Lt.(CSA), Robert Winship Stedman

Lt. Robert Winship Stedman. According to Jordan's "North Carolina Troops," Volumes I and III, Winship Stedman resided in Cumberland County at the time of his enlistment. He served in the 1st NC (Bethel) Regiment for six months; in Second Company B, 36th NC (a/k/a Starr's Light Battery, 2nd NC Artillery) for nine months; in Company D, 61st NC for one year; and in Company A, 44th NC until the end of the war. He won singular distinctions in three of those outfits.

Robert Winship Stedman was a civil war hero who fought in the battle of Fort Wagner as a member of the 61st North Carolina Infantry. He is credited with firing an abandoned cannon, stopping a Yankee boat. There was no braver soldier among the hosts of the Confederate army than Robert Winship Stedman, wrote the Wilmington Journal after the battle.

Lt. Robert Winship Stedman, of the 44th N. C., at the Battle of the Wilderness:

"The Forty-fourth marched by way of the Plank Road and became heavily engaged about 2 o'clock of the afternoon of the 5th. The right rested immediately upon the Plank Road, and next in line to it, with its left on the road, was the Twenty-sixth North Carolina Regiment. This immediate locality was the storm center of the fight, and it is doubtful if any more violent and sanguinary contest occurred during the entire Civil War than just here. The road was swept by an incessant hurricane of fire, and to attempt to cross it meant almost certain death.

At this point of the line three pieces of Confederate artillery were seriously menaced with capture, the horses belonging to the guns having all been killed or disabled, whilst the gunners were subjected to an incessant and murderous fire. At this juncture Lieutenant R.W. Stedman, of Company A, volunteered to drag the guns down the road out of danger if a detail of forty men was furnished. Forty men immediately stepped to his side and said they would follow him, although they all knew the effort was full of peril.

The work was done successfully, but only three of the volunteers escaped unhurt. Lieutenant Stedman was severely wounded by grapeshot. For his personal gallantry in this action he was honorably mentioned in high terms of praise, in an official order from division headquarters."

Major Charles M. Stedman - 44th North Carolina (his brother)

Robert died Sept. 19, 1868 in a duel with Dr. William Morrow, a surgeon at a Fayetteville Hotel on Hay Street. They had argued following an out-of-town political convention. Dr. Morrow shot Stedman in the heart. Stedman shot Morrow in the chest and thigh. Both men died.

"North Carolina, Church Records, 1700-1970", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSVY-CP26?cc=2790262 : 20 May 2021), > image 1 of 1.

• Military_service: North Carolina, United States - 1861
• Military_service: United States - from 1861 to 1865
• Military_service: North Carolina, United States - 1862
• Residence: North Carolina, United States
  • Reference: FamilySearch Genealogy - SmartCopy: Jul 7 2022, 13:13:27 UTC