The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1919-03-28
FIRST AMERICAN :.
CAPTURED BY GERMANS.
}. P. Lester In Grenada Last Sunday
Gives Some of His Experience
In German Prisons.

II will be remembered that J. P.
Lester of Tutwiler, Miss, was about
the first American captured by the
Germans after the United States en-
tered the war. Mr. Lester was in
Grenada Sunday and was seen by
Sentinel representative. After it
was learned just who he was, there
were many anxious to get look at
him. He gives some interesting do
tails about his experiences. q
He enlisted on May, ~ and
landed in France on z6, 1871
He was put on the firing line of Nov.
/, in the third line trenches, and OH
the night of Nov 2, went into the
first line trenches and was captured
on the morning of Nov. 3, at three
O'Clock. He and several other Amer
leans were in the toe of a horse shoe
! trench. Somehow they got cut off
from the balance of the company and
were overpowered, after killing every
! German that came at them, except in
dozens. While fighting at the last
minute against great odds, he was
shot twice through the thigh. The
Americans were taken to a prison at
Toulle, 25 kilometers from Nancy.
Mr.. Testers wounds were dressed,
| but he says that the first night his
shirt was stolen and that an Americ;
soon learned that if he got out of his
clothing that he might bid them good
bye. Altogether he was in German
prisons for 13 months. But for the
Red Cross, he thinks they would have
starved. He states that for some
! time the prisoners were fed soup
! which contained stable manure. For
five months he went without change
Of clothing. He worked some in a
German wheat field, but there even
under heavy guards, the Americans
never forgot their country, they
stacked the wheat wherever they
could, heads downward and placed
rocks and sand in the wheat that was
being. thrashed. When the Germans
made theiys las desperate effort to
reach Paris, he says that every Amer
lean prisoner was continuous in pray
er, and that the Germans were hope
full until the battle of Chateau Thier-
nv. after that their morale went to
pieces. He says Americans never
surrendered.
Mr.. Lester states that when he and
his comrades saw that they were cut
off from the rest of the regiment or
company on the fatal Nov. 3, 1917,
that they sent out call for barage
but it did not come. In little while
he and the one American that were in
the toe of the trench, saw two Ger
mans approaching them from oppo-
site directions in the trench. His
comrade said, What must we do?"
to which he replied, "You kill the one
coming from that way and will get
the other One," and we'll did they ex-
ecute his directions. But no sooner
had they fired than some Germans had
appeared on the parapet of the trench !
and one Of them put two bullets |
through his thigh; they turned their
guns upon them and made them bite :
the dirt and then started to chase
some more Germans that had shown
their heads in another direction. At
this juncture, a number of Germans
pounced upon them from the
bank or parapet of the trench and
overpowered them.
They were carried from one prison
camp to another but all the time were
being carried further and further to
the rear.
Mr.. Lester is full of fire and fight
yet. and his period of confinement
did not in the least subdue him. The
name Germany is red flag to him.
He looks every inch man and it is
no wonder that he and others like him
made the Germans stand in awe of {,
America. Mr.. Lester is son Of Rev.
". C. Lester, Methodist minister, :
who died while he was in prison. He
nad sister, Miss Daisy Lester, who ,
graduated at Grenada College last /
year. He is now in the employ of the !
Standard Oil Company. Il
Ia ,
CARD OF THANKS. I: