named one of the counties of the State in honour of him; and a meeting in New Orleans, called to testify the public sorrow at his death, declared that "no man, since Gen. Andrew Jackson, enjoyed so completely the confidence and undivided esteem of the people of Tennessee."

LIEUT.-GEN. ALEXANDER P. STEWART.

CHAPTER LXVI.

Fame as a scholar and instructor.-His different Professorships.-First services in the Confederate States Army.-Various commands in the West.-Memorable action of his division at New Hope Church.-A compliment from Gen. Johnston.— A review of his character.-A tribute from one of the most distinguished scholars of the South.

AT the close of the war, Alexander P. Stewart was ranking officer from the State of Tennessee. He was born 2d October, 1821, at Rogersville, in East Tennessee. His parents were poor, but remarkable for their piety and zeal in the Methodist Church; his father, descended from a Scotch-Irish family that had settled in Delaware, was noted for his integrity, and still lives, in his seventy-sixth year, residing at Winchester, Tennessee, honoured by all who know him, and crowned with all the satisfactions of a wellspent life.

His family removed to Franklin county, Middle Tennessee, when the subject of our sketch was eight or ten years old. He soon showed an aptitude for books, and was put to school, and liberally educated by an uncle, the late Mr. Benjamin Decherd, of Winchester, Tennessee. In 1838, he procured, through Hon. Hopkins L. Turney, an appointment to West Point, where he graduated in 1842, in the same class with Longstreet, D. H. Hill, Van Dorn, G. W. Smith, R. H. Anderson, McLaws, Rosecrans, and Pope. Commissioned a second lieutenant in the Third Artillery, he was stationed one year at Fort Macon, in North Carolina. He was then ordered back to West Point as Assistant Professor of Mathematics, and fulfilled the duties of the instructor's chair for two years. In 1845, he resigned from the army and married

Miss Harriet Chase, of Ohio, a connection of the Spalding family, and a niece of Judge Rufus P. Spalding, present member of Congress from the Cleveland district of Ohio. After this event in his life, he settled in Lebanon, Tennessee, and was elected to a professorship in Cumberland University. He was connected with this institution of learning from 1845 to 1861, excepting three years, in one of which he occupied a chair in the Nashville University, and in two others, from 1854 to 1856, had charge of a female school at Lebanon. In 1850, he was offered, and declined the professorship in the Virginia Military Institute, afterwards filled by Stonewall Jackson. In 1854, he declined the professorship in the Mississippi University, formerly filled by Professor Bledsoe, and in the following year he was urged to accept a chair in the Washington University, at St. Louis, but refused to leave his honoured post as instructor in Tennessee. The number and variety of these calls attest the high scholarly worth of the man, and the extent of his fame in the South.

When the bombardment of Fort Sumter sounded the dread summons of war, Professor Stewart, recollecting his military education, offered his services to Gov. Harris, and was at once employed by the Military Board at Nashville, in making army contracts, establishing camps, and giving, in various ways, to the rising warspirit of the land the benefit of his military experience. In May, 1861, he was appointed Major of the the Tennessee artillery corps. He had been offered command of the 7th regiment of infantry (Hatton's), but he disclaimed all thought of ambition and considerations of rank, and was directed by a sense of duty to the artillery arm of the service, in which he considered himself most proficient. His command was at first stationed at Randolph, on the Mississippi River, and in August, 1861, was sent to Island No. 10, and commenced to fortify that position. Thence it was ordered to Columbus, Kentucky, after that place was occupied by Gen. Polk; and in the battle of Belmont which ensued, Stewart had command of all the heavy artillery, and did distinguished service in turning upon Gen. Grant's column the heavy rifled gun (the Lady Polk), from the fort on the bluff, and arresting his career of victory at the time he had driven the Confederate infantry to the river.

The commission of Stewart as Brigadier-General, was dated the 8th November, 1861. It, as well as all the promotions he subsequent

ly obtained, was unsolicited by him; he never visited the Confederate capital, he was thoroughly innocent of all political intermediations, and the official honours bestowed upon his career were never sought by him, and were valued only as approving testimonies to his conscience in the performance of his duty. On the evacuation of Columbus in 1862, he was sent to Island No. 10, to report to Maj.Gen. McCown, and was placed by him in command at New Madrid. The defence of this island was an extraordinary one, and has been recited in all the histories of the war. Gen. Pope came down the river with more than 30,000 troops; the effective force of the Confederates was 2,700 men in two little forts a mile apart, while on the water they had nothing but the sham gun-boats of Commodore Hollins. The evacuation of New Madrid was superintended by Gen. Stewart, and was the only successful incident for the Confederates, as finally they had to surrender the island, but not until they had held at bay for ten days, a force that should have instantly overwhelmed them.

At the battle of Shiloh, Gen. Stewart commanded a brigade in Clark's division of Polk's corps. Gen. Clark being wounded, he took command of this division, and fought it with skill and vigour. In Gen. Bragg's Kentucky campaign, he commanded a brigade in Cheatham's division-one of the three brigades that bore the brunt of battle at Perryville. These three brigades (Donelson's, Stewart's and Maney's), fought on the extreme right, and lost 1,500 men out of the total loss of twenty-one or twenty-two hundred sustained by the Confederates on that field. Gen. Stewart commanded the same tried brigade in the battle of Murfreesboro.

In the subsequent chequered history of the Army of Tennessee, the name of Gen. Stewart constantly occurs, with increasing fame, In and shows brilliantly even in some of its stories of disaster. June, 1863, he was commissioned a Major-General, and assigned to the command of a division in Hardee's corps. At Hoover's Gap, where the advancing enemy was desperately held until Gen. Bragg could retire his forces towards Tullahoma, he was the superiour Confederate officer, and seconded by the brave Bate and his other brigade commanders, he achieved a success that proved vital in its consequences. Before the battle of Chickamauga, he reinforced Buckner, and operated in East Tennessee.

After this battle, the Army of Tennessee was reörganized. To

Gen. Stewart's command were assigned Clayton's, Gibson's, Stovall's and Strahl's brigades; and his division thus composed was put in Breckinridge's corps, and fought on the extreme left on Missionary Ridge. When the Confederate lines were broken there, Gen. Stewart was ordered by Breckinridge to take command at the bridge over the Chickamauga, and here he saved much of the disastrous day, restoring order, collecting the troops, passing them over the bridge, and then burning it in the face of the enemy.

While the Confederate army recovered at Dalton, Gen. Stewart occupied Mill Creek Gap in Rocky Face, and sustained the brunt of Gen. Thomas' attack in February, 1864. On the repulse of the Federals, he fortified the gap and mountain, constructing lines of small advanced works for skirmishers; and it has been remarked that this experiment of Gen. Stewart led to the general custom in the Army of Tennessee, during the campaign under Johnston, of intrenching the skirmish line. In the famous retreat through North Georgia, and especially at Resaca, Stewart's division was conspicuous, and did some of the hardest and most successful service of the campaign. At New Hope Church, he held the centre of Hood's corps, and gave the enemy a terrible lesson, fighting the whole of Hooker's corps, and inflicting upon it a loss of nearly 3,000 men. This fight was made by Stewart's division alone; his command was without intrenchments, other than a few logs hastily piled up; the Commanding General, in great anxiety, sent several brigades to report to him; but he did not use the reinforcements, and with the loss of not more than 400 men, he sustained the enemy's entire attack, and obtained the first decided success on the Confederate side since the campaign had opened. This was perhaps the most brilliant event in Gen. Stewart's military career. His personal gallantry on the field was marked and admirable; during the whole fight he rode up and down the line encouraging his troops, and to their frequent entreaties to "go back," he replied steadily and with a self-possessed and cheerful courage, that he was there to die with them. The next morning his men sent him a touching message-that he should take care of himself, as they wished no one else to command them.

On the death of Gen. Polk, June 7, 1864, Gen. Stewart was promoted Lieut.-General and succeeded to the command of his corps. In announcing to him his promotion, Gen. Johnston re