Lewis, Stevenson Paul

Born December 2, 1892, in Toledo, Ohio. Son of Norman Stanley and Grace Chatterton Lewis. Educated Sharon, Pennsylvania, and Cleveland, Ohio, schools; one year Michigan Agricultural College, and graduated University of Wisconsin, February, 1917. Joined American Field Service, March 12, 1917; attached Section Seventeen to September 8, 1917. Enlisted U. S. Army, December, 1917. Field Artillery School at Saumur. joined 124th Field Artillery, Second Lieutenant, July, 1918. Promoted to First Lieutenant, October 31, 1918. Killed in action by shell, October 31, 1918, in Bois de Bantheville, Argonne. Cited in American Army Orders. Buried, American Cemetery, Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, Meuse. Body to be transferred to Lakeview Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio.

"IF I thought I could leave a name like he did, I would die easy any time." This was written of Lieutenant Stevenson Paul Lewis by one of his sergeants in the 124th Field Artillery, who added, "He was an officer in rank, but in his own heart one of the boys and we all knew it, and every one in the battery liked him . . ." "Steve's" captain spoke of the pride he felt in "having such a man as a lieutenant," and said that he served with the battery through the St. Mihiel and Argonne offensives until his death, "rendering at all times the most valuable service possible for an officer, He was on liaison work with the Infantry, and directed a great deal of the effective fire of my guns, at the same time performing important and hazardous missions for the Infantry, which required skill, coolness, and bravery, and often took him within the German lines." Lieutenant Nedrow of his regiment wrote, " Lieutenant Lewis was not afraid of the devil himself . . . . . I think he died as he would have wanted to, at the front facing the enemy . . . . . I can not express our loss,---the loss of a great big boy pal."

Similar ability and popularity had been Steve's in high school, at Michigan where he spent a year, and at Wisconsin where he received his degree, being on the track and football teams, a fraternity man, and several times a class officer. Again, when he volunteered in the Field Service a month after graduation and before America entered the war, he won many close friends by his quiet reliability and sturdiness of character. He shared in that effort which secured the section a divisional citation.

"He was a great lover of nature," wrote Steve's father, "and was happiest when out on a long tramp or roughing it as a harvester in the Dakotas or Kansas, for it was in this way that he spent two of his summers." Abroad, too, his preference was for the strenuous, outdoor life, and he made a game of his participation in the war, playing it with all his heart and soul. As one of his men naively wrote: "he was wise to the war game and we were blessed when he was assigned to us."

A course at the artillery school at Saumur followed the completion of Steve's enlistment term in the Field Service, and he joined the 124th Field Artillery as a Second Lieutenant. The colonel spoke of his zeal in asking always for the most hazardous tasks. Steve remained for sixteen days with the attacking infantry at one time, it requesting "to remain when the other liaison officers were replaced. Of his narrow escapes he said, "I am lucky, I guess, also, I 'play' the shells." His one fear was that he might be called back to a school as an instructor: "To be sent back there would be the biggest disappointment possible now that this outfit is in the line, and though it may be considered a reward, it is no place to be with any fighting going on . . . . . I only hope they don't get me." His fearlessness was almost a love of danger. On a permission he climbed Mont Blanc alone, for "the reason that it involved a chance was enough." In June, 1917, he had volunteered and served with the brancardiers when he was off duty as an ambulance driver.

Having gone untouched with the Infantry through numerous attacks, Steve was killed by a shell on October 31, 1918, as he went forward to an observation post to adjust his battery's fire. In September he had written: "I hope the end will come soon, but I will never leave the line until I am absolutely incapable of any service, ---then perhaps I can help in the S. O. S. in France. You must wait until it's all over before I return." Steve did not return home, but, as the regimental chaplain said, "He made the noblest sacrifice upon God's highest altar."

• Tribute from Memorial Volume of the American Field Service, 1921