362 Chroneles of the Cape Fear River

teen he enlisted as a private in the Confederate service in
Company D, First North Carolina Heavy Artillery, January
13, 1865, and was given a position as courier for Major General
Whiting. While serving in this capacity he was with the troops
at Fort Fisher, and on January 15, 1865, during the bombard-
ment and assault of that stronghold, was wounded. He was

taken prisoner with the garrison and confined for six months
at Point Lookout, being released June 9, 1865.

Maj. James Martin Stevenson entered the Confederate Army
at the beginning of the war as first lieutenant of a company
raised by Capt. J. J. Hedrick.

Soon after the seizure of Fort Johnston, Lieutenant Steven-
son was ordered to Fort Caswell as ordnance officer, and while
there three young men from Sampson County raised a company
and offered him the captaincy, which he accepted. This com-
pany was attached to the Thirty-sixth Regiment and ordered to
Fort Fisher, where Captain Stevenson was made major of the
regiment. Major Stevenson remained at Fort Fisher until he
was ordered to reinforce General Hardee in Georgia. There he
was highly complimented for his cool bravery and tact in cover-
ing General Hardee’s retreat. He took with him to Georgia five
companies from the Thirty-sixth Regiment.

Major Stevenson was again remanded to his regiment at Fort
Fisher, where he arrived just after the attack in December,
1864. On the 13th of January, 1865, the attack was renewed.
In the battle Major Stevenson was hurled from the parapet by
the explosion of an eleven-inch shell. He fell bleeding in the
fort below the battery and was carried a prisoner to Fort Colum-
bus, Governor’s Island, N. Y., where he died. He did his whole
duty and did it well. Wilmington had no nobler son.

James C. Stevenson and Daniel S. Stevenson were worthy
sons of Maj. James M. Stevenson, of Wilmington. Both en-
listed in the Confederate Army when they were much below the
service age limit. James, for a time, was employed on the
North Carolina steamer Advance; afterwards he served in the
field as a private in Company A, Thirty-sixth Regiment, North
Carolina Troops. He survived the war, and was for many years
a prominent merchant, a most estimable citizen, and an active

Christian worker. He died April 13, 1907, lamented by the

community.
Daniel Stevenson was an efficient member of the Confederate

States Signal Corps, and was detailed for active service with

The War Between the States 363

the blockade runners, on several of which he served with ereat
coolness under fire. He was captured in 1865 off Galveston and
imprisoned until the war ended. His last exploit was running
through the blockade in daylight in the steamer Little Hattie,
which drew the fire of the whole fleet, but anchored compara-
tively uninjured under the guns of Fort Fisher. Dan Steven-
son was a young man of most amiable, generous impulses, and
was greatly esteemed by his associates for his many excellent
qualities. He died shortly after the termination of the war.
Capt. William M. Stevenson was elected one of the lieuten-

ants of Company B, Sixty-first Regiment of North Carolina
Troops, of which James D. Radcliffe of Wilmington was colonel
and William S. Devane lieutenant-colonel and subsequently
colonel. At the Battle of Fort Harrison, in Virginia, Septem-
ber, 1864, while in command of the company, to which position

he had succeeded, he was captured and taken to Fort Delaware,
where he was confined until the surrender.

Captain Stevenson’s service in the field was continuous from
his enlistment in 1861 up to the last of 1864, including the
action at Fort Hatteras and the campaigns of the Army of

Northern Virginia.

Rev. Dr. James Menzies Sprunt, who was principal of the
Grove Academy, went to the front with the Duplin Rifles and
became chaplain of the Twentieth Regiment, North Carolina
Troops, commanded by Colonel Iverson, in Garland’s brigade,
D. H. Hill’s division, under Stonewall Jackson. General Hill,
who greatly admired him, said he was one of the few chaplains
always at the front on the battlefield. He served throughout

the men of his regiment, and was greatly
me in Duplin County throughout his honored

major of the Sixth Battalion,
The battalion was as well drilled and as

disciplined as any command in the Confederate

= . John F. S. VanBokkelen left Harvard College in 1861
n returned to Wilmington, where he aided in raising a com-
— which was assigned to the Third North Carolina Infantry
nse D, Edward Savage, captain; E. G. Meares, first
tr nant; and John F. S. VanBokkelen, second lieutenant.

€ served through the Seven Days’ Battles around Richmond,

and at Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville with
conspicuous bravery,