Walter Stewart (1756 – June 16, 1796) was an Irish-born American general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
Stewart began his military career as captain of a Pennsylvania infantry 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 decisive siege of Yorktown. After the British surrender, 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 general in the state militia. He died on June 16, 1796, during an outbreak of yellow fever.
Early life
Stewart was born into a Scotch-Irish family in Ireland in 1756, probably in Derry. He settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, around 1772 and worked for a relative named Conyngham.
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. 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. That November, Congress voted Stewart a $100 sword as recognition of his services.
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." 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."
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. 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. That day, Washington with 11,000 men offered battle to British General Sir William Howe's 12,500 troops. While 5,000 British and Hessians 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.