Hunterdon County NJ Archives Biographies.....Charles STEWART ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/nj/njfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 9, 2008, 2:32 am Author: Rev. Joseph F. Folsom STEWART, Charles, Revolutionary Colonel. Colonel Charles Stewart was born at Gortlea, County Donegal, Ireland. His grandfather, Charles Stewart, was a Scotchman and an officer in the army of William of Orange. The grandson came to America in 1750 and settled in Hunterdon county. He married a daughter of Judge Samuel Johnson. During and after the Revolution he resided at Union Farm, subsequently called Landsdown, near Flemington. At Stewart's home in Landsdown during 1796 died his friend, General William Maxwell, while on a visit there. Stewart died June 24, 1800, and is buried at Bethlehem, Hunterdon county. A tablet to his memory there bears an epitaph by his friend, Chief Justice Smith. Stewart, who had been a member of the First Provincial Congress of New Jersey, was colonel of New Jersey's first regiment of minute-men. In 1776 he became a member of Washington's staff as quartermaster, or commissary-general, and held that office until the close of the war. He was a member of Congress in 1784-1785. It is said that Colonel Stewart was a spare man of medium height. His blue eyes were sharp, but they could be kindly. His firmness is remembered. His portrait by Peale is preserved by his descendants. Union Farm was located a few miles from what to-day is High Bridge. The name seems to have arisen from the fact that in 1742 William Allen and Joseph Turner, forming a union in a business enterprise, had bought the land for the purpose of establishing a great iron works. In 1771 the first partition was made of the ten thousand acres they had jointly owned. William Allen died in 1780, and his widow leased Union farm to Colonel Charles Stewart, who remained there some fifteen years. Tradition persistently has claimed that during the Revolution a detachment of the American army lay encamped at Two Bridges, now Fairfield, but until recently there has been an absence of documentary evidence for the story. A recently discovered letter written at Two Bridges by Colonel Charles Stewart, quartermaster-general of the American army, confirms the tradition. This letter has been acquired by the New Jersey Historical Society. The camp was located on the extreme southeastern point of Morris county, which wedges itself between the Passaic and the Pompton rivers. The tourist at this place may pass from Essex to Morris county by a bridge over the Passaic, and then pass at once to Passaic county by the bridge that spans the Pompton. Here meet two rivers and three counties. On the point in Morris county stands the stately Post mansion, erected during the last decade of the eighteenth century by Thomas Dey, a son of Theunis Dey, who owned the house in Lower Preakness occupied by Washington as his headquarters. Some Post married a Dey, and thenceforth the Posts occupied the mansion at Two Bridges. Cornelius Post, who died at the age of eighty-five years, September 30, 1905, used to relate many traditions about the American troops encamped at the point. He used to show where the camp was located near the fish-slank west of the house, and point out the spot where stood Derrick Dey's tavern in which Washington, Lafayette and other officers were at times entertained. The recently discovered document is a letter written by Colonel Stewart to Deputy Quartermaster Moore Furman, of Trenton. It is dated Two Bridges, October 13, 1780. The army was encamped along the north side of the Passaic from Two Bridges to Totowa. Washington was at Lower Preakness. Later, November 27, the army moved to Morristown for winter quarters. The letter throws light upon camp life and incidentally comments upon the baseness of Arnold, recently turned traitor. Thus it begins: DEAR SIR:—Your favor of the 6th Instant came to hand last night, it had been carried as far as Robinson's house, Gen'l Arnold's former quarters near West Point, this brings that son of iniquity again in our way, indeed he is in the thoughts of everybody belonging to the army. No doubt before this his address has come to your hands, 'tis said to be a performance of William Smith's and from the religious strokes in it perhaps it is. Andre's fate was supported by him with every mark of firmness & personal resolution. It is a pity he went that way, but he assured General Clinton had it in his power to save him by giving up Arnold, but he would not take the hint and concluded we dare not execute Andre. He mistook. Flour has come on pretty briskly for a few days and we have now at least a week's supply on hand. My letters from Philadl. inform that much is expected before winter and I hope it will be got along to camp. Harassed and distressed as Jersey has really been beyond the sufferings of any other State, yet I expect if the food was collected and over on the East side of Delaware it would be forwarded somehow to the Army. Stewart's letter goes on with comments on camp affairs. "It gives me pleasure," he says, "that you continue your friendly advice and aid to Colonel Neilson. Timothy find it not a little troublesome to keep things agoing in Camp, perhaps he reforms too fast, some say he does. The army are already soured, old Dr. Craig says 'it won't do for them folks to squeeze too hard, it wont do.' I think the Doctor generally hitts the mark pretty right. We hear Gen'l Gates is recalled G. Green will go in his place. He will find it troublesome work but will make it do "I mean Morris Town as a post of as much consequence for the winter as the situation of our army will admit, and I hope winter quarters will permit a large Magazine to be collected. I agree with you that it is hard to ask the Southern Waggons to come here and will do everything in my power to prevent it, as soon as the roads get broke, and our supplys at Camp are so regular as to admit of any being dropt at Morris Town. "As I always had satisfaction in doing business with you and never was disappointed in your exertions for our support, it cannot but give me pleasure to hear from you as often as you can drop me a line, and you may be assured in my troubling you with a note frequently. I am, with great regard, your obed' servant, CHARLES STEWART. Some of the allusions in Stewart's letter to men and events will be clearer after a word or two of explanation. The American army broke camp at Tappan on October 7, 1780, and moved "to the country in the neighborhood of Passaic Falls." The forage about Tappan had been exhausted and the new site was expected to yield a sufficient supply. The army encamped along the Passaic Valley from Two Bridges to Totowa, now Paterson. Washington made his headquarters at the Theunis Dey mansion, still standing in Lower Preakness. Some of the officers were quartered at Derrick Dey's tavern in Morris county, at Two Bridges, and nearby was the camp of the soldiers. Colonel Stewart appears to have made his headquarters at this place. Colonel or "Doctor" Craig went to Morristown and chose the site for the winter camp, to which from the Passaic on November 27, the army moved. The Southern wagons bearing supplies found it a long journey to Two Bridges, and Stewart, as will be seen from his letter, hoped to arrange things so the wagon loads might be left at Morristown, which place was on the road the wagons took from the Delaware to the Passaic. Moore Furman, the deputy quartermaster-general, whom Stewart so cordially commends for his services to the republic, was a well-known resident of Trenton. His epitaph may be read under the porch of the Old First Presbyterian Church of Trenton. A book containing letters written by him during the Revolution was published in 1912 by the Colonial Dames. A sketch of his life appears in volume i, on page 306, of this Cyclopedia. He died March 16, 1808. J. F. F. Additional Comments: Extracted from: MEMORIAL CYCLOPEDIA OF NEW JERSEY UNDER THE EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF MARY DEPUE OGDEN VOLUME III MEMORIAL HISTORY COMPANY NEWARK, NEW JERSEY 1917 This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/njfiles/ File size: 8.5 Kb This file is located at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nj/hunterdon/bios/stewart-c.txt