George E. Stephens (c. 1832 – April 24, 1888) was a 1st Sergeant and 1st and 2nd Lieutenant in the

54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry The 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment is an infantry regiment that saw extensive service in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The unit was the second African-American regiment, following the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantr ...

, an

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

Union regiment, and a

war correspondent A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories first-hand from a war, war zone. War correspondence stands as one of journalism's most important and impactful forms. War correspondents operate in the most conflict-ridden parts of the wor ...

to the New York '' Weekly Anglo-African''.

Early life

Stephens was born in about 1832 in Philadelphia, where his family had moved from Virginia the previous year to escape the white violence which arose following

Nat Turner Nat Turner (October 2, 1800 – November 11, 1831) was an enslaved Black carpenter and preacher who led a four-day rebellion of both enslaved and free Black people in Southampton County, Virginia in August 1831. Nat Turner's Rebellion res ...

’s rebellion. His father, William Stephens, worked as a bootblack, waiter, and laborer, and became a lay preacher in the First African Baptist Church, a strongly

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was Kingdom of France, France in 1315, but it was later used ...

congregation active in the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was an organized network of secret routes and safe houses used by freedom seekers to escape to the abolitionist Northern United States and Eastern Canada. Enslaved Africans and African Americans escaped from slavery ...

. is school Records are not recorded

Education

George Stephens was well educated, likely in schools operated by the Quakers and the

Pennsylvania Abolition Society The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage was the first American abolition society. It was founded April 14, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and held four meetings. Seventeen of the 24 men who attended initia ...

Career

He worked as a cabinet maker, with stints also as an upholsterer and as a sailor.Donald Yacovone, editor, ''A Voice of Thunder. The Civil War Letters of George E. Stephens,'' University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL, 1998, 392 pages. . . After the Civil War, he initially worked in conjunction with the

Freedmen's Bureau The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, usually referred to as simply the Freedmen's Bureau, was a U.S. government agency of early post American Civil War Reconstruction, assisting freedmen (i.e., former enslaved people) in the ...

educating newly freed slaves in Virginia. For a time he worked in Philadelphia, and later moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he died in 1888.

Community activism

Together with 15 other associates, in 1853 he founded a literary society and library named the Banneker Institute in honor of the African-American mathematician

Benjamin Banneker Benjamin Banneker (November 9, 1731October 19, 1806) was an American Natural history, naturalist, mathematician, astronomer and almanac author. A Land tenure, landowner, he also worked as a surveying, surveyor and farmer. Born in Baltimore Co ...

. He also became active in the Underground Railroad. During his time at sea during 1857–1858, Stephens was nearly enslaved in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...

, building his hatred of slavery even higher than his earlier strong abolitionist views.

Military service

Like a great many northern African-Americans, once the civil war broke out Stephens was outraged and frustrated by the Federal government's initial unwillingness to allow them to fight against the South. Stephens signed on as the cook and personal servant of Benjamin C. Tilghman, an officer in the Army of the Potomac's 26th Regiment. He began sending his war correspondence to the New York ''Weekly Anglo-African'' during his service with the 26th. After the

— the first regiment enlisting free Northern blacks — began forming during March 1863, Stephens argued strongly for black support of the regiment, and recruited enlistees for several months, He himself reported for duty as a 1st Sergeant on April 30, 1863. He was in the heart of the assault on

Fort Wagner Fort Wagner or Battery Wagner was a beachhead fortification on Morris Island, South Carolina, that covered the southern approach to Charleston Harbor. Named for deceased Lt. Col. Thomas M. Wagner, it was the site of two American Civil War ba ...

in Charleston Harbor on July 18, 1863, being wounded and barely escaping capture. He fought through the war with the 54th Massachusetts, receiving field commissions as a 2nd Lieutenant and then as a 1st Lieutenant, mustering out of the army in August 1865.

References