Pvt. Foster Stevens

Portrait of Pvt. Foster Stevens. Stevens was killed in France nine days before the end of World War I. His family received notice of his death on November 30, 1918, after their joyous celebration for the end of the Great War.

On June 12, on the sixth day of fighting, a replacement unit of 125 newly minted Marines arrived on the battlefield. Among them, muster records show, was a young North Carolina private named Foster Stevens, who was assigned to the 83rd Company of Sibley’s 3rd Battalion. He had turned 25 the day before his arrival at Belleau Wood.

The youngest son and the third of 10 children born to a modestly prosperous cotton farmer, he had volunteered for the Marines in January 1918, nine months after the United States officially entered the war.

A reasonable guess is that he was killed by a sniper, one of the dozens who, according to witness accounts, continued to harass the Marines as the German lines fell back.

In the end, he had a name and a grave, which is more than many had.

People in photo include: Foster Stevens