War Records, series 1, vol. xii., “History of 79th Highlanders,” by William Todd; The One Hundredth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, Roundheads; James C. Stevenson, Michigan in the War, Maine in the War; Bates’s History of Pennsylvania Volunteers.
The only reports of the battle of Chantilly by Union officers who took part in it are those of General Birney and Captain Randolph, and they are very brief. There are actually no reports from any officers of General Stevens’s or General Reno’s division, owing to the death of the commanders—Reno fell at South Mountain a few days later—and the rapid changes in, and movements of, the troops in the Maryland campaign, which immediately followed.
CHAPTER LIX
FINAL SCENE
After the successful charge Colonel Morrison sent an officer to report that General Stevens had fallen, and that the enemy had been driven back. General Reno, to whom the report was made, returned orders to bury General Stevens on the field, and to fall back. The Highlanders reverently and tenderly bore away the body of their beloved commander and placed it in an ambulance, from which one of their number, although wounded, willingly alighted to give room. The remains were taken to Washington to the house of his dear friend, John L. Hayes, and thence to Newport, R.I.
General Reno’s apparently unfeeling order excited great indignation among the Highlanders.
At the very moment of his heroic death General Stevens was being considered by the President and his advisers as commander of the armies in Virginia. Mr. Hayes was assured of the fact by a member of the cabinet, and it was currently stated in the press. Certain it is that ignoble personal rivalries and jealousies could not have kept him down much longer.
He was appointed and confirmed a major-general, to rank from July 4, 1862.
He was only forty-four years, five months, and seven days of age when he fell.
The stern old Puritan Abolitionist, his aged father, died August 22, only ten days previous. He frequently declared that he should never see Isaac again, that he knew his spirit too well, that he would surely be killed in battle, and it was thought that brooding over this idea hastened his own death.