, Life in the Legion, 192.
21. Lelièvre, Campagne, 9.
22. Martyn, Life in the Legion, 192-3.
23. Jacquot, Mon journal, 31 August 1892.
24. Lelièvre, Campagne au Dahomey, 20-1.
25. Commandant Grandin, A l'assault du pays des noirs: Le Dahomey (Paris: René Haton Librairie, 1895), I, 25-6.
26. “Rapport sur les opérations du corps expéditionnaire du Dahomey en 1892,” SHAT, Dahomey carton 2. See also La Légion étrangère au Dahomey. Resumé très succinct des motifs de notre intervention,” ALE Aubagne, L4.
27. Alfred Barbou, Histoire de la guerre au Dahomey (Paris: Librairie Duquesne, 1893), 30.
28. R. A. Kea, “Firearms and Warfare in the Gold Coasts from the 16th to the 19th Centuries,” Journal of African History, 12 (1971): 185-213.
29. David Ross, “Dahomey,” in Michael Crowder (ed.), West African Resistance: The Military Response to Colonial Occupation (New York: Africana, 1972), 147.
30. Ross, “Dahomey,” 154-6.
31. On the “Race for Lake Chad,” see Porch, The Conquest of the Sahara, Chapter XIII.
32. Kanya-Forstner, The Conquest of the Western Sudan, 239.
33. Martyn, Life in the Legion, 195.
34. Jacquot, Mon journal, 2 September 1892.
35. Lelièvre, Campagne, 21-3.
36. Lelièvre, Campagne, 37.
37. Jacquot, Mon journal, 19 September.
38. Martyn, Life in the Legion, 196.
39. Lelièvre, Campagne, 62.
40. J. Bern, L'expédition du Dahomey: Notes éparses d'un volontaire (Sidi-bel-Abbès: Lavenue, 1893), 145.
41. Martyn, Life in the Legion, 196.
42. Lelièvre, Campagne, 63.
43. Jacquot, Mon journal, 19 October.
44. Martyn, Life in the Legion, 197.
45. Lelièvre, Campagne, 64. Two officers and three soldiers were killed, and nine soldiers wounded (“La Légion étrangère au Dahomey,” ALE, A4, 28).
46. Martyn, Life in the Legion, 198.
47. Jacquot, Mon journal, 19 September.
48. Jacquot, Mon journal, 19 September.
49. Lelièvre, Campagne, 66, 68.
50. Jacquot, Mon journal, 19 September.
51. Jacquot, Mon journal, 19 September.
52. Lelièvre, Campagne, 72.
53. Martyn, Life in the Legion, 203.
54. Jacquot, Mon journal, 21 September.
55. Lelièvre, Campagne, 74-6.
56. “La Légion étrangère au Dahomey: Resumé très succinct” 26-27.
57. Martyn, Life in the Legion, 206.
58. Lelièvre, Campagne, 93.
59. Martyn, Life in the Legion, 206-7.
60. J. Bern, Expédition, 187.
61. Lelièvre, Campagne, 94-5.
62. Jacquot, Mon journal, 4 October.
63. Jacquot, Mon journal, 4 October.
64. Lelièvre, Campagne, 97.
65. Martyn, Life in the Legion, 211.
66. Martyn, Life in the Legion, 111.
67. Jacquot, Journal, 6 October.
68. Rapport sur les opérations du corps expéditionnaire du Dahomey en 1892, SHAT, Dahomey carton 1, 42-4.
69. Lelièvre, Campagne, 110.
70. Rapport, 45-6.
71. Martyn, Life in the Legion, 218.
72. Jacquot, Mon journal, 14 October.
73. Jacquot, Mon journal, 14 October.
74. Martyn, Life in the Legion, 226.
75. Michael Crowder, West African Resistance, 161.
76. Jacquot, Mon journal, 21 October.
77. Martyn, Life in the Legion, 214.
78. Jacquot, Mon journal, 1 November.
79. Rapport, 63.
80. Ed. Aublet, La guerre au Dahomey, 1888-1893 (Paris: Berger-Levrault, 1894), 320-21.
81. Jules Poirier, Conquête de Madagascar, 1895-1896 (Paris: Charles-Lavauzelle, nd), 121-2.
82. Aublet, La guerre au Dahomey, 326.
83. Ross, “Dahomey,” 162-4.
CHAPTER 13
1. General Reibell, Le calvaire de Madagascar: Notes et souvenirs de 1895 (Paris: Berger-Levrault, 1935), 50.
2. G. Hanotaux, L'affaire de Madagascar (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1896), 190.
3. Reibell, Le calvaire, 48-9.
4. Poirier, Conquête, 121-2.
5. Reibell, Le calvaire, 100.
6. Reibell, Le calvaire, 39.
7. Poirier, Conquête, 117-120.
8. E. F. Knight, Madagascar in Wartime (London: Longmans Green & Co., 1895), 162.
9. Knight, Madagascar, 209-10.
10. Bennet Burleigh, Two Campaigns: Madagascar and Ashantee (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1896), 173.
11. Knight, Madagascar, 210.
12. Silbermann, Cinq ans à la Légion, 88.
13. Knight, Madagascar, 188.
14. Knight, Madagascar, 229.
15. Lieutenant Langlois, Souvenirs de Madagascar (Paris: Charles-Lavauzelle, 1897), 76-7, 89.
16. Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Louis Lentonnet, Carnet de campagne du Lieutenant-colonel Lentonnet (Paris: Plon, 1899), 66-7.
17. SHAT, Madagascar carton 7, “Rapport sur l'organisation du service de santé.”
18. Lentonnet, Carnets, 68.
19. Reibell, Calvaire, 86.
20. Colonel X ..., La vérité sur la guerre de Madagascar (Toulouse: Berthoumieu, 1896), 94.
21. Silbermann, Le soldat Silbermann, 204—5.
22. Langlois, Souvenirs, 34.
23. Langlois, Souvenirs, 97.
24. Reibell, Calvaire, 85.
25. Langlois, Souvenirs, 114.
26. Reibell, Calvaire, 83.
27. Reibell, Calvaire, 119.
28. Ditte, Observations, 35-6.
29. Reibell, Calvaire, 83.
30. Lentonnet, Carnet de campagne, 60, 109.
31. Langlois, Souvenirs, 96-7.
32. Reibell, Calvaire, 115-16.
33. Aublet, La guerre au Dahomey, 193, 197.
34. Reibell, Calvaire, 115.
35. Langlois, Souvenirs, 100.
36. “Rapport d'ensemble sut l'expédition de Madagascar (1895-1896),” Journal officiel, 12 September 1896, 5113. Published by Berger-Levrault, Paris and Nancy, 1897.
37. Reibell, Calvaire, 104.
38. Langlois, Souvenirs, 116.
39. “Rapport d'ensemble,” 14 September 1896, 5158.
40. Langlois, Souvenirs, 117-18.
41. Langlois, Souvenirs, 123-4. See also SHAT, Madagascar carton 19, Duchesne report, 54-5.
42. Langlois, Souvenirs, 134.
43. “Rapport d'ensemble,” 14 September 1896, 5161.
44. Knight, Madagascar in Wartime, 238, 249, 250-1, 264, 266.
45. Langlois, Souvenirs, 114, 141.
46. Lentonnet, Carnet, 102, 138.
47. Langlois, Souvenirs, 140.
48. R. A. Premschwitz, Mes aventures; Sylvère, Flutsch, 282.
49. Martyn, Life, 286.
50. Jacques Weygand, Légionnaire (Paris: Flammarion, 1951), 206-7.
51. Bernard Savelli, La Légion étrangère au Tonkin, 111.
52. SHAT, Madagascar carton 7, Journal de marche, 1e 2e regiments d'Algérie, 61. See also carton 19, Duchesne report.
53. Weygand, Légionnaire, 216.
54. Langlois, Souvenirs, 140.
55. Langlois, Souvenirs, 141.
56. Langlois, Souvenirs, 143.
57. Langlois, Souvenirs, 144.
58. “Rapport d'ensemble,” 5161.
59. Reibell, Calvaire, 119.
60. SHAT, Madagascar carton 7, Journal de marche, 53.
61. Knight, Madagascar, 282-3.
62. Langlois, Souvenirs, 159-60.
63. Knight, Madagascar, 284.
64. Langlois, Souvenirs, 160.
65. “Rapport d'ensemble,” 5162.
66. Langlois, Souvenirs, 163—4.
67. Knight, Madagascar, 281.
68. “Rapport d'ensemble,” 5163.
69. Langlois, Souvenirs, 168.
70. Langlois, Souvenirs, 178.
71. Knight, Madagascar, 303-4.
72. Tony Geraghty, March or Die: France and the Foreign Legion (London: Grafton, 1986), 114; Philippe Cart-Tanneur and Tibor Szecske, Le premier étranger (Paris: Sterling, 1986), 39. Langlois, who claims to have been present when these remarks were made, reproduces an effusive, but slightly less categorical, version of Duchesne's remarks (Souvenirs, 186-8).
73. Balesi, From Adversaries to Comrades-in-Arms, 41.
74. Ditte, Observations, 354-5.
75. Silbermann, Le soldat Silbermann, 74-5.
76. Martyn, Life in the Legion, 247, 249.
77. SHAT, Dahomey carton 1; Alfred Barbou, “Histoire de la guerre au Dahomey,” manuscript 14.
78. Duchesne, Rapport, 401-2.
79. Reibell, Calvaire, 174.
80. Knight, Madagascar, 304, 334.
81. Reibell, Calvaire, Annex IV.
82. SHAT, Dahomey carton 1, March 7, 1893.
83. Reibell, Calvaire, 122.
84. Reibell, Calvaire, Annex IV.
85. Lentonnet, Carnet, 121.
86. SHAT, Madagascar carton 7, Journal de marche, vol. I, 62.
87. SHAT, Madagascar carton 19, Duchesne's report. Compare with Rapport, 401.
88. Képi blanc, no. 125 (September 1957), 56-9.
89. Sonia Howe, The Drama of Madagascar (London: Methuen, 1938), 320.
CHAPTER 14
1. Moch, La question, 164. See also Grisot, Légion, 579-81, for texts.
2. Clément-Grandcourt, “Les Alsaciens-Lorrains et la Légion étrangère,” 556.
3. SHAT, 10H 3.
4. Clément-Grandcourt, “Les Alsaciens-Lorrains,” 556.
5. SHAT, 1H 1015, 20 November 1905 report.
6. Henri Dugard, La Légion étrangère (Paris: Les Marches de l'Est, 1914), 139.
7. Moch, La question, 164.
8. Clément-Grandcourt, “Les Alsaciens-Lorrains,” 557.
9. Clément-Grandcourt, “Les Alsaciens-Lorrains,” 559-60.
10. Béric, Les routiers, 59, 274.
11. SHAT, 1H 1015, 31 May 1905.
12. SHAT, 1H 1015, 20 November 1905.
13. Clément-Grandcourt, “Les Alsaciens-Lorrains,” 560.
14. SHAT, 3H 148, 1913.
15. SHAT, 3H 148, 25 February 1913.
16. SHAT, 1H 1015, Mangin report.
17. Elisabeth Erulin, Les nationalités a la Légion étrangère (Paris: Mémoire DESS de Défense, Université de Paris II, 1982-83), 6/A. See also Dugard, La Légion étrangère, 139, who says that in 1913 17.6 percent of legionnaires were German.
18. SHAT, 1H 1015, 20 November 1905 report.
19. Erulin, Les nationalités á la légion étrangère, 2/F.
20. SHAT, 3H 148, 12 March 1913. Moch, La question, 146-8, disputes these figures, arguing that the official figures count only reenlistments in France, ignoring the strength of cadres and those enlisting in North Africa. The true numbers in the Legion, he claims, were between thirteen and fourteen thousand.
21. SHAT, 7N 100, letter from War Minister General Louis Andre of 18 March 1902, and reply of 15 April from colonel of the 2e étranger. See also Moch, La question, 302, on the 1908 Senate bill to create a cavalry regiment in the Legion; Jean-Charles Jauffret, L'idée d'une division, 51, 53-63. Jauffret cites the costs as the major reason for the failure of the 1908 Senate bill.
22. Erulin, Les nationalités, 6/A. Dugard, La Légion étrangère, 139, places the percentage of Frenchmen in 1913 at 45.2.
23. Weygand, Légionnaire, 72.
24. SHAT, 1H 1015, 20 November 1905.
25. SHAT, 1H 1015, 12 June 1905.
26. Ehrhart, Mes treize années.
27. SHAT, 3H 148, Trumelet-Faber report, March 1912, 20-1.
28. SHAT, 3H 148, 19 June 1913.
29. Premschwitz, Mes aventures, 130.
30. Dangy, Moi, légionnaire, 79-80.
31. Silbermann, Cinq ans à la Légion étrangère, 212.
32. Sylvère, Le légionnaire Flutsch, 55-6.
33. Adolphe Richard Cooper, Twelve Years in the Foreign Legion (Sydney, Australia: Angus & Robertson, 1933), 86.
34. Martin, Je suis un légionnaire, 198-9.
35. Randin, A la Légion étrangère, 217.
36. Savelli, La Légion étrangère au Tonkin, 72.
37. Lieutenant Langlois, Souvenirs de Madagascar, 106.
38. Le journal de marche de Colonel Met, ALE, 1908, no page numbers.
39. Correspondance du légionnaire Lucien Jacqueline, 1902-1907, letter of 27 March 1907.
40. SHAT, 1H 1015, 20 November 1905.
41. SHAT, 1H 1015, December 1905.
42. SHAT, 1H 1015, Herson report, nd.
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