Stevens served several years at sea as secretary to two relatives who were United States Navy officers, Commodore (later Rear Admiral) William Shubrick and Commodore William Bee. Stevens married a sister of future Confederate Brigadier Generals Barnard Bee and Hamilton Bee, his cousins.Boatner, Mark Mayo, III. The Civil War Dictionary. New York: McKay, 1988. . First published New York, McKay, 1959. p. 796 By 1842, he had become a bank cashier at Charleston, South Carolina. He also became an ordnance expert. In December 1860, when South Carolina seceded from the Union, Stevens also was a member of a railroad construction company.
