Lafayette Stevens

An 18 year old farmer at Richardsonville in the Edgefield District, he enlisted as Private, Company K, 14th South Carolina Infantry about 1 September 1861.

He was wounded in action near Harpers Ferry, probably on Maryland Heights on 13 September 1862.

He was surrendered with his Company at Appomattox Court House, VA on 9 April 1865.

In 1870 he was a farmer in Gray, Edgefield County, next door to his brother William. In April 1875 he and his brother killed a man named Mitchell O'Neil Glover, a veteran of the 2nd SC Cavalry in a dispute over land [news clip]. He later moved to Newberry County. He was killed by a pistol shot in 1892 at age 49. The local newspaper had it as an innocent accident. Another paper however, was a little more dramatic:

ANOTHER EDGEFIELD KILLING
This Time It Was Over Politics, and Was Superinduced by Liquor.

Mr. Lafayette Stevens was killed near Chappels, S. C, on Saturday evening at about 8 o'clock by Mr. John Watkins. The altercation was brought about by a heated political discussion.

Mr. Stephens has long borne the reputation in Edgefield of being a desperate man.

Some years ago he killed Mr. M. O. Glover on the streets of Edgefield without any provocation whatever. The bullet entered the left breast, killing him instantly. Mr. Watkins is a bright and promising, young man. Both were under the influence of liquor.

His service from the Roll 1 and the index to his Compiled Service Records via the Historical Data Systems database, both as Lafayette Stevens. His capture at Appomattox on the Park Service parole list [pdf] as Lafayette E. Stevens. Personal details from the US Census of 1860 and 1870, and from family genealogists, at least one of whom has him as T. Lafayette Stevens. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

His older brother Wesley, also in Company K, was killed at Gettysburg.

The Glover killing from a piece in the Atlanta Daily Herald of 22 April 1875, pg. 1, probably re-printed from the Augusta (GA) Chronicle & Sentinel. The accidental version of his death from a story in the Newberry Herald and News of 27 April 1892, pg. 3. The more lurid account, quoted above, from the Winston-Salem Western Sentinel of 5 May 1892.

He married Josephine Johnson (1845-1907) in August 1865 and they had 2 children.

02/24/1843 in SC

04/23/1892; Chappells, SC; burial in Chestnut Hill Baptist Church Cemetery, Chappells, SC