Griffin Alexander Stedman, Jr.

A lawyer practicing in Philadelphia, he enrolled as a Captain, Company I, 5th Connecticut Infantry on 22 June 1861, and was appointed Major, 11th Connecticut Infantry on 27 November 1861. He was promoted Lieutenant Colonel on Charles Matthewson's resignation in June 1862.

He was senior officer present and in command of the Regiment after Colonel Kingsbury was killed on 17 September. He was himself wounded in the leg in action at Antietam.

He was made Colonel of the Regiment on 25 September 1862. He was mortally wounded in action at Petersburg, VA on 5 August 1864 while in command of the Brigade, and died there the next day. He was honored by brevet to Brigadier General. Fort Stedman in the Federal lines at Petersburg, VA - site of a battle on 25 March 1865 - was named for him.

His photograph from a CDV offered for sale by Heritage Auctions in 2014. Some biographical details from a sketch posted by the Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation. Military details from Ingersoll1. There is a significant monument to him in Barry Square, Hartford.

For more detail, see a 2003 paper on Stedman by Trinity graduate student Suzanne Mittica. She notes that his Report on Antietam [dated 23 September 1862, to Col. Harland, Commanding 3rd Div. 9th Army Corps] is in the Watkinson Library, Trinity College, Hartford, CT.

01/06/1838; Hartford, CT

08/06/1864; Petersburg, VA; burial in Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford, CT