Charles Stewart | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1778-07-28)28 July 1778 |
| Died | 6 November 1869(1869-11-06) (aged 91) |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch | United States Navy |
| Years of service | 1798–1861 |
| Rank | Rear Admiral |
| Commands | |
| Battles / wars | |
| Awards | Congressional Gold Medal |
| Other work | Naval Commissioner |
| Signature | .png) |
Charles Stewart (28 July 1778 – 6 November 1869) was aUnited States Navy officer who commanded a number of warships, includingUSS Constitution. He saw service during theQuasi War and bothBarbary Wars in the Mediterranean along North Africa and theWar of 1812. He later commanded the navy yard in Philadelphia and was promoted to become the Navy's first flag officer shortly before retiring. He was promoted to rear admiral after he retired from the Navy. He lived a long life and was the last surviving Navy captain who had served in the War of 1812.
On 28 July 1778, Stewart was born inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, to Charles and Sarah Harding (née Ford) Stewart,Scots-Irish immigrants fromBelfast,[1] only a month afterBritish forces evacuated the city. His father died in 1780, leaving his mother little means to support him and his three siblings. She later remarried a former bodyguard ofGeneral Washington. Stewart attended Dr. Abercrombie'sEpiscopal Academy in Philadelphia where he metStephen Decatur andRichard Somers. He went to sea at the age of thirteen as acabin boy and rose through the grades to become master of a merchantman.[2][3]
During theQuasi-War withFrance, Stewart was one of the first officers in the rebirth of the United States Navy. At the age of nineteen, he was commissioned a lieutenant on 9 March 1798 and joined thefrigateUSS United States, under the command ofJohn Barry, as fourth lieutenant for a cruise in theWest Indies to restrain French privateers. Stewart was in charge of the ship's outfitting and recruiting of crew.[4][5]
On 16 July 1800 he assumed command of the schoonerUSS Experiment and captured two armed French vessels and recapturing several American ships.[6][7] While anchored at the island of Dominica for water, he secured the release of an American citizen impressed onboard aRoyal Navy warship. He later rescued approximately seventy people, mostly women and children from a vessel in distress at a reef nearSaona Island, just before the schooner sank, for which the Governor ofSanto Domingo sent a letter of thanks toPresident Jefferson.[8]
After brief command ofUSS Chesapeake in 1801 and service inUSS Constellation in 1802, Stewart sailed to theMediterranean in command of the brigUSS Syren. He was promoted to master-commandant on 19 May 1804. There, he participated in the destruction ofUSS Philadelphia after her capture byTripoli, helped to maintain the blockade of Tripoli,[8] and distinguished himself in assaults on the enemy in August and September 1804. After theFirst Barbary War, he participated in a show of force atTunis. He was second in command toPreble from 1803 through 1805. He was promoted to the rank of captain on 22 April 1806 and returned home on leave from US Navy, joining the merchant fleet, where he remained until the late 1811.[9]
During theWar of 1812, Stewart commanded, successively,USS Argus,USS Hornet, andUSS Constellation. SinceConstellation was closely blockaded in Norfolk by the British, he took command ofConstitution ("Old Ironsides") atBoston on 18 July 1813.[9] He made two cruises in her between 1813 and 1815.
Under Stewart's command,Constitution captured the Royal Navy warshipsHMS Cyane andHMS Levant on 20 February 1815. TheTreaty of Ghent had been ratified by the United States government three days earlier but both sides in the battle were unaware of that event. Due to his capture of two enemy warships with only one ship, Stewart became a national hero and was awarded aCongressional Gold Medal on 22 February 1816. He was also admitted as an honorary member of the PennsylvaniaSociety of the Cincinnati in the same year.
Stewart's later service included command of the AmericanMediterranean squadron from 1816 to 1820 and of one in thePacific from 1820 to 1824. For South American patriots fighting for their independence, commodore Stewart's conduct in Peruvian waters was controversial because, claiming "neutral rights" for U.S. merchants, he escorted their ships through a patriot blockade to trade with Spanish royalists. His flagship, the USS Franklin, also transported a Spanish spy. (Stewart said he was unaware the Spaniard was on his ship, and he blamed his wife for secreting the man on board.) For these and other actions, the U.S. Navy subjected Stewart to a highly publicized court-martial upon return to the United States. Stewart's wife refused to testify in his defense, and they soon divorced. Stewart biographers Berube and Rodgaard concluded about his trial that, “the Navy desperately needed a not-guilty verdict as several of its senior-most captains faced courts-martial in the summer of 1825.” A board of twelve of Stewart's fellow officers found him not guilty.
Stewart served as aNaval Commissioner from 1830 to 1832.
In 1836 Stewart saw service in theWest Indies and commanded a vessel that captured a Portugueseslave ship as it came intoHavana. Before Stewart's boarding crew took control of the ship, the captain of the ship jumped overboard, swam ashore and escaped. On board the slave ship were 250 enslaved African children, with many other slaves onboard the vessel having already died from a lack of water during the voyage. Outraged at the conditions and health of the children, Stewart informed the British commissioner in Havana, a Mr. Kennedy, of the dire situation he had encountered.[10]
In the later years of his career, Stewart commanded thePhiladelphia Navy Yard from 1838 to 1841, in 1846, and again from 1853 to 1861.
.jpg)
Upon the death of CaptainJames Barron in 1851, Stewart became the most senior ranking officer in the Navy.[citation needed] By a joint resolution passed on 2 March 1859, Congress made Stewart "senior flag officer" on 22 April 1859, a rank created for him in recognition of his distinguished and meritorious service.
Stewart was placed on the retired list on 21 December 1861 after serving 63 years in the Navy. His age at the time of his retirement was 83 years, 4 months and 24 days – making him the second oldest officer on active duty in the history of the U.S. Navy (afterWilliam D. Leahy). He was promoted torear admiral on the retired list on 16 July 1862.[11] Stewart holds the all time records for the longest active duty career and longest time holding a single rank on active duty (52 years 10 months).
Shortly after his death, Stewart was elected a veteran companion of the Pennsylvania Commandery of theMilitary Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States – a military society of officers who had served the Union during the Civil War. He was assigned the Society's insignia number 1119, which was not issued to him. The register of the Pennsylvania Commandery states his date of election as November 6, 1869 (i.e. the actual date of his death) and, erroneously, his date of death as November 7, 1869.[12]
Stewart died atBordentown, New Jersey, on 6 November 1869 at the age of 91.
He first married Delia Tudor. His grandchildren, by their daughter Delia Tudor Stewart Parnell (1816–1898) andJohn Henry Parnell, includedCharles Stewart Parnell, a prominent Irish political leader who fought for Irish home rule until his death in 1891, andAnna Parnell andFanny Parnell, Irish nationalists who co-founded theLadies' Land League in 1880 to raise money in America for theLand League.[14]
Secondly he married Margaretta W. Smith. Their daughter Julia Smith Stewart (1834–1910) married Harry Laguerenne, the son of Eliza Beauveau and Pierre Louis Laguerenne. He was a wine and spirits importer in Philadelphia.
Several of Stewart's nephews served in the Navy, including CommodoreCharles Stewart McCauley.
In the late 19th century, his estate became the site of theBordentown School, a residential high school academic and vocational training program.[15]
Two U.S. Navy destroyers,DD-13 andDD-224, and one destroyer escort,DE-238, have been named in Stewart's honor.
experiment picaroons.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
