OBIT: Benjamin L. HEWIT, 1918, Hollidaysburg, Blair County, PA

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B. L. HEWITT REPORTED AS KILLED
Hollidaysburg Soldier, Captain of Infantry, Believed Victim of Vicious 
Hun Atrocity
YET UNCONFIRMED

  Unofficial word has been received by Attorney and Mrs. Oliver H. 
Hewit of Brushmead that their son, Captain Benjamin L. Hewit, was 
killed when German artillery wrecked a field hospital in France, a few 
hours after the captain had been removed to that place from No Man's 
Land, suffering with wounds inflicted by enemy shells.
  There has been no confirmation of this report, which came indirectly 
to Mr. Hewit from a man in Johnstown.  Captain Cramer, of the 808th 
infantry regiment, in a letter to J. Earl Ogle, jr., of Johnstown, 
wrote:

ATROCITIES TRUE

  "All of the published atrocities on the part of the Germans are more 
than true.  Last week a German airplane hovered over one of our field 
hospitals and signaled to their batteries.
  "In less than one minute, the first shell fell, and in two minutes 
the entire field hospital was demolished, eighty-five wounded men being 
killed.  It came pretty hard to me, as many of my friends were in the 
hospital, including my old friend Ben Hewit, who had just been taken 
in."
  As soon as this information was conveyed to Attorney Hewit, he 
communicated with Colonel James Milliken, of Brigadier-General W. W. 
Atterbury's division, with regard to the report, and was informed that 
the name of Captain Hewit could not be found in the casualty lists, and 
that there was no record of a field hospital being destroyed during the 
week in question.

IS AWAITING REPLY

  Mr. Hewit then communicated with the Red Cross officials, and with 
the department that supplies the field hospitals, and is now awaiting a 
reply from then with regards to his son.
  Captain Hewit is 34 years of age and is a graduate of Mercersburg 
Academy and Perdue University, being a civil engineer.  When the war 
broke out, he was general manager of the Oliver Coal Mining company at 
Osceola Mills.
  He was above the draft age and immediately enlisted in the regular 
army, and because of his college training, was sent to the Fort Niagara 
Officers' Training school, where he won a commission as captain.  He 
was then sent to a southern camp, and attached to Company F of the 
316th infantry regiment of the Seventy-ninth division.

WENT OVER IN MAY

  Captain Hewit was sent to France in May of this year, and shortly 
after that, was dispatched to the front line trenches, where he led his 
men in numerous engagements against the enemy, showing exceptionally 
[sic] heroism in face of terrific machine gun fire.
  He is one of the best known men in this section of the state, his 
occupation bringing him in touch with the majority of the people of 
this district.

Altoona Times, Altoona, Pa., Thursday Morning, November 14, 1918

Note: Listed in Floyd Hoenstine's Soldiers of Blair County as Hewit, 
Benjamin Hartley, Cpt. F, 316 Inf., 1884-1918, Meuse-Argonne Cemetery, 
France