100 Years Later, France Marks American’s July 4 Sacrifice

The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery fire First World War guns in Parliament Square, London, to mark the end of the vigil at the grave of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey, as the nation honours thousands of soldiers killed in the Battle of the Somme, 100-years after its bloody beginning Friday July 1, 2016. The first day of the Battle of the Somme became the bloodiest in British military history with more than 57,000 casualties recorded and some 20,000 British soldiers killed on the first day of battle. Statue of Sir Winston Churchill shrouded in smoke at centre. Daniel Leal-Olivas / PA via AP

BELLOY-EN-SANTERRE, France—In the end, Alan Seeger’s bones could no longer be distinguished from those of his Foreign Legion comrades who had fallen alongside him in one of the most brutal battles of World War I.

United across nations, it was the glorious death that he craved.

Seeger—an American poet, romantic and soldier—died on that most American of days, July 4th, a century ago Monday. Barely 28, he was already fighting for a global, common cause that bound dozens of countries together at a time when the United States was still a bystander, reluctant to get involved in a faraway war in Europe.

Seeger, serving in the French Foreign Legion, met his death before the U.S. entered the war. Public Domain via Wikimedia