Major C. M. Stedman, of the 44th North Carolina Regiment

Just returned from the Abbeville Institute conference at Stone Mountain and was able to visit the new Memorial Walk on the lawn in front of the huge carving of Davis, Lee and Jackson. The Walk contains stops for each State in the American Confederacy, and I was deeply honored to assist Dr. Clyde Wilson with the text and images of the North Carolina block pictured below. The image of Captain Claudius Denson’s “Duplin Greys” [which later became Company E, 20^th North Carolina Regiment] was used; and we also noted Major Charles M. Stedman, the last Southern veteran to serve in Congress. Many thanks to Dr. Don Livingston of the Abbeville Institute for his herding the Memorial Walk project along.

Born in Pittsboro, Stedman enlisted in the Fayetteville Light Infantry in 1861 and campaigned with Lee and Jackson -- wounded three times. At the sad retreat of Lee’s army from Petersburg to Appomattox in 1865, General Louis G. Young of Georgia said of Major Stedman: “In my memory is vividly stamped the face and figure of Major C. M. Stedman, of the 44^th North Carolina Regiment, as he advanced to meet me, his sword drawn and raised, saying in loud tones: “Our men are ready to advance and only await the command.” I was very much tempted to give the command, and many a time since wished I had.”

After the war Stedman married Katherine DeRosset Wright, daughter of Joshua Grainger Wright. He established the law practice of Wright & Stedman in 1867, was elected lieutenant-governor of North Carolina in 1884, serving from 1885-1889, and in 1898 moved to Greensboro. He owned the impressive Taylor home on Market Street which he sold to the Wilmington Light Infantry in the early 1890’s. He is buried in Fayetteville’s Cross Creek Cemetery.

Both the Duplin Greys and Stedman are now properly immortalized in Georgia granite at the Stone Mountain memorial.

Bernhard Thuersam

From Free North Carolina