What hardships did French Foreign Legion soldiers face during the Algerian campaigns?

During the early Algerian campaigns, life for soldiers in the French Foreign Legion was notoriously harsh, often described as "nasty, brutish, and short." Legionnaires frequently faced the following hardships:1

• Disease: During the mid-19th century, the majority of deaths within the legion were attributed to disease rather than combat.1
• Grueling Conditions: Campaigns involved incessant, exhausting marches. Soldiers were often required to endure extreme physical demands, and those who could not keep pace were frequently abandoned to their fate.1
• Poor Treatment and Mismanagement: Early in their history, legionnaires were often utilized as labor troops rather than combatants. They also suffered from poor leadership, as the officer corps was sometimes drawn from the most desperate or least qualified candidates.1
• Isolation: Many soldiers were detached from their main headquarters to serve in morale-sapping outposts or as part of task forces sent to disease-ridden regions.1

While these conditions were severe, the legion’s performance and morale eventually improved under the leadership of commanders like Thomas-Robert Bugeaud, who reorganized the forces into mobile columns to better conduct counterinsurgency operations.1