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| | 1ST CL. PVT. GARMS WEBSTER
Serial No. 2,026,616
Sumner, Mich.
Webster was one of the early recruits in Battery B, being inducted in November, 1917, at Camp Custer.
His pursuits previous to service had been agricultural, and he had the easy, happy-go-lucky disposition of the country and easily adapted himself to the outdoor army life.
During the eleven days’ action at the front in actual combat with the enemy, Private Webster performed the duties of cannoneer, which calls for coolness and precision to direct the shells into the enemy lines. Like all cannoneers, hardships were his lot.
In January, at Pont-a-Mousson, after the regiment had thoroughly deloused and looked after the health of the second batch of horses and mules, the Colonel held many regimental reviews wherein the entire regiment would line up in echelon formation and pass before the command. On one of these morning parades, which were in the form of jokes to the men, Private Webster and Private Smith created some amusement by holding up the line to the distraction of the Colonel. The mules they were driving balked on the lull, holding up the whole procession. After some delay, the balance of the line moved around them, leaving them to bring up the rear if the mules could be persuaded to look at it that way. As whips on horses or mules were forbidden, we do not know what Webster and Smith promised those mules or what psychic arts they worked on them, but they managed to come in at the tail of the parade.
He was constitutionally patient and possessed in a high degree the spirit of comradeship, and was ever ready to fill in where needed. |