Charles Stewart was born in Philadelphia, on the 22d of July,
1776. Both his parents were natives of Ireland. His father came to
America at an early age, and followed the business of a mariner in
the merchants’ service. Charles was the youngest of eight children,
and before he was quite two years of age had the misfortune to lose
his father; his mother was now left in the midst of the Revolution
with four children to provide for, and with but limited means, but
being a woman of great energy and perseverance, she performed the
arduous task with the care and affection of a devoted parent. At the
age of thirteen, Charles, having a strong propensity for a seafaring
life, commenced that profession in the merchant service, in which he
gradually rose, through the several grades, from a cabin boy to the
commander of a merchant vessel, and was often entrusted with the sale
and purchase of whole cargoes. In the early part of the year 1798, when
there was a strong probability of a war with France, he was induced
to offer his services to his country. They were accepted; and on the
13th of March, 1798, he was appointed a lieutenant in the navy of the
United States, under the command of Commodore Barry. In this ship he
remained until 1800, when he was promoted to the command of the United
States schooner Experiment, of twelve guns, to cruise on the West India
station. On the 1st of September, in the same year, he fell in with the
French schooner _Deux Amis_, (Two Friends,) of eight guns, which the
Experiment engaged and captured without any loss, after an action of
ten minutes. The following patriotic act will ever be remembered by his
country. “Being short of water, he proceeded to Prince Rupert’s Bay,
in St. Domingo, and while there, his Britannic majesty’s ship Alert,
Captain Nash, accompanied by his majesty’s ship Siam, Captain Matson,
arrived and anchored; soon after Lieutenant Stewart received a letter
from a citizen of the United States, named Amos Seeley, stating that
he had been impressed on board the British ship Siam, and claiming
an interference for his release. Although Lieutenant Stewart’s power
was inadequate to enforce his demand for the surrender of Seeley, the
two ships mounting twenty guns each, his patriotic heart could not
withstand the appeal of his countryman, and, prompted by that chivalry
and patriotism which were destined to blaze out in after life so
gloriously, he resolved on opening a correspondence with the British
captain for the release of Seeley. A polite note was addressed by
Lieutenant Stewart to the senior officer, conveying the request that
Amos Seeley might be transferred from his majesty’s ship Siam to the
schooner under his command, that he might be restored to his family
and his home. The British captain demurred, but in answer requested
a personal interview, wherein he remarked to Lieutenant Stewart,
that the war in which his majesty was engaged was arduous; that the
difficulty of obtaining men for his numerous fleets and ships of war
was great, and that he should encounter great hazard of being censured
by his government should he lessen his force by yielding up his men;
urging, moreover, that the example would be injurious to the service.
Lieutenant Stewart replied, in substance, that the British officers had
too long trampled on the rights and liberties of his countrymen, and
it was high time they had learned to respect the rights and persons
of an independent nation; that whatever power his majesty claimed
over his own subjects, he had no right to exercise it over a people
who had forced him to acknowledge their independence; that to resume
this power was to belie his own solemn act, and practise a deception
on the world. It was stated in answer, that Seeley was impressed in
England as an Englishman; to which Lieutenant Stewart replied:--“Then
prove him so and I have done; but if you cannot, I am prepared to prove
him a citizen of the United States.” Seeley was at once transferred
to the schooner. Shortly after, while cruising under the lee of the
Island of Bermuda, the Experiment discovered two vessels, one a brig of
war, the other a three-masted schooner, both standing for her under a
press of sail, and displaying English colors. The Experiment hove to,
and the British signal of the day was made, which not being answered
by the strange vessels by the time they were within gun-shot, that
signal was hauled down, and the Experiment stood away with all sail
set. A chase was now commenced which lasted two hours, when, finding
they were outsailed by the Experiment, they relinquished the pursuit,
and bore away under easy sail, firing a gun to windward and hoisting
French colors. Lieutenant Stewart now manœuvred his schooner so as to
bring her in the enemy’s wake, to windward, when a chase was made on
his part. At eight o’clock at night the Experiment closed with the
three-masted schooner, which was the sternmost of the hostile vessels;
and having taken a position on her larboard quarter, opened a fire upon
her from the great guns and small arms, which in about five minutes
compelled her to strike. She was immediately taken possession of, and
proved to be the French schooner-of-war Diana, of fourteen guns and
sixty-five men, commanded by M. Perandeau, Lieutenant de Vaisseau. The
detention occasioned by removing the prisoners, enabled the brig-of-war
to escape. She mounted, as was afterwards learned, eighteen guns, and
had a crew of one hundred and twenty men. The Experiment proceeded to
St. Christopher’s with her prize. During this important cruise, the
Experiment recaptured several American vessels, sometimes as many as
two or three in a day, and thus rescued American property to an immense
amount.
Accounts now arrived of peace having been made with the French
republic; the Experiment was thereupon sent from Martinique to the
Island of St. Thomas, and from thence to Curacoa, to look for the
United States brig Pickering and frigate Insurgent, but nothing could
be heard of those vessels at that place; they had both foundered in
the equinoxial gale, with a store-ship under their care, and all hands
perished. On leaving Curacoa, the Experiment proceeded to Norfolk,
Virginia, to be put out of commission.
On her passage thither, she discovered a vessel in distress, near
the Island of Saona, at the east end of Hispaniola; and had the
good fortune to rescue from the jaws of death, about sixty persons
who were on board of her. They consisted chiefly of families of the
most respectable inhabitants of St. Domingo, flying from the siege
of that city by the blacks. The persons thus saved from destruction
had remained two days without any nourishment, on a small part of
the quarter-deck of their vessel, which had struck upon a rock that
went through her bottom and fixed her to the reef; the greatest part
of her being under water. They were placed in safety on board of the
Experiment, with their plate and other valuables, which the sailors
had recovered by diving into the hold of the wreck, notwithstanding
the roughness of the sea. They were soon restored in safety to their
friends in St. Domingo.
They, and the inhabitants of that city in general, expressed to
the officers and crew of the Experiment their most grateful thanks,
showed them every possible civility and attention, and furnished
them with fruits and all kinds of stock which the island afforded in
such profusion, that much of the supply was obliged to be returned.
Soon after Lieutenant Stewart’s return to the United States, he was
appointed to the command of, and to superintend the equipment of
the brig Siren for the Mediterranean service; so much activity was
employed in fitting her out that she was completely coppered in ten
hours. After convoying some merchant-vessels, and conveying the naval
consular presents to Algiers, she proceeded to Syracuse, in Sicily, the
port appointed for the general rendezvous of the squadron. Here they
heard of the capture of the frigate Philadelphia by the Tripolitans;
and Lieutenant Stewart hastened with the brig Siren to aid the
gallant Decatur in his victorious efforts against these savages; the
particulars of which are given in the memoirs of those to which they
belong; a victory which caused the pope to exclaim, “the Americans have
done more for Christendom in one battle, than all Europe in a century.”
On the 17th of May, 1804, Lieutenant Stewart was promoted to the rank
of master and commander; and on the 22d of April, 1806, he was promoted
to the rank of captain in the navy. The years of 1806 and 1807 he was
employed in superintending the construction of gun-boats at New York,
and was afterwards engaged in prosecuting mercantile enterprises to the
East Indies, the Mediterranean and Adriatic. In 1812, on the prospect
of a war with Great Britain, he was appointed to the command of the
frigate Constellation; but as that ship required so much repairs, there
was little hope of getting her to sea before the beginning of 1813.
Captain Stewart, on the declaration of war, proceeded to Washington,
and projected an expedition for the Argus and Hornet. The President and
Secretary of the Navy approved of it and appointed Captain Stewart to
undertake its direction. On his return to New York, he found that those
vessels had sailed with the squadron under the command of Commodore
Rodgers; the project of course was abandoned. He, therefore resumed
the command of the Constellation, and on the 4th of February, 1813,
was anchored in Hampton Roads. Having learned that the enemy were off
the Chesapeake in great force, and presuming that they would soon
be informed of her situation, Captain Stewart sent to Hampton, at
midnight, for a Norfolk pilot, in order to be prepared for a retreat
if it should become necessary. At seven o’clock the next morning, the
enemy appeared with two ships of the line, three frigates, a brig and
a schooner. No time was now to be lost. Captain Stewart got up his
anchor, and there being no wind, and the ebb tide making, commenced
kedging his ship towards Norfolk. He succeeded in getting her partly
over the flats at Sewell’s Point, when the tide had fallen so much that
she took the ground. By this time the enemy were within three miles,
when they were obliged to anchor. Captain Stewart, apprehensive that
they would kedge up one of their line-of-battle ships, pressed all the
craft he could lay hold of, unloaded his frigate of every thing that
could be removed, and made preparations for burning her, in the last
extremity. He sent to Norfolk for the gun-boats to assist him, but such
was their condition that none of them could be sent to him.
As the enemy lay quiet for the want of wind, until the flood-tide
made, Captain Stewart continued lightening the ship. At the first
quarter she floated. He then sent off the boats with a pilot to station
them on the different shoals with lights; and with these precautions
he was enabled to get the ship up to Norfolk in the night, through
a difficult channel. Her safe retreat diffused universal joy among
the inhabitants of that city, to whose protection she afterwards
greatly contributed. A division of gun-boats was put in condition for
service, and manned from her crew. By this means the communication
with James’ river and Hampton was kept open, and every facility
afforded to the transportation of the troops to their different
stations. Captain Stewart seeing that there was hardly a possibility
of getting the Constellation to sea, applied for and obtained in
June, 1813, the command of the frigate Constitution, then vacant by
the appointment of Commodore Bainbridge to the superintendence of the
navy yard at Boston. On the 30th of December, in the same year, the
Constitution proceeded to sea from Boston harbor, although it was
then blockaded by seven ships-of-war. During this cruise she captured
the British schooner-of-war Picton, of sixteen guns, together with
a letter-of-marque ship under her convoy; the brig Catharine and
schooner Phœnix, and chased a British frigate, supposed to be the La
Pique, in the Mona passage. On the 4th of April, 1814, she returned
to Boston Bay, and was chased into Marblehead by two of the enemy’s
heavy frigates, La Nymphe and Junon. In December, 1814, she proceeded
on her second cruise under the command of Captain Stewart; and on
the 24th of the same month, she captured and destroyed the brig Lord
Nelson. She cruised off Cape Finisterre, the rock of Lisbon, and the
Madeiras, without meeting with anything except a merchant ship from
the river Platte; but on the 20th of February, 1815, at two o’clock
in the afternoon, two ships were discovered to leeward. Chase was
given immediately to one of those vessels, which was several miles to
windward of the other, for the purpose of cutting her off from her
consort, but without effect; for at sunset they formed a junction and
prepared to receive the Constitution.
She soon got alongside of them, and commenced the action, which was
kept up with considerable vivacity on the part of the enemy, for about
forty minutes, when the headmost ship bore away, and the sternmost
struck her flag. The latter, which proved to be his Britannic Majesty’s
ship Cyane, rated at twenty and mounting thirty-four guns, was taken
possession of, and her consort was pursued without delay. She too, the
Levant of twenty-one guns, was compelled to surrender, after exchanging
broadsides. In these actions, the Constitution had three men killed
and thirteen wounded. The British ships having in all thirty-five
killed and forty-two wounded. Captain Stewart proceeded with these
prizes to the Island of St. Jago, one of the Cape de Verd islands,
with a view to divest his ship of the numerous prisoners, consisting
of officers, seamen, and marines of both ships of the enemy, amounting
to nearly four hundred. While making arrangements for dispatching them
at Port Praya, for Barbadoes, the British squadron, consisting of the
ships-of-war the Acasta, of fifty guns, the Newcastle of sixty-four
guns, and the Leander of sixty-four guns, under the command of Sir
George Collier, reached his position under the cover of a thick fog.
Notwithstanding their near approach, Captain Stewart determined to
retreat, and immediately the Constitution and her prizes cut their
cables and crowded sail to escape. He was fortunate in being able, by
his skillful management and manœuvres, to save from their grasp his
favorite frigate Constitution, and the Cyane. The Levant was captured
by the squadron and sent to Barbadoes.
After this escape, he proceeded with the Constitution to Maranam, in
the Brazils, and landed the prisoners, refreshed his crews, refitted
his vessel, and returned to Boston, where he and his officers were
received with the usual courtesies by their fellow citizens. On his way
through New York, the common council honored Captain Stewart with the
_freedom of the city_ in a gold box, and extended towards him and his
officers the courteous hospitalities of that great city, by a public
dinner. The legislature of Pennsylvania voted him their thanks, and
directed a gold-hilted sword to be presented to him.
On the meeting of Congress, the assembled representatives of the nation
passed a vote of thanks to Captain Stewart, his officers, and crew; and
resolved that a suitable gold medal (_See_ Plate XIV.) commemorative of
that brilliant event, the capture of the two British ships-of-war, the
Cyane and Levant, by the Constitution, should be presented to Captain
Stewart, in testimony of the sense they entertained of his gallantry
and that of his officers, seamen, and marines, under his command on
that occasion. The war with Great Britain having terminated, the
Constitution was put out of commission, and laid up in ordinary.
In 1816, Captain Stewart took command of the Franklin ship of the
line, of seventy-four guns, and in 1817, she was fitted out at
Philadelphia as a flag ship and directed to sail for England, to convey
the Hon. Richard Rush as minister to the court of Great Britain, after
which the Franklin proceeded to the Mediterranean, and Captain Stewart
took command of the forces of the United States in that sea. Since our
country has been at peace, he has been alternately employed either in
command of squadrons abroad, or in superintending the navy at home.
Such is the brief outline of the life of this gallant officer, one of
Pennsylvania’s cherished sons, who has contributed his services and his
counsels for half a century, for the protection of our commerce and for
the glory of the navy.
Long may he live to serve his country and wear the laurels which
victory and fame have enwreathed for his brow.