Charles Stewart (1778–1869)

Charles Stewart

Charles Stewart (28 July 1778 - 6 November 1869) was an officer in the United States Navy.

Born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Stewart went to sea at the age of thirteen as a cabin boy 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 with France, Stewart was commissioned a lieutenant in the United States Navy on 9 March 1798 and joined the frigate United States for a cruise in the West Indies. He took command of the schooner Experiment on 16 July 1800 and soon captured two armed French vessels and freed several captured American ships.^[1]

After brief command of Chesapeake in 1801 and service in Constellation in 1802, Stewart sailed to the Mediterranean in command of the brig Syren. There, he participated in the destruction of Philadelphia after her capture by Tripoli, 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, he participated in a show of force at Tunis and returned home as captain in 1806. On the outbreak of the War of 1812, Stewart commanded, successively, Argus, Hornet, and Constellation.

Since Constellation was closely blockaded in Norfolk by the British, he took command of Constitution at Boston in 1813. He made two brilliant cruises in her between 1813 and 1815. The frigate captured HMS Cyane and HMS Levant 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 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 on the retired list on 16 July 1862, and he died at Bordentown, New Jersey, on 6 November 1869. In the late 19th century, his estate became the site of the Bordentown School, a residential high school academic and vocational training program.^[2]

He is buried at Woodlands Cemetery in Philadelphia, PA.

Several nephews served in the Navy, including Commodore Charles Stewart McCauley.

His grandson, Charles Stewart Parnell, was a prominent Irish political leader who fought for Irish home rule until his death in 1891.

Namesakes

• USS Stewart

References

1. ^ Maclay 1906, pp. 205.
2. ^ Staff. "New Jersey to Have a Tuskegee Institute.; "Old Ironsides," Famous as Home of Commodore Stewart and of the Mother of Mr. Parnell, Favored for the New School -- Negroes Want the Historic Bordentown Property.", The New York Times, June 29, 1902. Accessed June 3, 2010.

External links

Biography portal

• Biography^{[dead link]}
• Congressional Gold Medal^{[dead link]}

Books

• Smethurst, David. Tripoli: The United States' First War On Terror. New York: Presidio Press, 2007. ISBN 0-89141-859-8.
• Maclay, Edgar Stanton (1906). A History of the United States Volume I. New York: D. Appleton and Company. http://books.google.com/books?id=fStCAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA205&dq=experiment+picaroons&lr=#v=onepage&q=experiment%20picaroons&f=false. 

Persondata
Name	Stewart, Charles
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	28 July 1778
Place of birth
Date of death	6 November 1869
Place of death	Borderntown, New Jersey