Col. Peter F. Stevens, CSA
Class of 1849
Hometown: Pendelton, SC
- 1st Honor Graduate of the class of 1849.
- 4th Superintendent of The Citadel, 1859-1861.
- Stevens commanded the cadet battery on Morris Island that fired the historic first shots of the Civil War, on January 9, 1861.
- Stevens accepted a flag for the cadet battery on Morris Island, from the Ladies of the Hugh Vincent family. This flag is described in a news report shortly after the firing on the Star of the West as having a blood red field on which appeared a "remarkably executed white palmetto tree." It is believed this flag came into the possession of a Union soldier at the end of the war who donated it to the State Historical Society of Iowa. On March 19, 2010, the Historical Society agreed for The Citadel Alumni Association to display the flag in the Association's Holiday Alumni Center. This flag has become the official "Spirit flag" of the South Carolina Corps of Cadets.
- A deeply religious man, Stevens had become an ordained minister in the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1859, and in 1861 resigned his position at the Citadel Academy to enter the Church ministry. However, in 1862, he acceded to a request from the governor of South Carolina and organized The Holcombe Legion. Elected Colonel, he commanded the unit in defense of Charleston, the First Battle of Rappahannock Station, the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of South Mountain and the Battle of Antietam during which Stevens was severely wounded.
- Upon recovering from his wounds, Stevens refused a promotion to brigadier general and returned to the ministry. After the war, Stevens took up the cause of ministering to former slaves, known as Freedmen. He organized parishes in the Charleston area and founded the Bishop Cummins Training School in 1876 (now the Cummins Memorial Theological Seminary) as a seminary for blacks.
- When the Protestant Episcopal Church refused to ordain black ministers, Stevens left the Church, and in 1879, he was elected the first Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church, a position he held for 30 years. Stevens is credited with establishing 27 "freedmen's churches" some of which are still in operation today.
- In addition to his work with the Reformed Episcopal Church, Stevens served as professor of mathematics at Claflin College an historic black college in Orangeburg, SC.
- Stevens, together with other prominent alumni of the SCMA, spearheaded the successful effort to revive the Association of Graduates and recover the Citadel Academy and grounds from the US War Department. This was accomplished in 1879, and The Citadel reopened as a military college in 1882.