Biographical Sketches of the Generals of the Continental Army

Adam Stephen

Adam Stephen, born in Virginia about 1730, served first as captain, then colonel, under Washington throughout the French and Indian War, aiding materially in bringing that struggle to a close. At the beginning of the Revolution, Virginia gave him command of one of her seven regiments, and Sept. 4, 1776, Congress appointed him brigadier-general in the Continental army, promoting him to major-general Feb. 19, 1777. He was at the battle of Brandywine; but at Germantown his division became involved in a combat with the troops of Anthony Wayne, owing to a fog. Stephen was held responsible for the blunder, court-martialled, and dismissed from the service in October, 1777. He died in his native State in November of 1791.