Biography
Lester G. Ott was a conscientious objector from Ohio imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for refusing military service, he was held at Fort Leavenworth. Sentenced to death. (Documented in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection's World War I Conscientious Objectors database.) Archival note: sentenced to death - reduced to 6 years in prison to expire on Sept. 3, 1923; had applied for service in Friends Reconstruction Unit; later was vice president of the Grant Company
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.
Sources: Source 1.
Confirmed Camp Funston guardhouse transfer
The signed report on treatment of conscientious objectors identifies Lester G. Ott among those received at the Camp Funston Military Police Guard House on September 27, 1918. This is a confirmed facility receipt, not an independently established new arrest or beginning of all imprisonment. The September 5 and September 27 groups explicitly came from the Fort Riley guardhouse. Ott is individually named in the October 7 hunger-strike entry, October 8 request to see the post commander, October 10 forced exercise and October 19 assault account. The report covers events through October 21 but does not supply an individual discharge date. Existing original-admission, release, sentence and total-duration fields are not replaced by this receipt date or calculated from a military sentence.
A military investigation reproduced in the Congressional Record on February 12, 1919 independently records mistreatment of conscientious objectors confined in the Camp Funston guardhouse. The findings identify Ott as a prisoner struck by Sergeant John Bell on October 19, 1918 after refusing to clean the latrine. The investigator concluded the striking was unjustified and recommended that Bell be tried under the 96th Article of War. The recommendation is not proof of a later prosecution or conviction. The record corroborates the previously sourced prisoner account and supplies no new admission or discharge date.
Congressional Record, February 12, 1919, printed pages 3239–3240 (PDF 63–64).
