Mount Union borough, Springfield township

Frank D. Stevens: captured twice, then the hardware counter

Frank D. Stevens was born in 1841 in Springfield Township, the twelfth child of Benedict and Eve Orr Stevens. He learned the carpenter's trade, and in the spring of 1862 he joined Company I of the 12th Pennsylvania Reserves as a private.

In June 1862, during the fighting on the Peninsula, he was taken prisoner and held four weeks at Castle Thunder in Richmond. He was wounded twice at Fredericksburg in December 1862, once in the head and once in the arm, and spent the winter in a Rhode Island hospital. He returned to the regiment in the spring of 1863 and was made second lieutenant.

His brother David W. Stevens, a sergeant in the same company, was killed in battle on May 8, 1864. The regimental history says that the next day Stevens wrapped the body in his own blanket, and was laying him in the grave at the moment General Sedgwick fell a few rods away.

On June 13, 1864, while his corps was moving to cross the James, he was captured again with part of his company, which had just become Company D of the 190th Pennsylvania. He had been commissioned first lieutenant, dated June 6, though the state roster says he was not mustered at that rank. He was held a week in Libby Prison, then at Macon, Georgia, and from about August 1 at Savannah, where, by his own account, an escape tunnel failed when a cow walking outside the stockade broke through its mouth.

About September 10 he was moved to the city jail yard in Charleston, South Carolina, where, he wrote, the prisoners were exposed to the fire of the Union guns on Morris Island. The 1883 county history and the 1909 Mount Union history count him among 600 Union officers held there under that fire, the same number the National Park Service gives. In October he was sent to Columbia, South Carolina. He wrote that some said the move came because the Union had placed Confederate prisoners on Morris Island under fire of their own guns, and others said it was yellow fever. At Columbia the prisoners spent most of the winter in an open field with no shelter, living in holes they dug in the ground. In February 1865 he was sent to Wilmington, North Carolina, and in March he was exchanged on parole. An 1897 family sketch says he was twice captured and spent ten months in prison.

The records differ on how his service ended. His own account gives an honorable discharge at Camp Parole on April 17, 1865, and says that two or three days later he joined the procession that followed the President's remains from the White House to the Capitol. The 1883 and 1909 histories also give April 17. The 1876 county history gives March 16, 1865.

After the war he graduated from Iron City Commercial College in Pittsburgh and taught there for six months. In March 1867 he entered the hardware business in Mount Union. The 1883 county history calls his store the pioneer hardware store in town. He had joined the Methodist Episcopal church in 1866 and served it as a trustee and steward. The 1909 Mount Union history says his efforts were an important factor in putting up the Methodist church building of that day, and that the bell calling its members to worship was "the result of the generosity of Frank D. Stevens of California."

In October 1884 he sold his business and moved to California because of his wife's health. In October 1885 he went into the hardware business in Pasadena, where the 1890 regimental history calls him the senior member of The Stevens Hardware Company. The 1909 Mount Union history says he was still in the hardware business there.

Checked against the record. We checked the 1876 and 1883 county histories, the 1890 history of the 12th Reserves with its sketch of Stevens, an 1897 family sketch, the 1909 history of Mount Union, and the state rosters printed by Bates, and we read the dates that matter on the page images. Every source that gives a date puts his second capture on June 13, 1864. They differ on other points. His birthday is March 13 in the 1883 and 1890 accounts and March 30 in the 1909 history, so the story gives only the year. They differ on the day he enlisted and on his first capture, which the roster places at Gaines' Mill and the 1883 history places the day after Mechanicsville, so the story gives only the month. The roster of the 12th Reserves spells his name Stephens. The sources also differ on his mother's parentage: three accounts name her Eve Orr, while the 1897 sketch makes her the daughter of Rev. Herminius Ow, so the story follows the three. The count of 600 comes from the histories and the National Park Service; we have not seen a list of those officers. Still open: we could not reach his National Archives service record, which might settle the discharge date, and we have not found when he died. The sources show him alive in 1890, and the 1909 history quotes a recent communication from him. The 1909 history calls his store the first hardware store in town; we have not tested that against a directory, so the word pioneer stays with the 1883 history. The 1883 history puts his store at Shirley and Jefferson streets, while the 1909 history puts his early business at Jefferson and Water streets and says he later built a stand in the center of town, so the story names no corner.

Sources

Checked 2026-11-01 · Primary sources and the Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive

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