Charles Stewart (1778-1869)
Encyclopedia
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
.
Born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, Stewart went to sea at the age of thirteen as a cabin boy
Cabin boy
A Cabin boy or ship's boy is a boy who waits on the officers and passengers of a ship, especially running errands for the captain....
and rose through the grades to become master of a merchantman. He grew up with Captain Stephen Decatur and Richard Sommers. During the Quasi-War
Quasi-War
The Quasi-War was an undeclared war fought mostly at sea between the United States and French Republic from 1798 to 1800. In the United States, the conflict was sometimes also referred to as the Franco-American War, the Pirate Wars, or the Half-War.-Background:The Kingdom of France had been a...
with France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Stewart was commissioned a lieutenant in the United States Navy on 9 March 1798 and joined the frigate
Frigate
A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...
United States
USS United States (1797)
USS United States was a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy and the first of the six original frigates authorized for construction by the Naval Act of 1794...
for a cruise in the West Indies. He took command of the schooner Experiment
USS Experiment (1799)
The first USS Experiment was a schooner in the United States Navy during the Quasi-War with France.Experiment was built in 1799 at Baltimore, Maryland; and first put to sea late in November 1799, Lieutenant W...
on 16 July 1800 and soon captured two armed French vessels and freed several captured American ships.
After brief command of Chesapeake
USS Chesapeake (1799)
USS Chesapeake was a 38-gun wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She was one of the original six frigates whose construction was authorized by the Naval Act of 1794. Joshua Humphreys designed these frigates to be the young navy's capital ships...
in 1801 and service in Constellation
USS Constellation (1797)
USS Constellation was a 38-gun frigate, one of the six original frigates authorized for construction by the Naval Act of 1794. She was distinguished as the first U.S. Navy vessel to put to sea and the first U.S. Navy vessel to engage and defeat an enemy vessel...
in 1802, Stewart sailed to the Mediterranean in command of the brig Syren
USS Syren (1803)
USS Syren was a brig of the United States Navy during the First Barbary War and the War of 1812 until being captured by the Royal Navy in 1814....
. There, he participated in the destruction of Philadelphia
USS Philadelphia (1799)
The second USS Philadelphia was a 1240-ton, 36-gun sailing frigate of the United States Navy.Originally named City of Philadelphia, she was built in 1798–1799 for the United States government by the citizens of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Funding for her construction was the result of a...
after her capture by Tripoli
Tripoli
Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...
, helped to maintain the blockade of Tripoli, and distinguished himself in assaults on the enemy in August and September 1804. After the First Barbary War
First Barbary War
The First Barbary War , also known as the Barbary Coast War or the Tripolitan War, was the first of two wars fought between the United States and the North African Berber Muslim states known collectively as the Barbary States...
, he participated in a show of force at Tunis
Tunis
Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....
and returned home as captain in 1806. On the outbreak of the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
, Stewart commanded, successively, Argus
USS Argus (1803)
The first USS Argus was a brig in the United States Navy during the First Barbary War and the War of 1812.Argus was laid down as Merrimack on 12 May 1803 at Boston, Massachusetts, by Edmund Hartt; renamed Argus on 4 June 1803; and launched on 21 August 1803.-First Barbary War:Though no document...
, Hornet
USS Hornet (1805, brig)
The third USS Hornet was a brig-rigged sloop-of-war in the United States Navy. Later, however, she was re-rigged as a ship. Hornet was launched on 28 July 1805 in Baltimore and commissioned on 18 October...
, and Constellation.
Since Constellation was closely blockaded in Norfolk by the British, he took command of Constitution
USS Constitution
USS Constitution is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. Named by President George Washington after the Constitution of the United States of America, she is the world's oldest floating commissioned naval vessel...
at Boston in 1813. He made two brilliant cruises in her between 1813 and 1815. The frigate captured HMS Cyane
HMS Cyane (1806)
HMS Cyane was a Royal Navy Banterer-class sixth-rate post ship of nominally 22 guns, built in 1806 at Topsham, near Exeter, England. She was ordered in January 1805 as HMS Columbine but renamed Cyane on 6 December of that year...
and HMS Levant
HMS Levant (1813)
HMS Levant was a 20-gun Cyrus-class sixth rate of the Royal Navy built by William Courtney, of Chester. She was one of five British warships that were captured or destroyed by in the War of 1812...
on 20 February 1815.
Stewart's later service included command of the American Mediterranean squadron from 1816 to 1820 and of one in the Pacific from 1820 to 1824. He served as a Naval Commissioner
Board of Navy Commissioners
The Board of Naval Commissioners was a United States Navy administrative body in existence from 1815 to 1842, with responsibility for the Navy's material support. The three-member Board was created as part of an expansion of the U.S. Navy Department at the end of the War of 1812. The system was...
from 1830 to 1832 and commanded the Philadelphia Navy Yard from 1838 to 1841, in 1846, and again from 1854 to 1861. By a bill passed on 2 March 1859, Congress made Stewart “senior flag officer,” an office created for him in recognition of his distinguished and meritorious service. He became rear admiral
Rear admiral (United States)
Rear admiral is a naval commissioned officer rank above that of a commodore and captain, and below that of a vice admiral. The uniformed services of the United States are unique in having two grades of rear admirals.- Rear admiral :...
on the retired list on 16 July 1862, and he died at Bordentown
Bordentown, New Jersey
Bordentown City is in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 3,924. Bordentown is located at the confluence of the Delaware River, Blacks Creek and Crosswicks Creek...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, on 6 November 1869. In the late 19th century, his estate became the site of the Bordentown School
Bordentown School
The Bordentown School , was a residential high school for African-American students, located in Bordentown in Burlington County, New Jersey...
, a residential high school academic and vocational training program.
He is buried at Woodlands Cemetery in Philadelphia, PA.
Several nephews served in the Navy, including Commodore Charles Stewart McCauley
Charles Stewart McCauley
Charles Stewart McCauley was an American naval officer in the War of 1812 and the Civil War. He was a nephew of Admiral Charles Stewart....
.
His grandson, Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell was an Irish landowner, nationalist political leader, land reform agitator, and the founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party...
, was a prominent Irish political leader who fought for Irish home rule until his death in 1891.
External links
Books
- Smethurst, David. Tripoli: The United States' First War On Terror. New York: Presidio Press, 2007. ISBN 0-89141-859-8.