Stepter, James F.

Private in Company B of the 6th Maryland Regiment Infantry, a company from Cecil County, Maryland, during the Civil War.

From the description of Papers of James F. Stepter, 1862-1864. (University of Maryland Libraries). WorldCat record id: 36362467

James F. Stepter served as a private in the Union Army during the Civil War. On August 14, 1862, he enlisted in Company B of the 6th Maryland Regiment Infantry, a company from Cecil County. Stepter was wounded and captured on May 5, 1864, at the Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia. He died while a prisoner of war at Andersonville, Georgia, allegedly on October 4, 1864.

The Stepter family lived in Elkton, Maryland, in Cecil County, prior to the Civil War. According to the 1860 federal census, James F. Stepter was twenty-seven-year-old weaver. His was Amanda was twenty-six years old at the time of the census, and the couple had a three-year-old son named William (Will) and a one-year-old daughter named Sarah E. (Ema). A third child named Sean was born before Stepter's enlistment. At some point after James Stepter entered the Union army, his wife and family moved to Chester, Pennsylvania. Amanda Stepter was born in Pennsylvania, and Chester may have been her hometown. Although Amanda Stepter traveled to Elkton on at least one occasion, it appears that the family remained in Chester for the period covered by these letters.

From the guide to the James Stepter papers, 1862-1864, 1862-1864, (State of Maryland and Historical Collections)