Stephen Elliott, Jr.

Stephen Elliott Jr. (October 26, 1830 – February 21, 1866) was a Confederate States Army brigadier general during the American Civil War. He was a planter, state legislator in South Carolina and militia officer before the Civil War and a fisherman after the war. Elliott again was elected to the state legislature after the war but was unable to serve due to his early death.

Early life Stephen Elliott Jr. was born on October 26, 1830 in Beaufort, South Carolina. Elliott's first immigrant ancestor to America was John Lewis Elliott who was himself the youngest son of famed British Major-General Granville Elliott. Stephen Elliott Jr. was the eldest son of Rev. Stephen Elliott and Ann Hutson Habersham. Rev. Elliott was a large plantation owner as well as a preacher to the Black people of the area.

Education After studying at Harvard College for a time, he graduated from South Carolina College in 1850. He became a planter on Parris Island, South Carolina.

American Civil War General Elliott in Fort Sumter, after a painting by James Reeve Stuart, veteran of the Beaufort volunteer artillery company and cousin of the general's wife, Charlotte Stuart (1833-1868). Elliott served in the Confederate States Army within South Carolina from the beginning of the Civil War in 1861 until the spring of 1864, advancing from captain to colonel. On July 30, 1864, Elliott's brigade was defending the Confederate line at Elliott's Salient near the spot the Union Army's mine blew, which precipitated the Battle of the Crater. Elliott was asleep in a "bombproof" near the line and awakened to find the destruction and chaos surrounding him. Finding no troops nearby since he was close to the site of the explosion, he went to find his remaining men and organize a counterattack in line with a previous plan to deal with such a mine attack. After finding two of his regiments mainly intact, Elliott led them forward, positioning them to defend against an assault and to counterattack. Elliott joined General Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Tennessee in North Carolina, where he led a brigade of former Charleston defenders and largely untested soldiers. From January 2, 1865, through March 1865, the brigade was in Taliaferro's division of Hardee's corps. At the point where the Confederate retreat halted, in the middle of an artillery barrage, Elliott tried to reform his brigade for another assault, despite receiving a piece of shrapnel in his leg. In the event, Confederate commanders saw that the brigade was too shaken to make another attack and they were ordered simply to kneel or lie down and hold their ground. Elliott had again received another serious wound. Elliott had been sent home to convalesce from his latest wound before Johnston's surrender. Although the Eichers found no record of his parole or pardon,

Aftermath After the Civil War, Elliott found that his plantation property had been seized for nonpayment of taxes and distributed to his former slaves. They treated him well upon his return but it made it clear that the land no longer belonged to him. at Aiken, South Carolina. He was buried in St. Helena's Episcopal Churchyard at Beaufort, South Carolina.