Walter Stewart (1756 – June 16, 1796) was an Irish-born American military officer who served in the American Revolutionary War. Stewart began his military career as captain of a Continental Army company at the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. He served as an aide-de-camp to Horatio Gates for a year with the rank of major.
Given command of the Pennsylvania State Regiment, which later became the 13th Pennsylvania Regiment, Stewart led his troops with distinction at Brandywine and Germantown in 1777. He was wounded while leading a detachment at the Battle of Monmouth in the summer of 1778. Despite Stewart's ability to cool tensions during the 1780 mutiny of the Connecticut Line, his regiment later became involved in the Pennsylvania Line Mutiny.
He was married in Philadelphia in 1781 before going south with the army to fight in the siege of Yorktown. Following the end of the siege, Stewart was deeply involved in the Newburgh Conspiracy. Following a term as Inspector General, he retired from the army at the beginning of 1783, and became a successful Philadelphia businessman and a major general in the Pennsylvania Militia. He died on June 16, 1796, during an outbreak of yellow fever.
Early life He was a younger son of David and Isabella Stewart of Letterkenny, County Donegal, and in 1772 was sent to join the trading house of Conyngham and Nesbitt in Philadelphia. By 1779 he was a partner in that concern which had been established by his mother’s brother, Redmond Conyngham, thirty years earlier.Horace Edwin Hayden (ed.), The Reminscences of David Hayfield Conyngham, a Hero of the Revolution and Head of the Revolutionary House of Conyngham and Nesbitt, Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, 1904, pp. 10 and 36 ; John W. Jordan (ed.), Colonial Families of Philadelphia, The Lewis Publishing Company, New York, 1911, Vol. I, p. 770.
Military career
Early career
In January 1776 he was appointed captain of Company F, 3rd Pennsylvania Battalion. The eight company strong 3rd Battalion was authorized on December 9, 1775, and organized between January and March 1776 in Philadelphia. It joined George Washington's main army on June 11, 1776, and was assigned to Thomas Mifflin's brigade.Wright, 262 However, in May Stewart was promoted to major and became aide-de-camp to Horatio Gates when that general transferred to the Northern Department. In December 1776, Gates returned to the Philadelphia area with the Northern Department's New Jersey and Pennsylvania regiments.Boatner, 412 That November, Congress voted Stewart a $100 sword as recognition of his services.Loane, Colonel Walter Stewart
One Continental Army private recalled that the ladies of Philadelphia called the good-looking Stewart the "Irish Beauty". Another observer described him as, "of fair, florid complexion, vivacious, intelligent and well-educated, and, it was said, was the handsomest man in the American army". On June 17, 1777, Stewart was named commander of the Pennsylvania State Regiment, which later became the 13th Pennsylvania Regiment.
Stewart, who was Gates' subordinate for over a year, took his former chief's side in the political struggle between Gates and his rival Philip Schuyler. When Gates assumed command of the Northern Department in August 1777, Stewart wrote him, "You can't Imagine my Dear Sir, the Satisfaction it gives me your being sent back to your proper Command. It is so great a thing, to get the better so Nobly of that petty party, for I can call them by no other Name."McGuire (2006), 119 In another letter to Gates, he wrote of his fellow Pennsylvanian Anthony Wayne having to dig trenches, "We are throwing up a few works at Wilmington, where Wayne is like a mad bear, it falling to his brigade. I believe he heartily wishes all engineers at the devil."McGuire (2006), 150
Philadelphia campaign
At the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, the Pennsylvania State Regiment fought with the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 10th, and 14th Virginia Regiments in George Weedon's Brigade.McGuire (2006), 243 Another authority wrote that the 2nd Virginia Brigade consisted of the 2nd, 6th, 10th, and 14th Virginia, but it is possible that some units were attached and others detached.Wright, 283-291 That day, Washington with 11,000 men offered battle to a British army of 12,500 troops under General Sir William Howe. While 5,000 British and Hessian troops under Wilhelm von Knyphausen threatened the American center, Howe took 7,500 men in a wide turning movement that crossed the Brandywine beyond the American right flank. Belatedly detecting Howe's column, Washington deployed the divisions of John Sullivan, Lord Stirling, and Adam Stephen to halt the attempted envelopment. After severe fighting, Howe's force cracked the American line. Leaving Wayne to hold off Knyphausen, Washington ordered the division of Nathanael Greene to block Howe.Boatner, 104-109
After his brigade endured a three or four-mile double-time march in 45 minutes, Weedon arranged his troops on a reverse slope behind a fence. He swung the right flank forward behind a fence and some woods so as to take any attackers in enfilade. Henry Monckton's 2nd Grenadier Battalion blundered into Weedon's trap as dusk fell. As his men came under heavy fire, Monckton asked Hessian Captain Johann von Ewald to ride and get help. The Hessian found James Agnew who brought up his 4th Brigade on Monckton's left.McGuire (2006), 255-257 One of Agnew's regiments, the 64th Foot was roughly treated, suffering 47 casualties in the vicious firefight that followed. The Pennsylvania State Regiment was evidently part of the thrown-forward right flank. One witness recalled the unit's colonel, "Stewart on foot, in its rear, animating his men." An officer in the regiment wrote that, "Our regiment fought at one stand about an hour under incessant fire, and yet the loss was less than at Long Island; neither were we so near each other as at Princeton, our common distance being about 50 yards."McGuire (2006), 258-259 With the assistance of some artillery, the British finally forced the Americans back, but the exhausted victors did not pursue in the dark.McGuire (2006), 260
Stewart led a detachment of his regiment at the Battle of Germantown on October 4, 1777. As Greene's wing advanced on the British positions, Stewart's unit covered Weedon's left flank where a gap had developed between that brigade and Alexander McDougall's Connecticut Brigade. After driving off two British light infantry companies, his men captured an earthwork near Luken's Mill. He wrote Gates, "I took a little redoubt with three Pieces of Cannon from them". He noted that, "It was cursed Hot work for it before they left them". He noted that his men started fighting from Germantown and penetrated the British lines as far as the Market House.McGuire (2007), 102-103 Another officer recalled that the Pennsylvania State Regiment had overcome all resistance in its front. When it was attacked on its left and rear, "Gen. Steven [Stephen] ordered Col. Stewart to evacuate the ground".McGuire (2007), 109 On November 12, 1777, the regiment was renamed the 13th Pennsylvania Regiment.Wright, 268
Monmouth
After Sir Henry Clinton evacuated Philadelphia and marched toward New York, George Washington moved his army northeast from Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. After crossing the Delaware at Coryell's Ferry, the Americans reached Hopewell, New Jersey, on June 23. From there, they moved to intercept Clinton's retreat. Washington appointed his second-in-command Charles Lee to lead his advance guard.Morrissey, 40-41 Lee's division included Varnum's 300-man Brigade under John Durkee with two cannons, William Grayson's 600-strong detachment with two guns, William Maxwell's 1,000-man New Jersey Brigade with two cannons, Henry Jackson's 300-strong detachment, Charles Scott's 1,440-strong command with four guns, and Anthony Wayne's 1,000-man command with two guns. There were seven special detachments of troops averaging about 350 men each and these were probably drawn from their parent brigades and other units. Scott led four detachments while Wayne led three detachments. Wayne's command included detachments led by James Wesson of Ebenezer Learned's Massachusetts Brigade, Henry Livingston Jr. of Enoch Poor's New Hampshire and New York brigade, and Stewart.Morrissey, 85. The author lists Stewart as "unattached". Wright did not list the brigade in which the 13th Pennsylvania served.
Very early on June 28, 1778, Wilhelm von Knyphausen's division set out from Monmouth Court House, followed a few hours later by Cornwallis' division. Lee neglected to scout the area and announced to his subordinates that he had no plan of battle other than to act according to circumstances. He only began moving forward at 7:00 am with 5,000 troops to bring on the Battle of Monmouth. When Lee began to threaten the British rear guard, Clinton turned back to help with powerful forces. After some tentative attacks, Lee's troops began withdrawing in confusion but not panic. Clinton rushed in pursuit.Boatner, 719-721
Washington met Lee's retreating division late in the morning and took measures to halt Clinton's advance. Washington relieved Lee of command, but later allowed him to patch together a defensive line with the available troops. Lee put Varnum's Brigade, now under the command of Jeremiah Olney behind a hedgerow. Livingston's detachment filed into line on Olney's left. On the left flank of the position, Washington asked Stewart and Nathaniel Ramsey, who took over from the wounded Wesson, to hold off the British until he could get the main army in position. The two readily agreed. Soon after, Anthony Wayne appeared and ordered the two detachments to hold a thick wood. Ramsey formed on the extreme left with Stewart to his right. Lee's chief of artillery, Eleazer Oswald placed two cannons on Olney's right and two more in support of Stewart and Ramsey.Morrissey, 65
As the 1st Guards Battalion came abreast of the woods, the Americans riddled their flank and inflicted 41 casualties. But the crack Brigade of Guards and two companies of the 1st Grenadier Battalion stormed into the woods. Early in the action, Stewart went down,Morrissey, 69 shot in the groin, and was carried to the rear.Preston, 330 The outnumbered Americans were pressed back from the trees and attacked by the 16th Light Dragoons in the open. Ramsey was wounded and captured by the dragoons while the Americans made a dash for the bridge across the ravine. After another epic struggle on the other flank, Olney, Livingston, and Oswald were forced back. But the holding actions gave Washington time to deploy Lord Stirling's division athwart Clinton's advance.Morrissey, 70
Command of the 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment
Stewart assumed command of the 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment on July 1, 1778, as the senior officer remaining after enlistments ran out for most of the men of the 13th and the remaining men were consolidated with the 2nd Regiment. He earned a good reputation with his soldiers by paying close attention to their needs. In Fall 1778, he traveled to Philadelphia to secure some items for his troops. He wrote his friend Anthony Wayne, perhaps with tongue in cheek, that the ladies, "have really got the art of throwing themselves into the most wanton and amorous postures", when he was around.
When elements of the Connecticut Line mutinied in 1780 at Morristown, New Jersey, the "dependable" Pennsylvania regiment surrounded them and restored order.Martin & Lender, 161 At the time, Stewart and other Pennsylvanians reassured the soldiers that their problems were no worse than in other units. Stewart then spoke with the Connecticut officers on behalf of the disgruntled rank and file. Connecticut private Joseph Plumb Martin recalled that Stewart was highly regarded by his own men.