Jasper Joseph Neyland

Jasper Joseph Neyland was born to Jasper James Neyland, Sr., and Frankie Winkler Neyland on July 1, 1894 in Washington, Louisiana. He graduated from Washington High School in 1909. Neyland received a scholarship to Louisiana State University from the Police Jury of St. Landry Parish and entered the university on September 15th, 1909.

Neyland was active in student life. He served as a private in “B” Company of the Military Department, and joined the Graham Literary Society at the university. During his senior year (1912-1913) Neyland became a Lieutenant in “C” Company of the Military Department. An editor’s note in the 1913 Gumbo specifically makes reference to him in “C” Company’s description:

“Taken as a whole ‘C’ Company is some gun on the campus. Day and night drill and other military performances have initiated into us loyal emotions, especially into the heart of our fond Lieutenant, J.J. Neyland, who says that when the jaybird pipes his tuneful lay and the sweet reminder of the dawn sounds, his heart flaps up and down like a churn dasher and he utters unmentionable phrases.”

He was also involved in The Grand and Exalted Order of the Hoboes, an informal social club, and served as an aide to the President in his senior year. Neyland graduated from Louisiana State University in 1914 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree - his senior quote reads “Virtue! I love, yet tread the path of crime.”

Jasper Neyland worked as both a faculty member at Sulphur High School and an employee of the Sulphur Company before attending Officers’ Training School at Leon Springs, Texas. Having been commissioned as a First Lieutenant in the later part of 1917, Neyland was assigned to El, Paso, Texas, where he saw his first action when leading a detachment of soldiers against Mexican raiders on the ground of the International Bridge over the Rio Grande River at El Paso. Towards the end of June 1918, Neyland was sent overseas for duty as a 1st Lieutenant in the AEF, American Expeditionary Forces, and hit the front three weeks after arriving in France. He was part of the first major and distinctly American offensive, the attack on the St. Mihiel salient in France led by General John J. Pershing (1860-1948), Neyland served on the front from July 1918 until his death on November 10, 1918, tragically just one day before the armistice and end of hostilities. Jasper Joseph Neyland died instantly when hit by shrapnel in Thiaucourt, a village in the St. Mihiel salient, France. He was buried in Jaulny, France, but his remains were returned home in 1921. The letter from his superior officer regarding his death describes him as “…a noble boy, ready to meet his God, unusually beloved by his men, and respected and admired by his fellow officers.”

The American Legion Post 209 in Opelousas, Louisiana, is named for Neyland. Neyland’s descriptive and heartfelt letters from camp and the warfront to his girlfriend, Elsie Walker, are housed in the J. P. Knox and Family Papers in LSU Libraries Special Collections.

Written by Christian Westholz