USMA Class of 1846. Cullum No. 1272.
He was the son of Charles S. Stewart and Harriet Tiffany Stewart.
On April 15, 1857, he married Cecilia Sophia DeLouville Tardy at Buffalo, New York.
They were the parents of three children.
Thirty-Sixth Annual Reunion Of The Association of the Graduates Of The United States Military Academy At West Point, New York, June 13th, 1905, Seemann & Peters, Printers and Binders, Saginaw, Michigan, 1905.
Charles Seaforth Stewart
No. 1272. Class of 1846.
Died, July 22nd, 1904, at Siasconset, Island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, aged 81.
Charles Seaforth Stewart was born at sea, April 11, 1823, on board the American ship Thames, in North Latitude 8 degrees, 30 minutes, West Longitude 134 degrees of the Pacific Ocean.
He was the only son of the Reverend Charles Samuel Stewart, D.D., Chaplain, United States Navy and formerly missionary to the Sandwich Islands and of Harriet Bradford Tiffany Stewart. He was the great-grandson of Colonel Charles Stewart of New Jersey, Commissary General of Issues of the Army of the Revolution and member of the Continental Congress.
His ancestors were Scotch Irish; Stewarts of Garlies and Gortlee. The father of Colonel Charles Stewart having resided upon the family demesne of Gortlee, Donegal County, Ireland. Harriet Bradford Tiffany came also of Revolutionary stock, her forefathers having landed on the Massachusetts coast in 1663.
General Stewart's boyhood was passed mostly at Cooperstown, Ostego County, New York and at Princeton, New Jersey, where he received his classical education at Edgehill School. When some seventeen years of age, with his father he made the three years European cruise as captain's clerk aboard the U.S.S. Brandywine. Soon after his return to the United States he was appointed a cadet at the United States Military Academy, from New Jersey, entering September 1, 1842 and being graduated July 7, 1846, at the head of his class, numbering fifty-nine members, the largest class that had up to that time been graduated from the Academy.
Among his classmates were McClellan, Derby (John Phoenix), Jesse L. Reno, Stonewall Jackson, Seymour, Sturgis, Stoneman and Pickett. Shortly after his first assignment as Assistant Engineer in the construction of Fort Trumbull, New London Harbor, Connecticut, he was on the Sound Steamer Atlantic, when wrecked off North Hill, Fisher's Island, in the early morning of November 27, 1846. A violent storm drove the ship on the rocks where she was battered to pieces, swept by the seas and the icy wind. General Stewart by coolness and good judgment as well as through good fortune was one of the few survivors that succeeded in gaining the shore.
On April 15, 1857, General Stewart married at Buffalo, New York, Cecilia Sophia DeLouville Tardy, granddaughter of Alexis Evstaphieve, Russian Consul General at New York. Mrs. Stewart, born October 22, 1836, died at San Francisco, California, November 24, 1886. Three children were born of this marriage – Charles Seymour Stewart, April 12, 1858; died February 8, 1893. Cecil Stewart, born April 12, 1864 and now a Captain in the Fourth Regiment of Cavalry. Cora Stewart, born March 15, 1873; died February 1, 1876.
After retiring from active service in 1886, General Stewart went to Cooperstown, New York, where still lived kinsmen and friends of his boyhood. Here he led a quiet life, interested in town and church and local charities, devoting time and labor to genealogical research in which he took a lively interest. He was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, the Loyal Legion and the American Geographical Society.
Shortly before his death the General had gone to Siasconset, Massachusetts, for the benefit of his health. His death was due to internal injures the result of an accidental fall, consequent to his weakened condition. Not realizing that he was seriously hurt he made light of his injuries and after being placed in bed, fell asleep, passing away without suffering. He lies in the family lot at Lakewood Cemetery on the shores of the beautiful Lake Otsego.
General Stewart's military history is briefly given in the following extracts from General Orders No. 7, War Department, Office of the Chief of Engineers, Washington, July 23, 1904.
He was graduated from United States Military Academy and promoted in the Army as Second Lieutenant, Corps of engineers, July 1, 1846 and passed through all the immediate grades to that of Colonel; receiving the brevet of Lieutenant Colonel, February 25, 1865, 'for long, faithful and efficient services' and declining the brevet of Colonel, March 13, 1865, 'for gallant and meritorious services during the Rebellion.'
He served as Assistant Engineer in the construction of Fort Trumbull, New London Harbor, Connecticut, 1846-1847 and of Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, 1847-1849; at the Military Academy as Assistant Professor of Engineering, September 9, 1849 to August 28, 1854; as Assistant Engineer in the construction of Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, 1854-1857; as Superintending Engineer of the Construction of Forts Warren, Independence and Winthrop, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, 1867-1861 and of Great Brewster and Deer Island sea walls, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, 1859-1861.
He served during the Rebellion of the Seceding States, 1861-1866; as Assistant Engineer, April 21 to September 20, 1861 and Chief Engineer, September 20, 1861 to November 12, 1864, of the defenses at Hampton Roads, Virginia; in erecting field works at Newport News, May 27 to June 15, 1861; in the Virginia Peninsular Campaign (Army of the Potomac), being engaged as Assistant Engineer in the siege of Yorktown, April 21 to May 4, 1862, Battle of Williamsburg, May 5, 1862 and reconnoitering with the advance of the Army under Brigadier General Stoneman, form Williamsburg to Mechanicsville, May 7 to June 3, 1862, when sickness compelled his return to Fort Monroe, Virginia; as Consulting Engineer during the defense of Suffolk, Virginia, April 24-30, 1863, in the construction of the defenses to cover Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia, May-June 1863 and on Major General Dix's expedition to White House, demonstrating against Richmond, June 23 to July 8, 1863; in charge of the construction of defense for the camp for Rebel prisoners of war, at Port Lookout, Maryland, July 17 to November 12, 1864; as Chief Engineer of the Middle Military Division, November 18, 1864 to June 16, 1865 and on special duty in Baltimore and Cumberland, Maryland, June 22 to August 16, 1865 and at Fort Clinch, Florida, August 17 to October 21, 1865.
Served as Superintending Engineer of the defenses of Delaware River and Bay, November 11, 1865 to April 9, 1870 and of the harbor improvements of the Delaware, July 1866 to April 9, 1870; as Member of the Board of Engineers for Fortifications on the Pacific Coast, April 30, 1870 to June 23, 1886; as Superintending Engineer of the construction of fortifications at Fort Point, Point San Jose and Angel Island, San Francisco Harbor, California, April 30, 1870 to September 6, 1886, of removal of Rincon Rock, San Francisco, California, July 1 to November 1, 1872, of examination of sea wall or breakwater at Trinidad Harbor, California, 1872 and of examination at harbor of Santa Cruz and at Estero Bay, near Santa Barbara, California, March to July 1873; as Member of Board of Engineers on improvement of entrance to Humboldt Bay and Eureka Harbor, California, August-September 1871, for examination of Officers of Engineers for promotion, June 1872 and on harbor of San Antonio Creek, California, March to July 1873; as Superintending Engineer of construction at fort at San Diego, California, April 10, 1873 to September 6, 1886, of examination of estuary in Santa Barbara Channel, July to November 1874 and examination and survey of San Joaquin River below Stockton, California, July 1874 to January 14, 1875, of removal of wreck of the Patrician and of Noonday Rock off the harbor of San Francisco, California, July 18, 1874 to April 4, 1876, of improvement of San Diego Harbor, California, March 30, 1875 to September 6, 1886, of improvement of San Joaquin River, California, September 1, 1876 to June 1880, of survey of the Colorado of the West, from Fort Yuma to Eldorado Canon, July 1878 to April 22, 1879, examination of the harbors of San Luis Obispo, San Buenaventura and Santa Barbara, California, July to December 11, 1878 and survey of Trinidad Harbor, California, April 25, 1879 to March 27, 1880; as Engineer of Twelfth Lighthouse District, January 21 to March 8, 1882; on examination and survey for channel in San Diego Harbor and at Newport Harbor and of establishment of breakwater at San Luis Obispo Harbor, California, August 12 to September 6, 1886 and as Member of carious Engineer Boards for River and Harbor Improvements, 1866-1886.
General Stewart was retired from active service, at his own request September 16, 1886, having served forty years as a Commissioned Officer. He was appointed a Brigadier General United States Army, retired, in accordance with the act of Congress, approved April 23, 1904.
General Stewart's official life was pure and noble. He adopted the highest standard of duty and executed his trusts with conscientious fidelity, exacting the same from those officially subordinated to him. His domestic life was consecrated by love and affection, exemplified in every word and deed and the gentleness and dignity of his nature endeared him to all who knew him.
The Cooperstown Republican thus speaks of General Stewart's death:
In the death of General Charles Seaforth Stewart which occurred at Siasconset, Massachusetts, last Friday, Cooperstown has lost one of her most esteemed citizens. During the years since his retirement from the Army which he has spent here, General Stewart has received the respect of every resident and the deep love of all who have come anywhere near to contact with his sacrificing Christian life. Living quietly in our midst he has been a more than liberal giver to all worthy causes and many are those who have had their suffering relived through the charity of this kindly man. He was a devoted member of the Presbyterian Church, holding at his death as he had for so many years the office of clerk of the session. He will be greatly missed in all the activities of the church work. With few kinsmen surviving to mourn at his bier he will not lack for mourners for the church and community are truly mourners. General Stewart had lived a long life of usefulness and honor and life held little that was dear to him except the pleasure of doing good to and for others. A week prior to his death General Stewart went to Siasconset where he had gone every summer for many years to spend a month. He had been in failing health for some time and his friends disliked to have him go away but he insisted and went. He was accompanied on his journey and upon his arrival the hotel proprietor had a watchful eye to his welfare and occupied a room adjoining his. Friday night he was heard to raise from his bed and a moment or two after to fall. Investigation showed that he had fallen through the low window near his bed to a small piazza, from that to the ground. It is probable that he received the fall on account of his feeble condition. This occurred about two o'clock in the morning. He was conscious when found but died a few hours afterward, probably from an internal hemorrhage.
General Alfred A. Woodfull, a warm friend through many years writes as follows, the letter appearing in the New York Evening Post of July 26, 1904:
The Late Brigadier General Charles Seaforth Stewart.
To the Editor of the Evening Post:
Sir: The death by accident on the 22nd, instant, of this accomplished officer removed an octogenarian whose admirable qualities well deserve commemoration. The son of the Rev. Charles Stewart, he was born April 11, 1823, near the Hawaiian Islands, to which his parents were sailing in the first party of American missionaries and his infancy was spent on the Island of Maui. His mother's illness compelled their return to the United States while he was still a small child.
He entered the Military Academy in 1842 and was graduated in 1846, at the head of his class, George B. McClellan standing second. Both were assigned to the engineers, then, as now, the corps d'elite. That he saw no service in Mexico was not to his discredit for it was not his fault that he could not go where he was not ordered, but it was probably to his ultimate disadvantage. Under a law designed to correct in part the extreme slowness of promotion during peace, he became a First Lieutenant on July 1, 1853 and a Captain of the Engineers July 1, 1860 and held that rank at the commencement of the Civil War after fifteen years' service. Those fifteen years had been steadily filed with responsible professional duties which required extreme accuracy and their gravity, as in the construction of permanent defensive works, undoubtedly reacted upon his character.
At the outbreak of the Rebellion he was in the prime of physical and mental life. His personal habits were without spot or blemish. His professional reading was wide and his general knowledge competent.
He possessed the best of these qualities distinctively grouped as military; conscientiousness in the discharge of duty at any cost, a single eye to the public good, complete subordination of private inclination to official demands, an immediate, hearty, intelligent and unquestioning compliance with orders, a horror of anything that resembled self-seeking or effort at personal advancement and his admirable equipment was covered with the cloak of extreme and sincere modesty. His view of a military career was that honors must come to him, not that he should solicit them. Therefore, notwithstanding these qualities and indeed on account of some of them, it is probable that no one out of service but his personal friends and comparatively few within it, ever heard his name. It was a complaint of McClellan's and of Stewart's friends alike that the former, when holding effective influence and knowing as he surely knew his classmate's admirable qualities, failed to make him a general officer of volunteers. It was so easy to do and so easy to have undone should it probe undesirable, that the explanation seems to be that McClellan awaited Stewart's initiative by application. But that was not Stewart's way. In 1863, Major General Foster earnestly asked both General Halleck and Secretary Stanton for a generalcy for Stewart and his assignment to his own command, on the specific ground that to do certain work well and at the same time quickly, he must have the best assistance. Although the request was iterated the appointment was not made. Stewart certainly had no political influence. Could that have been the fatal defect? Meantime, from his station at Fort Monroe, Captain Stewart had been helping General Phelps at Newport News, in May and June 1861 and when active operations began on the Peninsula in the spring of 1862, he was the efficient engineering head of Sumner's Corps at the Siege of Yorktown.
At the Battle of Williamsburg, May 5, when the Union left and center were heavily engaged, he determined the existence of an accessible road to the Confederate left, over which Hancock poured his command to victory, when he acquired the epithet of Superb. Possibly without Stewart there might not have been that success; certainly, preceding Hancock and victory there was Stewart, the engineer. He was next attached to General Stoneman's cavalry command, actively engaged in reconnoitering the roads up the Peninsula and broke down with illness induced thereby in June 1862. General Sumner, commanding the Second Corps, recommended Captain Stewart for a brevet commission for efficient and valuable services during the Siege of Yorktown and the Battle of Williamsburg, but it was not bestowed. General Barnard, the Chief Engineer of the Army of the Potomac, in his report to the Chief of Engineers, War Department, summarizes his work at his period thus: Captain C.S. Stewart rendered valuable services at Yorktown and at the Battle of Williamsburg he discovered the unoccupied works on the enemy's left, ascertained the existence of and reconnoitered the route by which they might be gained and by which Lieutenant Farquhar (who had accompanied him) led Hancock's Brigade. To him, therefore, the decided successes on that part of the field are in great measure due. Afterwards, with the advance guard under General Stoneman, he was so unsparing of himself in his reconnaissances and reports of the character of the country, roads, etc., as to induce the sickness which compelled him to leave the field. It was peculiarly characteristic of Captain Stewart that he would never delegate to another what he could possibly perform himself and he was indefatigable in all his official work. It was this attention to detail and unnecessary attention at times and this unsparing although unassuming energy, that consumed his power and limited his ultimate service. The fever incurred on the Chickahominy incapacitated him for months and left its impress for years. In the autumn of 1864, he was sent to Sheridan in the Valley for duty and after Sheridan went to Petersburg he remained in the middle military division under Hancock. Meantime, by the consolidation of the two corps of engineers and topographical engineers and the enlargement of the combined body, he became a Major of Engineers March 3, 1863, while, as we have seen, General Foster, who knew his qualities, unsuccessfully sought his appointment as a Brigadier General in order to give those qualities a fit field for exercise. After the War he was engaged in the routine but always responsible duties that fell to all field officers of engineers.
In many respects the career of General Stewart represents that of the mass of those meritorious officers upon whose intelligence, fidelity and high sense of duty to the nation the essential character and the ultimate efficiency of every permanent military establishment must depend. They rarely are in the public eye and they discharge their duty with assiduity because it is their duty. They shrink from notoriety and from the well-intentioned but worthless praise of incompetent judges and equally disdain the censure of the partisan and the ignorant. But in addition to those constitutional qualities, as they may be called, he was equipped with a peculiar endowment, as seen in the privacy of domestic life, of gentleness, patience, affection, generosity, gratitude, fortitude under affliction and that higher spirit which few truly attain, the fullness of the Christian life. His career, as he lived it and in its memory, furnished an example to be followed and a reputation to be cherished.
C.S.
He was the son of Charles S. Stewart and Harriet Tiffany Stewart.
On April 15, 1857, he married Cecilia Sophia DeLouville Tardy at Buffalo, New York.
They were the parents of three children.
Thirty-Sixth Annual Reunion Of The Association of the Graduates Of The United States Military Academy At West Point, New York, June 13th, 1905, Seemann & Peters, Printers and Binders, Saginaw, Michigan, 1905.
Charles Seaforth Stewart
No. 1272. Class of 1846.
Died, July 22nd, 1904, at Siasconset, Island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, aged 81.
Charles Seaforth Stewart was born at sea, April 11, 1823, on board the American ship Thames, in North Latitude 8 degrees, 30 minutes, West Longitude 134 degrees of the Pacific Ocean.
He was the only son of the Reverend Charles Samuel Stewart, D.D., Chaplain, United States Navy and formerly missionary to the Sandwich Islands and of Harriet Bradford Tiffany Stewart. He was the great-grandson of Colonel Charles Stewart of New Jersey, Commissary General of Issues of the Army of the Revolution and member of the Continental Congress.
His ancestors were Scotch Irish; Stewarts of Garlies and Gortlee. The father of Colonel Charles Stewart having resided upon the family demesne of Gortlee, Donegal County, Ireland. Harriet Bradford Tiffany came also of Revolutionary stock, her forefathers having landed on the Massachusetts coast in 1663.
General Stewart's boyhood was passed mostly at Cooperstown, Ostego County, New York and at Princeton, New Jersey, where he received his classical education at Edgehill School. When some seventeen years of age, with his father he made the three years European cruise as captain's clerk aboard the U.S.S. Brandywine. Soon after his return to the United States he was appointed a cadet at the United States Military Academy, from New Jersey, entering September 1, 1842 and being graduated July 7, 1846, at the head of his class, numbering fifty-nine members, the largest class that had up to that time been graduated from the Academy.
Among his classmates were McClellan, Derby (John Phoenix), Jesse L. Reno, Stonewall Jackson, Seymour, Sturgis, Stoneman and Pickett. Shortly after his first assignment as Assistant Engineer in the construction of Fort Trumbull, New London Harbor, Connecticut, he was on the Sound Steamer Atlantic, when wrecked off North Hill, Fisher's Island, in the early morning of November 27, 1846. A violent storm drove the ship on the rocks where she was battered to pieces, swept by the seas and the icy wind. General Stewart by coolness and good judgment as well as through good fortune was one of the few survivors that succeeded in gaining the shore.
On April 15, 1857, General Stewart married at Buffalo, New York, Cecilia Sophia DeLouville Tardy, granddaughter of Alexis Evstaphieve, Russian Consul General at New York. Mrs. Stewart, born October 22, 1836, died at San Francisco, California, November 24, 1886. Three children were born of this marriage – Charles Seymour Stewart, April 12, 1858; died February 8, 1893. Cecil Stewart, born April 12, 1864 and now a Captain in the Fourth Regiment of Cavalry. Cora Stewart, born March 15, 1873; died February 1, 1876.
After retiring from active service in 1886, General Stewart went to Cooperstown, New York, where still lived kinsmen and friends of his boyhood. Here he led a quiet life, interested in town and church and local charities, devoting time and labor to genealogical research in which he took a lively interest. He was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, the Loyal Legion and the American Geographical Society.
Shortly before his death the General had gone to Siasconset, Massachusetts, for the benefit of his health. His death was due to internal injures the result of an accidental fall, consequent to his weakened condition. Not realizing that he was seriously hurt he made light of his injuries and after being placed in bed, fell asleep, passing away without suffering. He lies in the family lot at Lakewood Cemetery on the shores of the beautiful Lake Otsego.
General Stewart's military history is briefly given in the following extracts from General Orders No. 7, War Department, Office of the Chief of Engineers, Washington, July 23, 1904.
He was graduated from United States Military Academy and promoted in the Army as Second Lieutenant, Corps of engineers, July 1, 1846 and passed through all the immediate grades to that of Colonel; receiving the brevet of Lieutenant Colonel, February 25, 1865, 'for long, faithful and efficient services' and declining the brevet of Colonel, March 13, 1865, 'for gallant and meritorious services during the Rebellion.'
He served as Assistant Engineer in the construction of Fort Trumbull, New London Harbor, Connecticut, 1846-1847 and of Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, 1847-1849; at the Military Academy as Assistant Professor of Engineering, September 9, 1849 to August 28, 1854; as Assistant Engineer in the construction of Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, 1854-1857; as Superintending Engineer of the Construction of Forts Warren, Independence and Winthrop, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, 1867-1861 and of Great Brewster and Deer Island sea walls, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, 1859-1861.
He served during the Rebellion of the Seceding States, 1861-1866; as Assistant Engineer, April 21 to September 20, 1861 and Chief Engineer, September 20, 1861 to November 12, 1864, of the defenses at Hampton Roads, Virginia; in erecting field works at Newport News, May 27 to June 15, 1861; in the Virginia Peninsular Campaign (Army of the Potomac), being engaged as Assistant Engineer in the siege of Yorktown, April 21 to May 4, 1862, Battle of Williamsburg, May 5, 1862 and reconnoitering with the advance of the Army under Brigadier General Stoneman, form Williamsburg to Mechanicsville, May 7 to June 3, 1862, when sickness compelled his return to Fort Monroe, Virginia; as Consulting Engineer during the defense of Suffolk, Virginia, April 24-30, 1863, in the construction of the defenses to cover Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia, May-June 1863 and on Major General Dix's expedition to White House, demonstrating against Richmond, June 23 to July 8, 1863; in charge of the construction of defense for the camp for Rebel prisoners of war, at Port Lookout, Maryland, July 17 to November 12, 1864; as Chief Engineer of the Middle Military Division, November 18, 1864 to June 16, 1865 and on special duty in Baltimore and Cumberland, Maryland, June 22 to August 16, 1865 and at Fort Clinch, Florida, August 17 to October 21, 1865.
Served as Superintending Engineer of the defenses of Delaware River and Bay, November 11, 1865 to April 9, 1870 and of the harbor improvements of the Delaware, July 1866 to April 9, 1870; as Member of the Board of Engineers for Fortifications on the Pacific Coast, April 30, 1870 to June 23, 1886; as Superintending Engineer of the construction of fortifications at Fort Point, Point San Jose and Angel Island, San Francisco Harbor, California, April 30, 1870 to September 6, 1886, of removal of Rincon Rock, San Francisco, California, July 1 to November 1, 1872, of examination of sea wall or breakwater at Trinidad Harbor, California, 1872 and of examination at harbor of Santa Cruz and at Estero Bay, near Santa Barbara, California, March to July 1873; as Member of Board of Engineers on improvement of entrance to Humboldt Bay and Eureka Harbor, California, August-September 1871, for examination of Officers of Engineers for promotion, June 1872 and on harbor of San Antonio Creek, California, March to July 1873; as Superintending Engineer of construction at fort at San Diego, California, April 10, 1873 to September 6, 1886, of examination of estuary in Santa Barbara Channel, July to November 1874 and examination and survey of San Joaquin River below Stockton, California, July 1874 to January 14, 1875, of removal of wreck of the Patrician and of Noonday Rock off the harbor of San Francisco, California, July 18, 1874 to April 4, 1876, of improvement of San Diego Harbor, California, March 30, 1875 to September 6, 1886, of improvement of San Joaquin River, California, September 1, 1876 to June 1880, of survey of the Colorado of the West, from Fort Yuma to Eldorado Canon, July 1878 to April 22, 1879, examination of the harbors of San Luis Obispo, San Buenaventura and Santa Barbara, California, July to December 11, 1878 and survey of Trinidad Harbor, California, April 25, 1879 to March 27, 1880; as Engineer of Twelfth Lighthouse District, January 21 to March 8, 1882; on examination and survey for channel in San Diego Harbor and at Newport Harbor and of establishment of breakwater at San Luis Obispo Harbor, California, August 12 to September 6, 1886 and as Member of carious Engineer Boards for River and Harbor Improvements, 1866-1886.
General Stewart was retired from active service, at his own request September 16, 1886, having served forty years as a Commissioned Officer. He was appointed a Brigadier General United States Army, retired, in accordance with the act of Congress, approved April 23, 1904.
General Stewart's official life was pure and noble. He adopted the highest standard of duty and executed his trusts with conscientious fidelity, exacting the same from those officially subordinated to him. His domestic life was consecrated by love and affection, exemplified in every word and deed and the gentleness and dignity of his nature endeared him to all who knew him.
The Cooperstown Republican thus speaks of General Stewart's death:
In the death of General Charles Seaforth Stewart which occurred at Siasconset, Massachusetts, last Friday, Cooperstown has lost one of her most esteemed citizens. During the years since his retirement from the Army which he has spent here, General Stewart has received the respect of every resident and the deep love of all who have come anywhere near to contact with his sacrificing Christian life. Living quietly in our midst he has been a more than liberal giver to all worthy causes and many are those who have had their suffering relived through the charity of this kindly man. He was a devoted member of the Presbyterian Church, holding at his death as he had for so many years the office of clerk of the session. He will be greatly missed in all the activities of the church work. With few kinsmen surviving to mourn at his bier he will not lack for mourners for the church and community are truly mourners. General Stewart had lived a long life of usefulness and honor and life held little that was dear to him except the pleasure of doing good to and for others. A week prior to his death General Stewart went to Siasconset where he had gone every summer for many years to spend a month. He had been in failing health for some time and his friends disliked to have him go away but he insisted and went. He was accompanied on his journey and upon his arrival the hotel proprietor had a watchful eye to his welfare and occupied a room adjoining his. Friday night he was heard to raise from his bed and a moment or two after to fall. Investigation showed that he had fallen through the low window near his bed to a small piazza, from that to the ground. It is probable that he received the fall on account of his feeble condition. This occurred about two o'clock in the morning. He was conscious when found but died a few hours afterward, probably from an internal hemorrhage.
General Alfred A. Woodfull, a warm friend through many years writes as follows, the letter appearing in the New York Evening Post of July 26, 1904:
The Late Brigadier General Charles Seaforth Stewart.
To the Editor of the Evening Post:
Sir: The death by accident on the 22nd, instant, of this accomplished officer removed an octogenarian whose admirable qualities well deserve commemoration. The son of the Rev. Charles Stewart, he was born April 11, 1823, near the Hawaiian Islands, to which his parents were sailing in the first party of American missionaries and his infancy was spent on the Island of Maui. His mother's illness compelled their return to the United States while he was still a small child.
He entered the Military Academy in 1842 and was graduated in 1846, at the head of his class, George B. McClellan standing second. Both were assigned to the engineers, then, as now, the corps d'elite. That he saw no service in Mexico was not to his discredit for it was not his fault that he could not go where he was not ordered, but it was probably to his ultimate disadvantage. Under a law designed to correct in part the extreme slowness of promotion during peace, he became a First Lieutenant on July 1, 1853 and a Captain of the Engineers July 1, 1860 and held that rank at the commencement of the Civil War after fifteen years' service. Those fifteen years had been steadily filed with responsible professional duties which required extreme accuracy and their gravity, as in the construction of permanent defensive works, undoubtedly reacted upon his character.
At the outbreak of the Rebellion he was in the prime of physical and mental life. His personal habits were without spot or blemish. His professional reading was wide and his general knowledge competent.
He possessed the best of these qualities distinctively grouped as military; conscientiousness in the discharge of duty at any cost, a single eye to the public good, complete subordination of private inclination to official demands, an immediate, hearty, intelligent and unquestioning compliance with orders, a horror of anything that resembled self-seeking or effort at personal advancement and his admirable equipment was covered with the cloak of extreme and sincere modesty. His view of a military career was that honors must come to him, not that he should solicit them. Therefore, notwithstanding these qualities and indeed on account of some of them, it is probable that no one out of service but his personal friends and comparatively few within it, ever heard his name. It was a complaint of McClellan's and of Stewart's friends alike that the former, when holding effective influence and knowing as he surely knew his classmate's admirable qualities, failed to make him a general officer of volunteers. It was so easy to do and so easy to have undone should it probe undesirable, that the explanation seems to be that McClellan awaited Stewart's initiative by application. But that was not Stewart's way. In 1863, Major General Foster earnestly asked both General Halleck and Secretary Stanton for a generalcy for Stewart and his assignment to his own command, on the specific ground that to do certain work well and at the same time quickly, he must have the best assistance. Although the request was iterated the appointment was not made. Stewart certainly had no political influence. Could that have been the fatal defect? Meantime, from his station at Fort Monroe, Captain Stewart had been helping General Phelps at Newport News, in May and June 1861 and when active operations began on the Peninsula in the spring of 1862, he was the efficient engineering head of Sumner's Corps at the Siege of Yorktown.
At the Battle of Williamsburg, May 5, when the Union left and center were heavily engaged, he determined the existence of an accessible road to the Confederate left, over which Hancock poured his command to victory, when he acquired the epithet of Superb. Possibly without Stewart there might not have been that success; certainly, preceding Hancock and victory there was Stewart, the engineer. He was next attached to General Stoneman's cavalry command, actively engaged in reconnoitering the roads up the Peninsula and broke down with illness induced thereby in June 1862. General Sumner, commanding the Second Corps, recommended Captain Stewart for a brevet commission for efficient and valuable services during the Siege of Yorktown and the Battle of Williamsburg, but it was not bestowed. General Barnard, the Chief Engineer of the Army of the Potomac, in his report to the Chief of Engineers, War Department, summarizes his work at his period thus: Captain C.S. Stewart rendered valuable services at Yorktown and at the Battle of Williamsburg he discovered the unoccupied works on the enemy's left, ascertained the existence of and reconnoitered the route by which they might be gained and by which Lieutenant Farquhar (who had accompanied him) led Hancock's Brigade. To him, therefore, the decided successes on that part of the field are in great measure due. Afterwards, with the advance guard under General Stoneman, he was so unsparing of himself in his reconnaissances and reports of the character of the country, roads, etc., as to induce the sickness which compelled him to leave the field. It was peculiarly characteristic of Captain Stewart that he would never delegate to another what he could possibly perform himself and he was indefatigable in all his official work. It was this attention to detail and unnecessary attention at times and this unsparing although unassuming energy, that consumed his power and limited his ultimate service. The fever incurred on the Chickahominy incapacitated him for months and left its impress for years. In the autumn of 1864, he was sent to Sheridan in the Valley for duty and after Sheridan went to Petersburg he remained in the middle military division under Hancock. Meantime, by the consolidation of the two corps of engineers and topographical engineers and the enlargement of the combined body, he became a Major of Engineers March 3, 1863, while, as we have seen, General Foster, who knew his qualities, unsuccessfully sought his appointment as a Brigadier General in order to give those qualities a fit field for exercise. After the War he was engaged in the routine but always responsible duties that fell to all field officers of engineers.
In many respects the career of General Stewart represents that of the mass of those meritorious officers upon whose intelligence, fidelity and high sense of duty to the nation the essential character and the ultimate efficiency of every permanent military establishment must depend. They rarely are in the public eye and they discharge their duty with assiduity because it is their duty. They shrink from notoriety and from the well-intentioned but worthless praise of incompetent judges and equally disdain the censure of the partisan and the ignorant. But in addition to those constitutional qualities, as they may be called, he was equipped with a peculiar endowment, as seen in the privacy of domestic life, of gentleness, patience, affection, generosity, gratitude, fortitude under affliction and that higher spirit which few truly attain, the fullness of the Christian life. His career, as he lived it and in its memory, furnished an example to be followed and a reputation to be cherished.
C.S.
USMA Class of 1846. Cullum No. 1272.
He was the son of Charles S. Stewart and Harriet Tiffany Stewart.
On April 15, 1857, he married Cecilia Sophia DeLouville Tardy at Buffalo, New York.
They were the parents of three children.
Thirty-Sixth Annual Reunion Of The Association of the Graduates Of The United States Military Academy At West Point, New York, June 13th, 1905, Seemann & Peters, Printers and Binders, Saginaw, Michigan, 1905.
Charles Seaforth Stewart
No. 1272. Class of 1846.
Died, July 22nd, 1904, at Siasconset, Island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, aged 81.
Charles Seaforth Stewart was born at sea, April 11, 1823, on board the American ship Thames, in North Latitude 8 degrees, 30 minutes, West Longitude 134 degrees of the Pacific Ocean.
He was the only son of the Reverend Charles Samuel Stewart, D.D., Chaplain, United States Navy and formerly missionary to the Sandwich Islands and of Harriet Bradford Tiffany Stewart. He was the great-grandson of Colonel Charles Stewart of New Jersey, Commissary General of Issues of the Army of the Revolution and member of the Continental Congress.
His ancestors were Scotch Irish; Stewarts of Garlies and Gortlee. The father of Colonel Charles Stewart having resided upon the family demesne of Gortlee, Donegal County, Ireland. Harriet Bradford Tiffany came also of Revolutionary stock, her forefathers having landed on the Massachusetts coast in 1663.
General Stewart's boyhood was passed mostly at Cooperstown, Ostego County, New York and at Princeton, New Jersey, where he received his classical education at Edgehill School. When some seventeen years of age, with his father he made the three years European cruise as captain's clerk aboard the U.S.S. Brandywine. Soon after his return to the United States he was appointed a cadet at the United States Military Academy, from New Jersey, entering September 1, 1842 and being graduated July 7, 1846, at the head of his class, numbering fifty-nine members, the largest class that had up to that time been graduated from the Academy.
Among his classmates were McClellan, Derby (John Phoenix), Jesse L. Reno, Stonewall Jackson, Seymour, Sturgis, Stoneman and Pickett. Shortly after his first assignment as Assistant Engineer in the construction of Fort Trumbull, New London Harbor, Connecticut, he was on the Sound Steamer Atlantic, when wrecked off North Hill, Fisher's Island, in the early morning of November 27, 1846. A violent storm drove the ship on the rocks where she was battered to pieces, swept by the seas and the icy wind. General Stewart by coolness and good judgment as well as through good fortune was one of the few survivors that succeeded in gaining the shore.
On April 15, 1857, General Stewart married at Buffalo, New York, Cecilia Sophia DeLouville Tardy, granddaughter of Alexis Evstaphieve, Russian Consul General at New York. Mrs. Stewart, born October 22, 1836, died at San Francisco, California, November 24, 1886. Three children were born of this marriage – Charles Seymour Stewart, April 12, 1858; died February 8, 1893. Cecil Stewart, born April 12, 1864 and now a Captain in the Fourth Regiment of Cavalry. Cora Stewart, born March 15, 1873; died February 1, 1876.
After retiring from active service in 1886, General Stewart went to Cooperstown, New York, where still lived kinsmen and friends of his boyhood. Here he led a quiet life, interested in town and church and local charities, devoting time and labor to genealogical research in which he took a lively interest. He was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, the Loyal Legion and the American Geographical Society.
Shortly before his death the General had gone to Siasconset, Massachusetts, for the benefit of his health. His death was due to internal injures the result of an accidental fall, consequent to his weakened condition. Not realizing that he was seriously hurt he made light of his injuries and after being placed in bed, fell asleep, passing away without suffering. He lies in the family lot at Lakewood Cemetery on the shores of the beautiful Lake Otsego.
General Stewart's military history is briefly given in the following extracts from General Orders No. 7, War Department, Office of the Chief of Engineers, Washington, July 23, 1904.
He was graduated from United States Military Academy and promoted in the Army as Second Lieutenant, Corps of engineers, July 1, 1846 and passed through all the immediate grades to that of Colonel; receiving the brevet of Lieutenant Colonel, February 25, 1865, 'for long, faithful and efficient services' and declining the brevet of Colonel, March 13, 1865, 'for gallant and meritorious services during the Rebellion.'
He served as Assistant Engineer in the construction of Fort Trumbull, New London Harbor, Connecticut, 1846-1847 and of Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, 1847-1849; at the Military Academy as Assistant Professor of Engineering, September 9, 1849 to August 28, 1854; as Assistant Engineer in the construction of Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, 1854-1857; as Superintending Engineer of the Construction of Forts Warren, Independence and Winthrop, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, 1867-1861 and of Great Brewster and Deer Island sea walls, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, 1859-1861.
He served during the Rebellion of the Seceding States, 1861-1866; as Assistant Engineer, April 21 to September 20, 1861 and Chief Engineer, September 20, 1861 to November 12, 1864, of the defenses at Hampton Roads, Virginia; in erecting field works at Newport News, May 27 to June 15, 1861; in the Virginia Peninsular Campaign (Army of the Potomac), being engaged as Assistant Engineer in the siege of Yorktown, April 21 to May 4, 1862, Battle of Williamsburg, May 5, 1862 and reconnoitering with the advance of the Army under Brigadier General Stoneman, form Williamsburg to Mechanicsville, May 7 to June 3, 1862, when sickness compelled his return to Fort Monroe, Virginia; as Consulting Engineer during the defense of Suffolk, Virginia, April 24-30, 1863, in the construction of the defenses to cover Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia, May-June 1863 and on Major General Dix's expedition to White House, demonstrating against Richmond, June 23 to July 8, 1863; in charge of the construction of defense for the camp for Rebel prisoners of war, at Port Lookout, Maryland, July 17 to November 12, 1864; as Chief Engineer of the Middle Military Division, November 18, 1864 to June 16, 1865 and on special duty in Baltimore and Cumberland, Maryland, June 22 to August 16, 1865 and at Fort Clinch, Florida, August 17 to October 21, 1865.
Served as Superintending Engineer of the defenses of Delaware River and Bay, November 11, 1865 to April 9, 1870 and of the harbor improvements of the Delaware, July 1866 to April 9, 1870; as Member of the Board of Engineers for Fortifications on the Pacific Coast, April 30, 1870 to June 23, 1886; as Superintending Engineer of the construction of fortifications at Fort Point, Point San Jose and Angel Island, San Francisco Harbor, California, April 30, 1870 to September 6, 1886, of removal of Rincon Rock, San Francisco, California, July 1 to November 1, 1872, of examination of sea wall or breakwater at Trinidad Harbor, California, 1872 and of examination at harbor of Santa Cruz and at Estero Bay, near Santa Barbara, California, March to July 1873; as Member of Board of Engineers on improvement of entrance to Humboldt Bay and Eureka Harbor, California, August-September 1871, for examination of Officers of Engineers for promotion, June 1872 and on harbor of San Antonio Creek, California, March to July 1873; as Superintending Engineer of construction at fort at San Diego, California, April 10, 1873 to September 6, 1886, of examination of estuary in Santa Barbara Channel, July to November 1874 and examination and survey of San Joaquin River below Stockton, California, July 1874 to January 14, 1875, of removal of wreck of the Patrician and of Noonday Rock off the harbor of San Francisco, California, July 18, 1874 to April 4, 1876, of improvement of San Diego Harbor, California, March 30, 1875 to September 6, 1886, of improvement of San Joaquin River, California, September 1, 1876 to June 1880, of survey of the Colorado of the West, from Fort Yuma to Eldorado Canon, July 1878 to April 22, 1879, examination of the harbors of San Luis Obispo, San Buenaventura and Santa Barbara, California, July to December 11, 1878 and survey of Trinidad Harbor, California, April 25, 1879 to March 27, 1880; as Engineer of Twelfth Lighthouse District, January 21 to March 8, 1882; on examination and survey for channel in San Diego Harbor and at Newport Harbor and of establishment of breakwater at San Luis Obispo Harbor, California, August 12 to September 6, 1886 and as Member of carious Engineer Boards for River and Harbor Improvements, 1866-1886.
General Stewart was retired from active service, at his own request September 16, 1886, having served forty years as a Commissioned Officer. He was appointed a Brigadier General United States Army, retired, in accordance with the act of Congress, approved April 23, 1904.
General Stewart's official life was pure and noble. He adopted the highest standard of duty and executed his trusts with conscientious fidelity, exacting the same from those officially subordinated to him. His domestic life was consecrated by love and affection, exemplified in every word and deed and the gentleness and dignity of his nature endeared him to all who knew him.
The Cooperstown Republican thus speaks of General Stewart's death:
In the death of General Charles Seaforth Stewart which occurred at Siasconset, Massachusetts, last Friday, Cooperstown has lost one of her most esteemed citizens. During the years since his retirement from the Army which he has spent here, General Stewart has received the respect of every resident and the deep love of all who have come anywhere near to contact with his sacrificing Christian life. Living quietly in our midst he has been a more than liberal giver to all worthy causes and many are those who have had their suffering relived through the charity of this kindly man. He was a devoted member of the Presbyterian Church, holding at his death as he had for so many years the office of clerk of the session. He will be greatly missed in all the activities of the church work. With few kinsmen surviving to mourn at his bier he will not lack for mourners for the church and community are truly mourners. General Stewart had lived a long life of usefulness and honor and life held little that was dear to him except the pleasure of doing good to and for others. A week prior to his death General Stewart went to Siasconset where he had gone every summer for many years to spend a month. He had been in failing health for some time and his friends disliked to have him go away but he insisted and went. He was accompanied on his journey and upon his arrival the hotel proprietor had a watchful eye to his welfare and occupied a room adjoining his. Friday night he was heard to raise from his bed and a moment or two after to fall. Investigation showed that he had fallen through the low window near his bed to a small piazza, from that to the ground. It is probable that he received the fall on account of his feeble condition. This occurred about two o'clock in the morning. He was conscious when found but died a few hours afterward, probably from an internal hemorrhage.
General Alfred A. Woodfull, a warm friend through many years writes as follows, the letter appearing in the New York Evening Post of July 26, 1904:
The Late Brigadier General Charles Seaforth Stewart.
To the Editor of the Evening Post:
Sir: The death by accident on the 22nd, instant, of this accomplished officer removed an octogenarian whose admirable qualities well deserve commemoration. The son of the Rev. Charles Stewart, he was born April 11, 1823, near the Hawaiian Islands, to which his parents were sailing in the first party of American missionaries and his infancy was spent on the Island of Maui. His mother's illness compelled their return to the United States while he was still a small child.
He entered the Military Academy in 1842 and was graduated in 1846, at the head of his class, George B. McClellan standing second. Both were assigned to the engineers, then, as now, the corps d'elite. That he saw no service in Mexico was not to his discredit for it was not his fault that he could not go where he was not ordered, but it was probably to his ultimate disadvantage. Under a law designed to correct in part the extreme slowness of promotion during peace, he became a First Lieutenant on July 1, 1853 and a Captain of the Engineers July 1, 1860 and held that rank at the commencement of the Civil War after fifteen years' service. Those fifteen years had been steadily filed with responsible professional duties which required extreme accuracy and their gravity, as in the construction of permanent defensive works, undoubtedly reacted upon his character.
At the outbreak of the Rebellion he was in the prime of physical and mental life. His personal habits were without spot or blemish. His professional reading was wide and his general knowledge competent.
He possessed the best of these qualities distinctively grouped as military; conscientiousness in the discharge of duty at any cost, a single eye to the public good, complete subordination of private inclination to official demands, an immediate, hearty, intelligent and unquestioning compliance with orders, a horror of anything that resembled self-seeking or effort at personal advancement and his admirable equipment was covered with the cloak of extreme and sincere modesty. His view of a military career was that honors must come to him, not that he should solicit them. Therefore, notwithstanding these qualities and indeed on account of some of them, it is probable that no one out of service but his personal friends and comparatively few within it, ever heard his name. It was a complaint of McClellan's and of Stewart's friends alike that the former, when holding effective influence and knowing as he surely knew his classmate's admirable qualities, failed to make him a general officer of volunteers. It was so easy to do and so easy to have undone should it probe undesirable, that the explanation seems to be that McClellan awaited Stewart's initiative by application. But that was not Stewart's way. In 1863, Major General Foster earnestly asked both General Halleck and Secretary Stanton for a generalcy for Stewart and his assignment to his own command, on the specific ground that to do certain work well and at the same time quickly, he must have the best assistance. Although the request was iterated the appointment was not made. Stewart certainly had no political influence. Could that have been the fatal defect? Meantime, from his station at Fort Monroe, Captain Stewart had been helping General Phelps at Newport News, in May and June 1861 and when active operations began on the Peninsula in the spring of 1862, he was the efficient engineering head of Sumner's Corps at the Siege of Yorktown.
At the Battle of Williamsburg, May 5, when the Union left and center were heavily engaged, he determined the existence of an accessible road to the Confederate left, over which Hancock poured his command to victory, when he acquired the epithet of Superb. Possibly without Stewart there might not have been that success; certainly, preceding Hancock and victory there was Stewart, the engineer. He was next attached to General Stoneman's cavalry command, actively engaged in reconnoitering the roads up the Peninsula and broke down with illness induced thereby in June 1862. General Sumner, commanding the Second Corps, recommended Captain Stewart for a brevet commission for efficient and valuable services during the Siege of Yorktown and the Battle of Williamsburg, but it was not bestowed. General Barnard, the Chief Engineer of the Army of the Potomac, in his report to the Chief of Engineers, War Department, summarizes his work at his period thus: Captain C.S. Stewart rendered valuable services at Yorktown and at the Battle of Williamsburg he discovered the unoccupied works on the enemy's left, ascertained the existence of and reconnoitered the route by which they might be gained and by which Lieutenant Farquhar (who had accompanied him) led Hancock's Brigade. To him, therefore, the decided successes on that part of the field are in great measure due. Afterwards, with the advance guard under General Stoneman, he was so unsparing of himself in his reconnaissances and reports of the character of the country, roads, etc., as to induce the sickness which compelled him to leave the field. It was peculiarly characteristic of Captain Stewart that he would never delegate to another what he could possibly perform himself and he was indefatigable in all his official work. It was this attention to detail and unnecessary attention at times and this unsparing although unassuming energy, that consumed his power and limited his ultimate service. The fever incurred on the Chickahominy incapacitated him for months and left its impress for years. In the autumn of 1864, he was sent to Sheridan in the Valley for duty and after Sheridan went to Petersburg he remained in the middle military division under Hancock. Meantime, by the consolidation of the two corps of engineers and topographical engineers and the enlargement of the combined body, he became a Major of Engineers March 3, 1863, while, as we have seen, General Foster, who knew his qualities, unsuccessfully sought his appointment as a Brigadier General in order to give those qualities a fit field for exercise. After the War he was engaged in the routine but always responsible duties that fell to all field officers of engineers.
In many respects the career of General Stewart represents that of the mass of those meritorious officers upon whose intelligence, fidelity and high sense of duty to the nation the essential character and the ultimate efficiency of every permanent military establishment must depend. They rarely are in the public eye and they discharge their duty with assiduity because it is their duty. They shrink from notoriety and from the well-intentioned but worthless praise of incompetent judges and equally disdain the censure of the partisan and the ignorant. But in addition to those constitutional qualities, as they may be called, he was equipped with a peculiar endowment, as seen in the privacy of domestic life, of gentleness, patience, affection, generosity, gratitude, fortitude under affliction and that higher spirit which few truly attain, the fullness of the Christian life. His career, as he lived it and in its memory, furnished an example to be followed and a reputation to be cherished.
C.S.
He was the son of Charles S. Stewart and Harriet Tiffany Stewart.
On April 15, 1857, he married Cecilia Sophia DeLouville Tardy at Buffalo, New York.
They were the parents of three children.
Thirty-Sixth Annual Reunion Of The Association of the Graduates Of The United States Military Academy At West Point, New York, June 13th, 1905, Seemann & Peters, Printers and Binders, Saginaw, Michigan, 1905.
Charles Seaforth Stewart
No. 1272. Class of 1846.
Died, July 22nd, 1904, at Siasconset, Island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, aged 81.
Charles Seaforth Stewart was born at sea, April 11, 1823, on board the American ship Thames, in North Latitude 8 degrees, 30 minutes, West Longitude 134 degrees of the Pacific Ocean.
He was the only son of the Reverend Charles Samuel Stewart, D.D., Chaplain, United States Navy and formerly missionary to the Sandwich Islands and of Harriet Bradford Tiffany Stewart. He was the great-grandson of Colonel Charles Stewart of New Jersey, Commissary General of Issues of the Army of the Revolution and member of the Continental Congress.
His ancestors were Scotch Irish; Stewarts of Garlies and Gortlee. The father of Colonel Charles Stewart having resided upon the family demesne of Gortlee, Donegal County, Ireland. Harriet Bradford Tiffany came also of Revolutionary stock, her forefathers having landed on the Massachusetts coast in 1663.
General Stewart's boyhood was passed mostly at Cooperstown, Ostego County, New York and at Princeton, New Jersey, where he received his classical education at Edgehill School. When some seventeen years of age, with his father he made the three years European cruise as captain's clerk aboard the U.S.S. Brandywine. Soon after his return to the United States he was appointed a cadet at the United States Military Academy, from New Jersey, entering September 1, 1842 and being graduated July 7, 1846, at the head of his class, numbering fifty-nine members, the largest class that had up to that time been graduated from the Academy.
Among his classmates were McClellan, Derby (John Phoenix), Jesse L. Reno, Stonewall Jackson, Seymour, Sturgis, Stoneman and Pickett. Shortly after his first assignment as Assistant Engineer in the construction of Fort Trumbull, New London Harbor, Connecticut, he was on the Sound Steamer Atlantic, when wrecked off North Hill, Fisher's Island, in the early morning of November 27, 1846. A violent storm drove the ship on the rocks where she was battered to pieces, swept by the seas and the icy wind. General Stewart by coolness and good judgment as well as through good fortune was one of the few survivors that succeeded in gaining the shore.
On April 15, 1857, General Stewart married at Buffalo, New York, Cecilia Sophia DeLouville Tardy, granddaughter of Alexis Evstaphieve, Russian Consul General at New York. Mrs. Stewart, born October 22, 1836, died at San Francisco, California, November 24, 1886. Three children were born of this marriage – Charles Seymour Stewart, April 12, 1858; died February 8, 1893. Cecil Stewart, born April 12, 1864 and now a Captain in the Fourth Regiment of Cavalry. Cora Stewart, born March 15, 1873; died February 1, 1876.
After retiring from active service in 1886, General Stewart went to Cooperstown, New York, where still lived kinsmen and friends of his boyhood. Here he led a quiet life, interested in town and church and local charities, devoting time and labor to genealogical research in which he took a lively interest. He was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, the Loyal Legion and the American Geographical Society.
Shortly before his death the General had gone to Siasconset, Massachusetts, for the benefit of his health. His death was due to internal injures the result of an accidental fall, consequent to his weakened condition. Not realizing that he was seriously hurt he made light of his injuries and after being placed in bed, fell asleep, passing away without suffering. He lies in the family lot at Lakewood Cemetery on the shores of the beautiful Lake Otsego.
General Stewart's military history is briefly given in the following extracts from General Orders No. 7, War Department, Office of the Chief of Engineers, Washington, July 23, 1904.
He was graduated from United States Military Academy and promoted in the Army as Second Lieutenant, Corps of engineers, July 1, 1846 and passed through all the immediate grades to that of Colonel; receiving the brevet of Lieutenant Colonel, February 25, 1865, 'for long, faithful and efficient services' and declining the brevet of Colonel, March 13, 1865, 'for gallant and meritorious services during the Rebellion.'
He served as Assistant Engineer in the construction of Fort Trumbull, New London Harbor, Connecticut, 1846-1847 and of Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, 1847-1849; at the Military Academy as Assistant Professor of Engineering, September 9, 1849 to August 28, 1854; as Assistant Engineer in the construction of Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, 1854-1857; as Superintending Engineer of the Construction of Forts Warren, Independence and Winthrop, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, 1867-1861 and of Great Brewster and Deer Island sea walls, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, 1859-1861.
He served during the Rebellion of the Seceding States, 1861-1866; as Assistant Engineer, April 21 to September 20, 1861 and Chief Engineer, September 20, 1861 to November 12, 1864, of the defenses at Hampton Roads, Virginia; in erecting field works at Newport News, May 27 to June 15, 1861; in the Virginia Peninsular Campaign (Army of the Potomac), being engaged as Assistant Engineer in the siege of Yorktown, April 21 to May 4, 1862, Battle of Williamsburg, May 5, 1862 and reconnoitering with the advance of the Army under Brigadier General Stoneman, form Williamsburg to Mechanicsville, May 7 to June 3, 1862, when sickness compelled his return to Fort Monroe, Virginia; as Consulting Engineer during the defense of Suffolk, Virginia, April 24-30, 1863, in the construction of the defenses to cover Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia, May-June 1863 and on Major General Dix's expedition to White House, demonstrating against Richmond, June 23 to July 8, 1863; in charge of the construction of defense for the camp for Rebel prisoners of war, at Port Lookout, Maryland, July 17 to November 12, 1864; as Chief Engineer of the Middle Military Division, November 18, 1864 to June 16, 1865 and on special duty in Baltimore and Cumberland, Maryland, June 22 to August 16, 1865 and at Fort Clinch, Florida, August 17 to October 21, 1865.
Served as Superintending Engineer of the defenses of Delaware River and Bay, November 11, 1865 to April 9, 1870 and of the harbor improvements of the Delaware, July 1866 to April 9, 1870; as Member of the Board of Engineers for Fortifications on the Pacific Coast, April 30, 1870 to June 23, 1886; as Superintending Engineer of the construction of fortifications at Fort Point, Point San Jose and Angel Island, San Francisco Harbor, California, April 30, 1870 to September 6, 1886, of removal of Rincon Rock, San Francisco, California, July 1 to November 1, 1872, of examination of sea wall or breakwater at Trinidad Harbor, California, 1872 and of examination at harbor of Santa Cruz and at Estero Bay, near Santa Barbara, California, March to July 1873; as Member of Board of Engineers on improvement of entrance to Humboldt Bay and Eureka Harbor, California, August-September 1871, for examination of Officers of Engineers for promotion, June 1872 and on harbor of San Antonio Creek, California, March to July 1873; as Superintending Engineer of construction at fort at San Diego, California, April 10, 1873 to September 6, 1886, of examination of estuary in Santa Barbara Channel, July to November 1874 and examination and survey of San Joaquin River below Stockton, California, July 1874 to January 14, 1875, of removal of wreck of the Patrician and of Noonday Rock off the harbor of San Francisco, California, July 18, 1874 to April 4, 1876, of improvement of San Diego Harbor, California, March 30, 1875 to September 6, 1886, of improvement of San Joaquin River, California, September 1, 1876 to June 1880, of survey of the Colorado of the West, from Fort Yuma to Eldorado Canon, July 1878 to April 22, 1879, examination of the harbors of San Luis Obispo, San Buenaventura and Santa Barbara, California, July to December 11, 1878 and survey of Trinidad Harbor, California, April 25, 1879 to March 27, 1880; as Engineer of Twelfth Lighthouse District, January 21 to March 8, 1882; on examination and survey for channel in San Diego Harbor and at Newport Harbor and of establishment of breakwater at San Luis Obispo Harbor, California, August 12 to September 6, 1886 and as Member of carious Engineer Boards for River and Harbor Improvements, 1866-1886.
General Stewart was retired from active service, at his own request September 16, 1886, having served forty years as a Commissioned Officer. He was appointed a Brigadier General United States Army, retired, in accordance with the act of Congress, approved April 23, 1904.
General Stewart's official life was pure and noble. He adopted the highest standard of duty and executed his trusts with conscientious fidelity, exacting the same from those officially subordinated to him. His domestic life was consecrated by love and affection, exemplified in every word and deed and the gentleness and dignity of his nature endeared him to all who knew him.
The Cooperstown Republican thus speaks of General Stewart's death:
In the death of General Charles Seaforth Stewart which occurred at Siasconset, Massachusetts, last Friday, Cooperstown has lost one of her most esteemed citizens. During the years since his retirement from the Army which he has spent here, General Stewart has received the respect of every resident and the deep love of all who have come anywhere near to contact with his sacrificing Christian life. Living quietly in our midst he has been a more than liberal giver to all worthy causes and many are those who have had their suffering relived through the charity of this kindly man. He was a devoted member of the Presbyterian Church, holding at his death as he had for so many years the office of clerk of the session. He will be greatly missed in all the activities of the church work. With few kinsmen surviving to mourn at his bier he will not lack for mourners for the church and community are truly mourners. General Stewart had lived a long life of usefulness and honor and life held little that was dear to him except the pleasure of doing good to and for others. A week prior to his death General Stewart went to Siasconset where he had gone every summer for many years to spend a month. He had been in failing health for some time and his friends disliked to have him go away but he insisted and went. He was accompanied on his journey and upon his arrival the hotel proprietor had a watchful eye to his welfare and occupied a room adjoining his. Friday night he was heard to raise from his bed and a moment or two after to fall. Investigation showed that he had fallen through the low window near his bed to a small piazza, from that to the ground. It is probable that he received the fall on account of his feeble condition. This occurred about two o'clock in the morning. He was conscious when found but died a few hours afterward, probably from an internal hemorrhage.
General Alfred A. Woodfull, a warm friend through many years writes as follows, the letter appearing in the New York Evening Post of July 26, 1904:
The Late Brigadier General Charles Seaforth Stewart.
To the Editor of the Evening Post:
Sir: The death by accident on the 22nd, instant, of this accomplished officer removed an octogenarian whose admirable qualities well deserve commemoration. The son of the Rev. Charles Stewart, he was born April 11, 1823, near the Hawaiian Islands, to which his parents were sailing in the first party of American missionaries and his infancy was spent on the Island of Maui. His mother's illness compelled their return to the United States while he was still a small child.
He entered the Military Academy in 1842 and was graduated in 1846, at the head of his class, George B. McClellan standing second. Both were assigned to the engineers, then, as now, the corps d'elite. That he saw no service in Mexico was not to his discredit for it was not his fault that he could not go where he was not ordered, but it was probably to his ultimate disadvantage. Under a law designed to correct in part the extreme slowness of promotion during peace, he became a First Lieutenant on July 1, 1853 and a Captain of the Engineers July 1, 1860 and held that rank at the commencement of the Civil War after fifteen years' service. Those fifteen years had been steadily filed with responsible professional duties which required extreme accuracy and their gravity, as in the construction of permanent defensive works, undoubtedly reacted upon his character.
At the outbreak of the Rebellion he was in the prime of physical and mental life. His personal habits were without spot or blemish. His professional reading was wide and his general knowledge competent.
He possessed the best of these qualities distinctively grouped as military; conscientiousness in the discharge of duty at any cost, a single eye to the public good, complete subordination of private inclination to official demands, an immediate, hearty, intelligent and unquestioning compliance with orders, a horror of anything that resembled self-seeking or effort at personal advancement and his admirable equipment was covered with the cloak of extreme and sincere modesty. His view of a military career was that honors must come to him, not that he should solicit them. Therefore, notwithstanding these qualities and indeed on account of some of them, it is probable that no one out of service but his personal friends and comparatively few within it, ever heard his name. It was a complaint of McClellan's and of Stewart's friends alike that the former, when holding effective influence and knowing as he surely knew his classmate's admirable qualities, failed to make him a general officer of volunteers. It was so easy to do and so easy to have undone should it probe undesirable, that the explanation seems to be that McClellan awaited Stewart's initiative by application. But that was not Stewart's way. In 1863, Major General Foster earnestly asked both General Halleck and Secretary Stanton for a generalcy for Stewart and his assignment to his own command, on the specific ground that to do certain work well and at the same time quickly, he must have the best assistance. Although the request was iterated the appointment was not made. Stewart certainly had no political influence. Could that have been the fatal defect? Meantime, from his station at Fort Monroe, Captain Stewart had been helping General Phelps at Newport News, in May and June 1861 and when active operations began on the Peninsula in the spring of 1862, he was the efficient engineering head of Sumner's Corps at the Siege of Yorktown.
At the Battle of Williamsburg, May 5, when the Union left and center were heavily engaged, he determined the existence of an accessible road to the Confederate left, over which Hancock poured his command to victory, when he acquired the epithet of Superb. Possibly without Stewart there might not have been that success; certainly, preceding Hancock and victory there was Stewart, the engineer. He was next attached to General Stoneman's cavalry command, actively engaged in reconnoitering the roads up the Peninsula and broke down with illness induced thereby in June 1862. General Sumner, commanding the Second Corps, recommended Captain Stewart for a brevet commission for efficient and valuable services during the Siege of Yorktown and the Battle of Williamsburg, but it was not bestowed. General Barnard, the Chief Engineer of the Army of the Potomac, in his report to the Chief of Engineers, War Department, summarizes his work at his period thus: Captain C.S. Stewart rendered valuable services at Yorktown and at the Battle of Williamsburg he discovered the unoccupied works on the enemy's left, ascertained the existence of and reconnoitered the route by which they might be gained and by which Lieutenant Farquhar (who had accompanied him) led Hancock's Brigade. To him, therefore, the decided successes on that part of the field are in great measure due. Afterwards, with the advance guard under General Stoneman, he was so unsparing of himself in his reconnaissances and reports of the character of the country, roads, etc., as to induce the sickness which compelled him to leave the field. It was peculiarly characteristic of Captain Stewart that he would never delegate to another what he could possibly perform himself and he was indefatigable in all his official work. It was this attention to detail and unnecessary attention at times and this unsparing although unassuming energy, that consumed his power and limited his ultimate service. The fever incurred on the Chickahominy incapacitated him for months and left its impress for years. In the autumn of 1864, he was sent to Sheridan in the Valley for duty and after Sheridan went to Petersburg he remained in the middle military division under Hancock. Meantime, by the consolidation of the two corps of engineers and topographical engineers and the enlargement of the combined body, he became a Major of Engineers March 3, 1863, while, as we have seen, General Foster, who knew his qualities, unsuccessfully sought his appointment as a Brigadier General in order to give those qualities a fit field for exercise. After the War he was engaged in the routine but always responsible duties that fell to all field officers of engineers.
In many respects the career of General Stewart represents that of the mass of those meritorious officers upon whose intelligence, fidelity and high sense of duty to the nation the essential character and the ultimate efficiency of every permanent military establishment must depend. They rarely are in the public eye and they discharge their duty with assiduity because it is their duty. They shrink from notoriety and from the well-intentioned but worthless praise of incompetent judges and equally disdain the censure of the partisan and the ignorant. But in addition to those constitutional qualities, as they may be called, he was equipped with a peculiar endowment, as seen in the privacy of domestic life, of gentleness, patience, affection, generosity, gratitude, fortitude under affliction and that higher spirit which few truly attain, the fullness of the Christian life. His career, as he lived it and in its memory, furnished an example to be followed and a reputation to be cherished.
C.S.
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