Forgotten Hero : John Steward of Maryland
Author’s Introduction: For the first Article published by The American Lodge of Research upon resumption of its activities, I elected to write a research article that is emblematic of attributes found in previous publications of the Lodge. The research incorporates a forgotten hero of the Revolutionary War and presents new information about John Steward and his Masonic membership. This piece even provides an example of his signature, which was a hallmark of early Transactions publications going back to the 1930s. The story of John Steward aptly displays ideals that, at the time, were so important to men of his age who joined Freemasonry; honor, integrity, duty and with just a little bit of boldness thrown in. Steward’s life ended far too soon, however, his legacy as a hero of the Revolution and as an active Freemason can now hopefully be preserved and understood for future generations.
Steward’s last name is spelled with the letter d at the end, however, he is frequently referenced as Stewart, which has added some degree of confusion over the years to researchers about his identity. The last names Steward, Stewart and Stuart were frequently used interchangeably by families arriving in America from Scotland and Northern Ireland at the time. As John Steward signed his own name with a d, that is the correct spelling to use.
John Steward was born on December 8, 1753 to Stephen and Anna Stewart as their second child. The family were believed to be Quakers by religious background and would have been affiliated with the Clifts (or Cliffs) Meeting of Calvert County, Maryland; although the Stewart family themselves lived in Anne Arundel County. Stephen was a successful merchant and owner of a shipyard at West River, Maryland who had lived for a time in Baltimore. The forty acre shipyard was a thriving business for the family which produced ships ranging from twenty to 270 tons. John had an older sister named Sarah and two younger siblings who were twins, Stephen, Jr. and Elizabeth.
There seem to be no records in existence about John’s earliest years, although the assumption is that he was well-educated having come from an affluent family. He was described by contemporaries as six feet tall, well-made and handsome. At the age of twenty-two, he heard the siren song of the military in the form of Captain John Allen Thomas’ Fifth Independent Company of Maryland. The Fifth Independent Company was one of seven companies raised by the Maryland legislature to guard the coastline of Maryland against a possible British invasion. The company was mostly composed of soldiers from Saint Mary’s County, located in the south of Maryland along the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay. Steward was commissioned as a lieutenant in the company in August, 1776. His command would have him reporting to Captain Thomas, a resident of Saint Mary’s County who was originally from Talbot County, Maryland. Thomas was also a Freemason, having joined the Lodge at Talbot Court House, Maryland in or previous to 1763.
Port, Stanley. Painting of Historical Arundel. s-port.com. Web. Accessed July 5, 2021.
Despite the Fifth Company having been authorized for in-state service, they were called upon to join the Maryland Brigade in New York City in August, 1776. The Brigade was made up of a number of companies from Maryland that had been assigned to the main Continental Army. At the time, General George Washington was in New York City with instructions from the Continental Congress to hold the city against a seemingly imminent British attack from the hundreds of ships in the New York harbor. The Maryland Brigade, having had time to prepare while in Maryland, was reasonably well-drilled as a military unit when compared to the often poorly equipped and poorly trained soldiers from other states. Steward’s company made their way from Annapolis to Philadelphia and then Elizabethtown (modern Elizabeth, New Jersey) before crossing over into New York City.
When the attack began on August 27th, Steward’s Fifth Independent Company, accompanied by the Fourth Independent Company, had just arrived from Maryland. As a result, they were designated to be held back as reserves to aid any retreating American regiments. They would certainly have been aware of an imminent battle, however, as the British had already landed 4,000 soldiers in Gravesend Bay on the 22nd. The entire Maryland Brigade was under the command of Brigadier General William Alexander, Lord Stirling.
Chappel, Alonzo. Lord Stirling Leading an Attack Against the British in Order to Enable the Retreat of Other Troops at the Battle of Long Island, 1776. 1858.
As the battle commenced, it became apparent that Washington’s soldiers were quickly becoming overwhelmed and their lines were about to break. As American soldiers made their way back from the advancing British towards Brooklyn Heights, Lord Stirling gave the order for the four companies composing the 1st Maryland Regiment to stay behind as a rear-guard. He ordered soldiers under the command of Major Mordecai Gist to cross the Gowanus Creek and charge the British soldiers holed up at the Vechte-Cortelyou House (in modern times the reconstruction of the house is referred to as the Old Stone House in Park Slope). In doing so, both Stirling and Washington had been fooled by a deceptive feint orchestrated by British General James Grant. Gist and Stirling’s soldiers, ranging from 260 to 270 in number, fought against 2,000 British soldiers and Hessians massed around the thick-walled house. These Maryland soldiers, who later came to be known as the “Maryland 400,” charged the British several times to buy time for the retreating soldiers to make it safely towards the American lines at Brooklyn Heights. As additional British soldiers arrived to reinforce their position, the fighting became so violent that the order to retreat was given. Observing from his position at a redoubt in Cobble Hill, General Washington was observed to have said, “Good God, what brave fellows I must this day lose!” Many of the retreating soldiers became bogged down and died in the marsh and mud of the Gowanus Creek. Only Gist and less than a dozen other soldiers made it through to the American lines. When it was over, Stirling was captured by the British, 256 Maryland soldiers were killed, with another roughly 100 captured or wounded.
The Maryland 400 Monument in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York.
Tensions were high with the remaining Maryland companies and especially so with Lieutenant John Steward. It rained constantly for two days after the Battle of Brooklyn ended and the poorly equipped soldiers were increasingly discouraged. The Maryland soldiers had served continuously without break since their arrival in New York City. Now, the British began landing thousands of soldiers in Lower Manhattan and along the eastern shores of the island. The Maryland regiments were assigned to duty near the village of Harlem in the northern part of the island, as General Washington believed that the British might land at the intersection of the northern terminus of the East River. It is here that John Steward first gained his reputation as “Crazy Jack Steward” with the “hottest blood in the union.”
Two days after the British first landed in Manhattan, Steward was in charge of a reconnaissance scout party designed to observe their movements. His unit encountered a British party and began firing on them. Steward noticed that soldiers in another American advance party began to run away. The now battle seasoned Steward encountered one of those soldiers, Sergeant William Phelps of Colonel Gold Selleck Silliman’s Connecticut militia. Steward told Phelps to “go back, or I would shoot him.”
The following day, Steward confronted Phelps, who had disappeared during the fighting, and told him that he was going to report him as a coward. At the time, insubordination was intertwined with a lack of bravery or honor in battle and was often self-policed by the fledgling army. The accusations between Steward and Phelps grew heated, with Steward telling Phelps that “he was not fit for an Ensign,” to which Phelps replied, “he was as fit for an Ensign as he (Steward) was for a Lieutenant.” Upon hearing this, Steward slapped Phelps across the face.
The soldiers who were present and observed what transpired reported the interaction to Colonel Silliman. The conversation between the two also grew heated, with Silliman ordering Steward’s arrest. Steward’s response was to throw his hat to the ground, saying to Silliman “I’ll go to my tent– all you can do is to take my commission, but I am a gentleman, and will put it out of your power, for I will resign it, and in less than two hours will be revenged on you.”
This resulted in a military court martial a few days later on September 23rd in Harlem. Steward was acquitted, as the court found that Phelps had provoked him and that Steward had not threatened the life of Silliman. Despite having been subjected to a court martial hearing, Steward was promoted not long after. He was given a brevet, or field, commission as a captain on October 28, 1776, as the previous commissioned officer in the Fifth Independent Company, Captain Bennett Bracco, was killed at the Battle of White Plains the same day.
Steward continued his service with the Continental Army through the rest of the year, fighting at the battles of Harlem Heights, White Plains, Fort Washington, Trenton and Princeton. In January, 1777, the formerly Independent Maryland Companies were formed into the 2nd Maryland Brigade of the Continental Army. Captain John Steward was officially recognized as a captain in this newly formed regiment and on April 17th, he was promoted again to the rank of major.
It was in this year that the Americans attempted a poorly planned and executed raid under General John Sullivan on the British position at Staten Island, New York. By August, 1777, the British fleet had departed New York with the majority of their New York City army south towards Philadelphia. General Washington ordered Sullivan’s army south towards Philadelphia “with all convenient speed.” Sullivan saw an opening against the British position in the now vulnerable Staten Island. Sullivan, along with the 2nd Canadian Regiment, New Jersey militia and the 1st and 2nd Maryland Brigades, began crossing from Elizabeth, New Jersey into Staten Island on August 22nd.
The raid was a disastrous failure. In some cases American soldiers were led head on into British or Hessian positions and British soldiers were generally alert to the American presence on the island in advance. When the order to retreat was sounded, General Sullivan left Major Steward’s company of about eighty men behind to guard the retreat. Steward’s actions, including repulsing several attempts to break through his lines, allowed the bulk of the surviving American raiders to escape to New Jersey. Captain William Wilmot of Maryland described the fight of the rear guard in a letter:
...thay came down on us with about 1000 of their herows, and attacked us with about 500 of their new troopes and Hessians... when our ammunition was all spent Major Steward took a whight hankerchief and stuck it on the point of his Sword, and then ordered the men to retreet whilste he went over to the British ground, and surrendered, for he had never gave them an inch before he found that he had nothing left to keep them off with.
Wilmot escaped, however, Steward and the other roughly 150 Americans who ran out of ammunition were captured and put onboard the notorious British prison hulks in the New York harbor. These prison ships, the most well known being HMS Jersey, were renowned for their shockingly filthy conditions and rampant disease as well as the high mortality rates of those sent onboard. The prisoners were emaciated with hunger and wore tattered rags of clothing. Determined not to succumb to these conditions and anxious to get back in the fight, Steward bribed a British officer who then allowed him to escape. By the end of October, Steward was back with the 2nd Maryland Regiment of the 2nd Maryland Brigade on their way to Philadelphia to liberate the city from the British, who had by then made their winter quarters there.
Bookhout, Edward. Interior of the old Jersey prison ship in the Revolutionary War. Library of Congress.
As the British enjoyed the relative comfort of Philadelphia, Steward’s Maryland Brigade spent the winter in the field, including a stint at Valley Forge, eighteen miles north of Philadelphia. In February, 1778, France recognized the fledgling American nation and declared war on Great Britain. The entrance of the French into the war forced the British to change their strategy and, as a result, they abandoned Philadelphia for New York in June, 1778. Upon reaching the city, Steward celebrated the British withdrawal by dressing in the red uniform of the British army to mock them.
Steward’s greatest feat, and the one that brought him lasting notoriety, came as a result of his actions at the Battle of Stony Point. Stony Point, New York is located on the western side of the Hudson River, just north of Haverstraw. It was an important site because of its geographical location as both the entrance to the Hudson Highlands and being near the western terminus of the King’s Ferry, which was used by both armies to cross the river. Stony Point juts out into the river with cliffs reaching 150 feet above the water line. Despite its importance, it was poorly defended with only about forty American soldiers.
Stony Point Battlefield From Above. Journal of the American Revolution. allthingsliberty.com Web. Accessed July 5, 2021.
In May, 1779, British General Sir Henry Clinton advanced on Stony Point with a contingent of 8,000 soldiers. The British quickly took the garrison located there unopposed and hauled cannons up the steep outcrop rising from the Hudson to fortify their position. Clinton’s actions were largely designed as a feint to draw General Washington’s troops out of the Hudson Highlands, which would allow Clinton to advance on the American encampment at Middlebrook, New Jersey. That strategy failed to materialize and so Clinton left the 17th Regiment of Foot with roughly six hundred soldiers at Stony Point to garrison the lightly guarded fort.
Observing this taking place through a telescope from nearby Buckberg Mountain, a hill above the Hudson River in Rockland County, was General Washington. It was here that Washington ordered General Anthony Wayne of Pennsylvania to prepare a plan to attack the British now garrisoned at Stony Point. Wayne devised a nighttime raid that would be composed of four American regiments selected from among the elite troops of each light infantry then encamped in the army. Major John Steward was chosen to lead the second of those regiments, which included soldiers from Pennsylvania and Maryland. Wayne was determined to retake the fortification or die trying.
In the days leading up to the planned attack, Steward needed to recruit soldiers for this exceedingly dangerous mission. While the British troop strength was minimal, the fortification was surrounded on three sides by rocky hills, marshland and the Hudson River; all of which would slow an attack and potentially leave the Americans open to deadly fire from above by the British. Steward's regiment had a total force of around three hundred men, however, he was selected to lead the northern advance on Stony Point in what could best be described as a forlorn hope. This small contingent of roughly twenty elite soldiers would advance and be the first to enter the fort and would also expose themselves to the greatest danger. It was written that Steward “spoke very clever” and recruited enough men to sign up for the glory and the prize bounties that would accompany a successful mission.
The night selected for the attack, July 15th, was pitch dark as the cloud cover abated any moonlight. To compensate, the American soldiers pinned white paper to their hats so that when they encountered another soldier they would not confuse them for the British. At midnight the raid began and the Americans entered the swampy waters around the fort. Wayne’s detachment coming from the south was immediately mired in two to four feet of swampy water. This slowed them considerably; so much so that the British sentries discovered them and began firing down on their position. Steward’s soldiers in the north succeeded in cutting through the British abatis of felled trees to penetrate the lines of the fort. Both Steward and Wayne’s men moved quickly to take the fort under the ferocity of their bayonets. The combat involved brutal, hand-to-hand fighting, yet the entire attack lasted only half an hour before the British surrendered. General Wayne, who was injured with a shot to the head in initial fighting, quickly wrote a letter to General Washington which read, “The fort and garrison with (British lieutenant colonel) Col. Johnston are ours. Our officers and men behaved like men who are determined to be free.”
The Battle of Stony Point with the Americans Breaching the Abatis.
During the nighttime attack, the records of a Masonic lodge, that of Unity Lodge No. 18 in the 17th Regiment of Foot, were captured by the Americans and brought to General Samuel Holden Parsons, a member of American Union Lodge. Despite being in a British military regiment, Lodge No. 18 held a warrant granted by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania as a replacement for the one issued by the Grand Lodge of Scotland to Unity Lodge No. 169, which was believed to have been lost at the Battle of Princeton in early 1777. In returning the warrant, General Parsons wrote:
West Jersey Highlands, July 23rd, 1779.
Brethren: When the ambition of Monarchs or jarring interests of contending States, call forth their subjects to war, as Masons we are disarmed of that resentment which stimulates to undistinguished desolation; and however our political sentiments may impel us in the public dispute, we are still Brethren, and (our professional duty apart) ought to promote the happiness and advance the weal of each other. Accept, therefore, at the hands of a Brother, the Constitution of the Lodge Unity No. 18, to be held in the 17th British Regiment, which your late misfortunes have put in my power to restore to you.
I am, your Brother and obedient servant, Samuel H. Parsons.
Although the Americans lost fifteen killed and eighty-three wounded, they managed to capture 546 prisoners. The victory was more of a morale boost to the American army than a strategic or pivotal one. Washington visited Stony Point on the 17th and decided that it was too vulnerable to an attack from the British coming up the river. As such, he ordered the fort destroyed and the prisoners taken off. The British reclaimed Stony Point several days later, although the Battle of Stony Point was the last major fighting between the two armies in the Northern campaign during the Revolutionary War.
It has been the custom of every nation to recognize glorious action on the battlefield. At the time, this often consisted of awarding an engraved sword or braces of pistols. The United States was no different and throughout the war the Continental Congress authorized the creation of eleven medals to commemorate the heroism of individual participants in these battles. For their efforts at Stony Point, General Anthony Wayne, Francois-Louis Teissedre de Fleury and John Steward were awarded their own individual medals, which were the functional equivalent of what we now would reasonably regard as the predecessor to the Medal of Honor. Additionally, Steward received the unanimous approbation of Congress, along with that of the Maryland State Legislature, for his extreme courage and ability to execute orders without falter for his actions at Stony Point. The Act of Congress on July 26, 1779 was resolved, unanimously, that, “Major Stewart… exhibited a bright example to their brother soldiers, and merit in a particular manner the approbation and acknowledgement of the United States; that a silver medal of this action be struck and presented to Major Stewart.”
Steward’s medal is represented on the front with the phrase JOANNI STEWART COHORTIS PRAEFECTO COMITIA AMERICANA, which means, “The American Congress to Major John Stewart.” America is personified as a Native American queen leaning on the American shield, with an alligator at her feet, and presenting a palm branch to John Steward. The back of the medal’s inscription phrase reads STONEY-POINT OPPUGNATUM and XV JUL. MDCCLXXIX which translated from Latin to English means, “Stony Point Attacked 15th of July 1779.” In the foreground is an officer leading his men from the front and rallying his men over the abatis blocking the entrance to the fort. Six ships are on the horizon of the Hudson River.
John Stewart at Stony Point. Lead Splasher Proof for Obverse Die, 1789.
These medals have come to be known as the Comitia Americana medals, which is Latin for “American Congress.” These eleven celebrate the actions of American heroes, including the Siege of Boston in 1776 and the battle between the USS Bonhomme Richard and HMS Serapis in 1779. The medals were designed and struck at either the United States Mint, in Philadelphia, or at the Paris Mint, in France. Steward’s medal was designed by Nicholas Marie Gatteaux and the iconography of each medal in the series is neoclassical and Hellenistic in design, with the actions in the war being represented as mythic scenes. The medals were not to be worn and were strictly decorative in nature. John Steward’s medal is extremely rare. Several reproductions were authorized of the Comitia Americana series, however, Steward’s seems to have been the only one of the eleven that was not, with one of the two copies of his medal still in existence and struck in bronze can be now found at the New York Historical Society in New York City.
Reverse of the John Steward Comitia Americana Medal.
The 2nd Maryland Regiment made their way to Morristown, New Jersey for their winter encampment of 1779-1780. Morristown, located between New York City and Philadelphia, made a convenient location for the army to make camp. The Watchung Mountains provided cover from the British with local farms able to provide food stores for the soldiers. It was at this camp that on the feast day of St. John the Evangelist, December 27, 1779, American Union Lodge met and agreed to send correspondence to each of the respective grand lodges in the various states on their thoughts about organizing a General Grand Lodge for the United States. Several months later, the Lodge again met, forming a convention of representatives of the different lodges then in the Continental Army regiments. At this meeting, the convention elected General Mordecai Gist, the commanding officer of the 2nd Maryland Regiment, to oversee the process which nominated, unsuccessfully, General George Washington to be the General Grand Master over American Freemasons.
By this time, the efforts of the British military had begun to shift to the Southern states. While most of the action had centered around the Northern and Middle states in the first years of the war, the entrance of France and the loss at the Battle of Saratoga forced General Clinton to pivot. To help counter this strategic change, the 2nd Maryland Brigade was sent to the Southern theatre of the war. Before they departed and while in Philadelphia, seven Freemasons of the Maryland Continental Line, including John Steward, submitted a petition to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania to obtain a warrant to meet as a lodge in their military line on the evening before they departed the city to head towards South Carolina. The petitioners were General Mordecai Gist, Major Archibald Anderson, Major John Davidson, Lieutenant John Hamilton, Major John Lynch, Colonel Otho Holland Williams, and Major John Steward. This petition was approved by unanimous vote at a Grand Lodge of Emergency held by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania on April 4, 1780. A warrant was drafted which established this military lodge as Lodge No. 27, at which point General Mordecai Gist was properly installed as Master of the Lodge.
Signature of John Steward From the Petition by Officers of the Maryland to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania Line to Form Lodge No. 27. The Masonic Library and Museum of Pennsylvania, 1780.
It is unknown where and when John Steward became a Freemason. While there is a John Stewart having been recorded by the Secretary of Lodge No. 18 of Baltimore, Maryland as having been an Entered Apprentice, that date was September 12, 1780, by which point it is established that John Steward was already a Mason. Lodge No. 18 would have made the most sense, as it was the lodge of Steward’s commanding officer, General Mordecai Gist, who was raised in Lodge No. 18 and had previously served as Master.
Steward’s Maryland regiment now made their way south towards Charleston, which the British army had successfully taken during a siege that had began the previous month. Along the way, the Marylanders encountered a British fort at New Bern, North Carolina which they took when the British opened fire on them. In Steward's words, had the British not fired a shot, “the fort would never have been taken.”
While in New Bern, Steward encountered Charles Biddle who was serving as a captain in the merchant service which was charged with disrupting the British fleet’s blockade of American ports. Years later, after serving as the Vice-President of Pennsylvania (the office now known as Lieutenant Governor), he recalled in his memoirs a scenario in New Bern that helped add to the reputation of “Crazy Jack” Steward:
A tailor who lived at this time in Newbern had given great offence to many of the inhabitants by his insolent behavior. As he was a strong man he thought he could say anything with impunity. Stewart sent his servant to this man with some cloth to make a coat. The tailor, who had measured him, sent word there was not enough. Stewart sent the servant back to inform him that he had a coat made in Philadelphia with less. The tailor told him to tell Major Stewart that he did not believe him. I was dining with Stewart when the servant delivered this insolent message, “Go back, William,” says Stewart, with great calmness, “and tell him as soon as I have dined I will call and horse whip him.”
After dinner, taking a horse whip in his hand, he walked down, perfectly cool, to the tailor’s, and, hauling him out of the house, with one hand held him, and with the other whipped him until he roared like a bull, to the great diversion of a number of people that his cries had assembled, not one of whom offered to interfere.
After he had tired himself, he left the poor tailor, advising him in the future to behave with more compliance to the officers of the Army. He intended to have sued Stewart, but, as some of his acquaintances told him, if he took out a writ against Stewart, he would certainly shoot him.
I admired Stewart much. When speaking, he had more the air and manner of an Indian warrior than any person I ever met with.
In August, 1780, the 2nd Maryland Brigade under General Mordecai Gist awaited battle with the British under General Charles, Lord Cornwallis outside Camden, South Carolina. Gist and the Maryland soldiers were under the command of Major General Horatio Gates who, despite superior numbers, strategically blundered in his approach to the battle. The Battle of Camden was a total loss for the American army, with Gates losing his command in favor of General Nathanael Greene after it ended. In a twist of irony, during the battle the Warrant of Lodge No. 27 was captured by the British along with the papers of the Lodge. It would not be recovered by General Gist until after the evacuation of Charleston, South Carolina by the British in December, 1782. Four years later, in 1786, Lodge No. 27 and Gist petitioned the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania for a new warrant to operate in Charleston, which they granted with the Lodge being allowed to retain their numerical designation of 27. Steward’s former commander Gist would go on to serve as Deputy Grand Master and Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of South Carolina.
After the Battle of Camden concluded, Steward was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the First Maryland Regiment on February 10, 1781 as his regiment waited out the remaining British soldiers in Charleston. It is cited in several sources that he also attempted to form a regiment composed of black soldiers in a plan to increase troop strength, although the plan seems to have never come to fruition. Steward apparently almost settled down and was married during this time, as evidenced in correspondence from fellow Lodge No. 27 member Otho Holland Williams to a former lieutenant colonel in the Maryland Line, Samuel Smith. He wrote about the situation, “Major Jack Stewart was damn’d nigh [wed], How he escap’d I know not… her wedding Cloth[e]s are made, but…poor Kitty Crane, you must hug your sheets.”
During his time in the South, Steward became well-known and much beloved to his fellow officers. He was also well-known for his daring feats and bravado, with Steward frequently stating that he did not want to live to be an old man. On Saturday March 22, 1783, on a dare, Steward rode a horse hard down a hill that was deemed impossible to do without suffering so much as a scratch. The following day, the 23rd, he was riding slowly on level ground on his way to a reception at Colonel William Washington’s house, Sandy Hill, when his horse gave way and he fell over with such violence that he fractured either his skull or his neck and died by the following morning.
According to the March 29, 1783 South Carolina Weekly Gazette, the day after his death, John Steward’s remains were brought into Charleston where his, “death is much lamented by his acquaintance, particularly by the officers to the army.” His body was buried in the historic ground of St. Philip’s Church later that afternoon with military honors and with a great number of army officers and citizens attending the service.
Several months later, in May, 1783, a group of American officers stationed at the military supply depot at Fishkill, New York, came together to form a hereditary society that would perpetuate the fraternal bonds of officers who served and also to commemorate and promote the ideals of the Revolutionary War, which they called the Society of the Cincinnati. It was named after the Roman general Lucius Quinctius Cinncinatus who gave up his absolute authority after a military victory and returned to his farm, thereby embodying civic virtue, humility and outstanding leadership. Each state would then go on to form their own respective state society, a tradition that continues to this day. Although John Steward did not have any children, the lineage derived through his nephews allowed a relative to join the Maryland State Society in 1912. All of the signers of the petition to form Lodge No. 27 in the Maryland Line were also members of the Society of the Cincinnati in Maryland.
Despite having been awarded a medal by the Continental Congress, the medal itself did not arrive until years after Steward’s death. President George Washington received the medal from Thomas Jefferson and forwarded it with the below note to John’s father, Stephen Stewart, who was at Annapolis. The letter from March 25, 1790 reads:
Sir,
You will receive with this medal struck by order of the late Congress in commemoration of the much approved conduct of your Son (the late Colo. John Stewart) in the assault of Stoney Point and was to have been presented to him as a mark of the high sense which his Country entertained of his services on that occasion.
This medal was put into my hands by Mr. Jefferson, and it is with singular pleasure that I now transmit it to you, as it must afford some pleasing consolation, when reflecting upon the loss of a worthy Son.
I am, Sir,
With great esteem
Your Most Obedient Serv:
George Washington
John Steward was just twenty-nine when he died from his injuries in Charleston. One can only imagine what additional accomplishments he may have added to his reputation had he lived longer. Despite his hot blooded reputation, it is clear that Freemasonry had at least some measure of impact on his temperament. I am happy to have now brought more of the story of John Steward to light and placed him properly in the annals of Freemasons who served their new country so admirably during the Revolutionary War.
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