List of military legions

Military organization
Typical units	Typical numbers	Typical commander
fireteam	3–4	corporal
squad/ section	8–12	sergeant
platoon	15–30	lieutenant
company	80–150	captain/major
battalion/ cohort	300–800	lieutenant colonel
regiment/ brigade	2,000–4,000	colonel/ brigadier general
division/ legion	10,000–15,000	major general
corps	20,000–40,000	lieutenant general
field army	80,000+	general
army group	2+ field armies	field marshal/ five-star general
region/ theater	4+ army groups	Six-star rank

This list of military legions is in chronological order where possible. In modern times, most units using the name "legion" were composed of soldiers from a specific ethnic, national, religious or ideological background, and that background is often specified in the legion's name.

Ancient Rome

• List of Roman legions
  • Theban Legion, a Roman legion whose members, according to a long-lasting tradition, were massacred for their Christian beliefs

Eighteenth century

• Western Legion and Eastern Legion, Greek rebel forces under Russian command in the Orlov Revolt (1770)
• British Legion (American Revolution) (1778–83), made up of Loyalist American infantry and cavalry
• Lauzun's Legion (1778–82), composite corps of the French Army comprising cavalry, infantry and artillery elements. Recruited from foreign mercenaries, it served in Senegal, the West Indies and the American War of Independence.
• Lee's Legion (1776–83), an infantry and cavalry unit of the American Continental Army
• Legion of the United States (1792–96), an early United States land force

French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

• Légion des Allobroges, Swiss, Piedmontese, and Savoyard supporters of the French Revolution
• Batavian Legion, Dutch supporters of the French Revolution in 1793
• Legion Belge, Belgian volunteers fighting on the side of the Republicans in the French Revolution
• Irish Legion, a French battalion established in 1803 for a future invasion of Ireland
• King's German Legion, a British Army unit of expatriate German personnel that fought against the French during the Napoleonic Wars
• La Legion Noire (The Black Legion), a military unit of the French Revolutionary Army
• Polish Legions (Napoleonic period), Polish units in the service of Napoleonic France

Nineteenth century

• Royal Foreign Legion (Légion royal étrangère), infantry corps of mostly German mercenaries forming part of the restored French Bourbon army in 1815. After 1821 renamed the Hohenlohe Regiment
• British Legion (1835), a British military force sent to Spain to support the Liberals and Queen Isabella II against the Carlists in the First Carlist War
• Academic Legion (Vienna), a revolutionary students' group in Vienna in 1848
• International Legion, a military force formed by Garibaldi in 1860 during the wars of Italian unification
• Nauvoo Legion, a significant militia in early Mormon history
• List of American Civil War legions, both Confederate and Union
• Guelphic Legion, Hanoverian paramilitary unit supporting George V, deposed king of Hanover, from 1866 to 1870

World War I

• Czechoslovak Legions, Czech and Slovak volunteer forces fighting on the Triple Entente side
• French Armenian Legion, part of the French Army; also involved in the Franco-Turkish War of 1920–21
• Georgian Legion (1914–1918), a unit of the German Army recruited from Georgians
• Infantry Regiment of the Academic Legion, formed by volunteer Polish students in 1918, later taken into the regular Polish Army
• Italian Legione Redenta, an Italian military formation that participated in the Siberian Intervention during the Russian Civil War
• Jewish Legion, in the British Army at Gallipoli and Palestine
• Polish Legion in Finland, fighting for the Finns against the Russians
• Polish Legions in World War I, part of the Austro-Hungarian Army
• Puławy Legion, a Polish formation that was part of the Imperial Russian Army
• Legion of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, a corps of the Austro-Hungarian Army

World War II

• Armenian or Armenische Legion, name given to the 812th Armenian Battalion of the German Army, made up largely of Armenian Red Army prisoners of war
• Blue Legion, Spaniands fighting on the German side
• Condor Legion, a unit of "volunteers" from the German Luftwaffe serving with the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War
• Crna Legija (Black Legion), the name given to the 1st and 5th Croatian Ustaše Brigades
• Estonian Legion, a unit in the Waffen SS Verfügungstruppe created in 1942, mainly consisting of Estonian soldiers
• Légion Française des Combattants (French Legion of Fighters), pro-Nazi French
• Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism (LVF), pro-Nazi French
• Georgian Legion (1941–1945), a unit of the German army recruited from Georgians
• Indische Legion, also known as the Free India Legion or Tiger Legion, an Indian unit raised in 1941 and attached to the German Army
• Latvian Legion, a formation of the Waffen-SS created in 1943 and consisting primarily of ethnic Latvians
• Legion of St. George, the original name of the British Free Corps
• Ostlegionen (literally "Eastern Legions"), conscripts and volunteers from the occupied eastern territories recruited into the German Army
• La Légion Tricolore, a pro-Nazi French unit which was absorbed into the LVF after six months
• Volga Tatar Legion, one of several units formed by the Wehrmacht out of Soviet prisoners of war according to their ethnicity

Other

• Arab Legion (al-Jaysh al-Arabī) (1920–56), the regular army of Transjordan, predecessor of the present Jordanian Army
• Foreign legion (disambiguation)
• Polish Legions (disambiguation), eleven units at different times between the 18th and 20th centuries (some of which are listed separately above)
• Spanish Legion, an elite unit of the Spanish Army (1920–present)
• French Foreign Legion, a unit of the French Army mainly composed of foreigners wishing to fight for France (1831-present)

See also

• National Legion, a far right Belgian paramilary and political movement in the 1920s and 1930s, headed by Paul Hoornaert
• Légion Belge, a far right but anti-Nazi World War II Belgian Resistance movement
• White Legion, a Georgian guerrilla group in Abkhazia after the Georgian regular army's defeat in the War in Abkhazia
• Caribbean Legion, active in Central American politics of the 1950s

References

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Legion.