You may have heard of General John J. ‘Black Jack’ Pershing, the commander of American forces in World War I (pictured here). But did you know that he personally intervened on behalf of a Lawrence County boy during a court-martial in World War I?

According to a letter written to the editor of the ‘Democrat Union’ by Lawrence County native and World War I veteran Oliver Richter (1891-1976), the episode began with a fellow soldier shirking his duty.

That night in France, an already-exhausted Richter was assigned guard duty from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. After those two hours, another soldier was supposed to relieve him. But the other soldier never showed up. Richter managed to stay awake throughout the night, but fell asleep when dawn began to break. When they found him asleep at his post at around 6 a.m., his commanding officer was furious, and threatened to court-martial him.

Richter’s commanding officer asked him whom he wanted to hear his case. Richter replied that he wanted to take his case to General Pershing. And, surprisingly–according to Richter–they did! But instead of berating Richter for falling asleep at his post, Pershing turned the tables on Richter’s commanding officers. He gave Richter a commendation for staying at his post for an extra 10 hours, and gave a severe dressing-down to his commanding officers for not sending someone to relieve him when they first noticed that he was missing.

At the time of the episode with Pershing, Richter had already seen a great deal of combat. According to his letter to the D-U, he was gassed while at the front in September 1918. He was on the verge of death for ten days after being gassed, and, although he was cleared for duty and sent back into action after being treated, his health never fully recovered for the rest of his days.