He entered the military service of the Confederate States Army in 1861 and served throughout the Civil War.

[3][4] Lester was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-first and to the eight succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1889, until his death in Washington, D.C., on June 16, 1906.

He died after an accident in which he fell through a skylight on the roof of The Cairo, the Washington, D.C. apartment building where he resided.

[5] Lester went to the roof to look for his two young grandchildren and apparently missed his footing, fell about 30 feet through the skylight, and landed on the building's eleventh floor.

[7] This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress