Military Panorama,

OR

OFFICERS' COMPANION FOR JUNE 1813.

MILITARY BIOGRAPHY.

Maj.-Gen. the Hon. Sir CHARLES WILLIAM STEWART, K. B. Knight Commander of the Royal Portuguese Military Order of the Tower and Sword; and M. P. for the County of Londonderry.

THE

Meluenda corolla draconis.

HE gallant and distinguished cavalry officer, of whose services we shall now attempt to give an impartial sketch, is the second son of the Earl of Londonderry, and brother to Viscount Castlereagh. His family is a branch of the House of Stewart, descended from Sir Thomas Stewart, of Minto, second son of Sir William Stewart, of Garlies, ancestor of the Earls of Galloway. The greatgrandfather of Sir Charles Stewart, William Stewart, of Ballylawn Castle, in Donegal, Esq. (great-grandson of John Stewart, Esq. who had a grant from Charles I. of the manor of Stewart's-Court, where he erected the Castle of Ballylawn) took an active part in the transactions of the North, to prevent the subversion of the constitution which James II. and his chief governor, Lord Tyrconnel, were attempting to effect: he reared a troop of horse at his own expense, when the city of Londonderry was invested, and did essential service to the Protestant interest in that part, by protecting those who were well affected to King William III. and was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel in the regiment commanded by Sir William Stewart, of Fort Stewart, in Donegal, grandson of Sir William Stewart, Bart. Privy Counsellor to James I. whose descendant, Sir William Stewart, Bart. was created Baron of Ramalton and Viscount Mountjoy in 1682.

Sir Charles William Stewart was born the 18th of May 1780, and before he attained the age of fifteen, received a commission in VOL IL

the late 108th regiment of foot, in which he was appointed to a company in 1796; and in the month of June of that year, joined the expedition under the Earl of Moira, destined to relieve His Royal Highness the Duke of York from the perilous situation in which he was placed after the reduction of Ipres, the defeat of General Clairfait, and the taking of Charleroy in Flanders.—Captain Stewart was appointed Assistant-Quarter-Master-General to that division of the forces which landed at Ilse Dieu, under General Doyle. On the return of the British army, the subject of this memoir was attached to Colonel (now Lieutenant-General) Charles Crawfurd's mission to the Austrian armies in 1795, 1796, and 1797.-At the battle of Donauwert he was wounded by a musketball, that entered his face under the eye, went through his nose, and was extracted on the opposite side: the wound was received whilst charging with some heavy Austrian cavalry that were driven back by the French hussars; and in a senseless state this officer was carried back to the village of Donauwert, where he was put into a cart with some wounded Austrians, and in this condition conveyed to the rear. On his return to this country, he was appointed Aidede-Camp to Lord Camden, then Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.-He had succeeded on the 31st of July, 1795, to the Majority of the late 106th foot, and on the 1st of January 1797, was promoted to a Lieutenant-Colonelcy in the 5th dragoons.-At the time this officer received the latter appointment, the 5th dragoons, in point of discipline, was one of the worst regiments in the service, but from the exertions of Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart it was shortly brought to a very high state of discipline and efficiency. The most satisfactory proof of the latter circumstance is a letter which General R. Dundas in 1799 wrote to Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart, and which was made known to the officers of the 5th dragoons as an honourable testimony of their improvement.-We have been favoured with the following copy of it.

Kilkullin, 3d March, 1799.

When we are separated by seas from those we love and esteem, the only resource is a letter, and I hasten to thank you, my dear Colonel, for your kind favour, which I received this morning.-Continue, now and then, to make me happy in like manner.-Your correspondence will be flattering and consolatory in the distracted line in which my command has placed me.What is intended to be done with your regiment, the 5th dragoons, I know not; but from what I know of them when encamped under my conmand in the Curagh, I will, without hesitation, pronounce them to have been the worst of all possible bad regiments.--When you soon after got the direction of

that corps I was unacquainted with your merit: I felt the Herculean labour thrown on the shoulders of so young a man: I looked upon any progress towards discipline, or even decency in appearance, as a work of much time. I was, however, most agreeably surprised on seeing, soon after, a considerable part of this regiment under your immediate command, whose appearance and movements upon the camp-ground at Kilkullin, were such as to astonish me, and to lead me to think they had never formed a part of the 5th dragoons: but my admiration was greatly heightened when I came to consider that their reform had been effected in the midst of a raging rebellion, when no other corps but your own ever dreamt of a drill.-This declaration, my dear Colonel, I owe to justice, to friendship, and to that love for the service, which even in old age is still in vigour with me.-You possess the characteristic powers that are necessary to make a good officer; and I am perfectly convinced that had the 5th dragoons remained in Ireland under your direction, they would soon have become the best regiment of cavalry in this country-I have only to add that you must recollect how much real pleasure I felt, and testified in my plain way when you first called on me at Castle Martin.-When I began to love and esteem you, I had soon after occasion to admire you as an officer. Then you saw, and I hope have ever since thought me incapable of flattery.-My dear young friend, may God direct your steps, and may success attend them,

The Honourable Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart served in the 5th dragoons during the rebellion in Ireland, and until it was disbanded. The insubordination of the 5th dragoons, as pointed out in the letter we have given, and its departure from the discipline and principles which have ever distinguished the army, induced the Lord Lieutenant to make a representation of the same to the Commanderin-Chief, and His Royal Highness immediately ordered the corps to be disbanded.-The Adjutant-General, in making public this order, also stated that His Majesty was persuaded that there were many valuable officers in the regiment, who had used their best endeavours to restore the order and preserve the credit of the corps: and though in this measure of indispensable severity it was impossible to make any exceptions, yet His Majesty would hereafter make the most pointed discrimination, and those of any rank who were deserving of the royal favour, might rely on His Majesty's disposition to reward their merit, and to avail himself of their future services. This favourable disposition was most particularly extended to the Honourable Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart, who, six days after the issuing of this order, was appointed to the Lieutenant-Colonelcy of the 18th Light Dragoons, now made a regiment of Hussars, and which commission he has held ever since.

At the period this officer obtained the latter appointment, the

18th Light Dragoons was a skeleton regiment: however, his activity and success in completing and rendering efficient the corps, were equally conspicuous as in the instance which gave rise to the flattering testimonial from General Dundas.

Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart accompanied two squadrons of the 18th Light Dragoons in the expedition to Holland, which were attached to the left columo, under the command of Lieutenant-Genėral Sir Ralph Abercrombie, and in the general attack made upon the whole of the enemy's positions on the 19th of September 1799, was highly distinguished.-Whilst serving in Holland, LieutenantColonel Stewart was wounded in the head, at the outposts near Schagenbrug, on the 10th of October, by a musket-ball: the ball struck the glass he was looking through, which it broke, and was stopped by the brass tubes of the glass, or it would have proved fatal. In 1803 the Honourable Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart was made a Colonel in the army, and honoured with the appointment of Aide-de-Camp to his sovereign: soon afterwards he was selected for the civil situation of Under Secretary of State in the War Department, in which his professional knowledge and experience were of service in the very active and extensive military measures that originated in that department during the period it was under the superintendance of Lord Castlereagh.—He left this situation to assume the command of a Brigade of Hussars under Sir John Moore in Por'tugal, where he was to act with the rank of Brigadier-General.

On the advance of that army into Spain, Brigadier-General Stewart covered the march of Sir John Hope's division, which proceeded by the Escurial to Salamanca.-During this march he surprized at Rueda a French post, and took the whole escort of a valuable convoy of cotton.-Sir John Moore, in acquainting Lord Castlereagh with this event, observed, "The French seem to have been ill-informed of our movements; they are, however, soon acquainted with them, as our advanced posts have met, and General Charles Stewart, with a detachment of the 18th Dragoons, on the night of the 12th of December, surprised a detachment of their cavalry and infantry in the village of Rueda, killed and took prisoners the greater part of them.-The affair was trifling; but was managed by the Brigadier-General with much address, and was executed with spirit by the officers and men.--It was a detachment from Valladolid, where General Franceschi commanded with three or four hundred cavalry."-And in his letter of the 28th of December further observed that, since that, few days have passed without his taking or