Biography
Joseph M. Walter was a Mennonite conscientious objector from South Dakota imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for refusing military service, he was held at Fort Leavenworth. Sentenced to 25 years in prison. (Documented in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection's World War I Conscientious Objectors database.) Archival note: sent to Camp Dodge; in September 1918 was court-martialed, along with Joseph H. Wurz, for quitting work in the Medical Corps; sentenced to 25 years in prison; Acting Judge Advocate General S.T. …
Custody record
The cited World War I archival record does not establish a one-day imprisonment. The imposed sentence and the period actually spent in custody are different; no exact duration is recorded here unless supported by custody records.
The source describes stockade confinement still continuing in December 1918 after an earlier sentence was set aside. Its January discharge and February–March 1919 accounts conflict; those periods have not been added as separate, cumulative terms.