David Y. Stevens 
David Y. Stevens
11th Illinois Cavalry Company
"I"
David Y. Stevens was born about 1831 in Fayette Co., Tennessee. His parents were David and Sarah Stevens who had come from Johnston Co., North Carolina to Fayette Co., Tennessee around 1830. His father died in 1835 and his mother remarried. David Y. had two brothers and two half-brothers. The family moved from Tennessee to Tippah Co., Mississippi around 1850. In 1851, David Y. married Susannah Ruth Ann Graham and by the time he enlisted in the Union Army in August 1862 he and Susannah had four children. A son-Joseph James Ezekiel, daughters-Sarah Cordelia, Alice Susannah Bell, and Margaret Tennessee. Another son, David Young Stevens would be born in 1864.
David Y. and his brother, T.P.D. Stevens, and a half-brother, John B. Sasser all enlisted in Company "I" of the 11th Illinois Cavalry. They left Tippah Co., Mississippi and "kept to the woods" as quoted by Susannah Stevens until they reached the Union Army camp in Bethel Spring, Tennessee. In March of 1863 Davis Y. was detached to Company "G" 1st Alabama Cavalry (Old) and he remained with this company for about a year. In July of 1864 he was reported sick in General Hospital in Vicksburg, Mississippi from there he was sent to Memphis, Tennessee. And in August of 1864 was in the Gayoso Hospital. He died in the hospital of chronic diarrhea on September 18, 1864. His burial place is unknown.
1st Alabama Union Cavalry Co. "C"
Flag photos courtesy of Illinois National Guard