James Stewart

"Jock"
(1826 - 1905)
Home State: Unknown
Branch of Service: Artillery
Unit: 4th United States Artillery, Battery B

see his Battle Report

Before the Antietam Campaign:
A printer by training, he emigrated from Scotland to the US in 1844. He enlisted in Battery B, 4th US Artillery on 29 October 1851 as a Private. He was promoted to Corporal, Sergeant, and First Sergeant of the Battery by November 1861. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant of the Battery on 15 November 1861.

In the Antietam Campaign:
In Battery B, 4th United States Artillery, assigned as part of the 1st Division of I Corps' Artillery. His section were the first Federal guns deployed into the Cornfield, and were joined there by the rest of the Battery during the I Corps advance early on the 17th. The Battery was crucial in helping to stop the charge of Hood's Division. The CO, Capt Campbell, was wounded during that fighting and command of the Battery fell to Lt Stewart.

The remainder of the War:
He was promoted to First Lieutenant on 3 July 1863. He was honored by brevet to Captain 1 August 1864 for gallant and meritorious service in the battle of Spottsylvania Courthouse and during the campaign before Richmond, VA, and Major on 18 August 1864 for gallant and meritorious service in the battle on the Weldon Railroad, VA.

After the War:
He continued in Regular Army service, and was appointed Captain, 18th US Infantry on 28 July 1866. He retired on 20 March 1879, and was given the rank of Major. He lived at Fort Thomas, KY, near Cincinnati.

References, Sources, and other notes:
Service dates from Heitman1. Further details from Silas Fenton's essay on the Battery in Nolan's Giants in Their Tall Black Hats: Essays on the Iron Brigade (1998). His picture from an engraving after a photograph in Buell2.

Birth Date: 05/18/1826 Place of Birth: Edinburgh, Scotland
Death Date: 04/19/1905 Burial Place: Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA

Notes

1 Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, pg. 924 [AotW citation 10431]

2 Buell, Augustus, The Cannoneer: Recollections of Service in the Army of the Potomac, Washington: The National Tribune Company, 1890, frontpiece [AotW citation 10432]

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