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.