Enlisted from Will County August 21, 1862 and was mustered out June 12, 1865, after participating in the Grand Review at Washington, D.C.

His first military pay was a twenty-dollar gold piece which he sent home to his mother. The gold piece has remained in the family since. When the government was ordering the return of gold, family heirloom jewelry was excepted. Keven Stephenson’s great-aunt had the gold piece enclosed in a band and turned into a necklace to avoid having to surrender it.