Alan Seeger was an American war poet who fought and died in World War I during the Battle of the Somme, serving in the French Foreign Legion. Seeger was the brother of Elizabeth Seeger, a children's author and educator, and Charles Seeger, a noted American pacifist and musicologist; he was also the uncle of folk musicians Pete Seeger, Peggy Seeger, and Mike Seeger. He is lauded for the poem "I Have a Rendezvous with Death", a favorite of President John F. Kennedy. A statue representing him is on the monument in the Place des États-Unis, Paris, honoring those American citizens who volunteered to fight for the Third French Republic while their country was still neutral and lost their lives during the war. Seeger is sometimes called the "American Rupert Brooke".
Alan Seeger
Alan Seeger in his uniform.
"I Have a Rendezvous with Death" by Alan Seeger, as it appears in the book, Poems
Memorial to American Volunteers (Place des États-Unis, Paris)
The French Foreign Legion is an elite corps of the French Army that consists of several specialties: infantry, cavalry, engineers, airborne troops. It was created in 1831 to allow foreign nationals into the French Army. It formed part of the Armée d’Afrique, the French Army's units associated with France's colonial project in Northern Africa, until the end of the Algerian War in 1962.
Uniform of a legionnaire during the 1863 Mexican campaign
A Legionnaire sniper at Tuyên Quang
Monument commemorating the soldiers of the Foreign Legion killed on duty during the South-Oranese campaign (1897–1902).
Review of the Marching Regiment of the Foreign Legion, RMLE at the end of November 1918
