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[860] S. C. His father dying shortly after, the family remained in Pendleton, and at the age of fifteen the subject of this notice entered the South Carolina military academy in Charleston, and graduated first in his class in November, 1849. After two years service as a civil engineer on the location and construction of the Laurens & Yorkville railroad, he was appointed a professor in the Arsenal academy at Columbia, in January, 1852. In January, 1853, he was transferred to the Citadel, at Charleston, as professor of mathematics, and in 1859 succeeded Maj. F. W. Capers as superintendent of that academy. In the meantime he had received a call to enter the ministry of the gospel and had been pursuing his studies to that end. The secession of South Carolina having led to the occupation of Fort Sumter by General Anderson, Major Stevens was directed by Governor Pickens to take a detachment of State cadets and occupy a battery of three 24-pounder guns, facing the channel off Morris island, with the orders, ‘Fire on any vessel entering the harbor bearing the United States flag.’ On the 9th of January, 1861, the steamship Star of the West was stopped and turned back by the fire of the battery under his command. Subsequently he was placed in command of the Iron battery, constructed by his brother, C. H. Stevens, who was by his side during the bombardment of Fort Sumter in April, 1861. The battery consisted of three 8-inch columbiads and was manned by the Palmetto Guard, Captain Cuthbert, from Charleston. The battery was struck several times, the balls from Fort Sumter glancing harmlessly from its inclined roof. In October, 1861, Major Stevens resigned the superintendency of the Citadel academy to carry out his purpose of entering the ministry, and was ordained and placed in charge of Trinity parish, Black Oak, Charleston county. Almost immediately upon this the enemy took Port Royal, and the invasion of the State being imminent, Mr. Stevens offered his services to Governor Pickens, who authorized him to raise a legion of infantry, cavalry and artillery. Mrs. Pickens, who was a Miss Holcombe, being present at the interview, when the governor asked what name he should give the legion, Colonel Stevens replied, bowing toward Mrs. Pickens, ‘The Holcombe Legion.’ Both the governor and the lady smiled and accepted the name. Colonel Stevens was engaged during the year 1862 in
Atlanta, Ga. 1899.
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