Author: George Eward Thurmond
Daniel Stewart – (1761 GA- 1829 GA) – Private in St. John’s Riflemen Militia and South Carolina Militia in Revolutionary War; Brigadier General in War of 1812

1--Daniel Stewart was born on October 20, 1761, in St. John’s Parish to Susanna Bacon and John Stewart Jr. Daniel's grandparents, Jerusha and John Stewart Sr., were English immigrants who settled in Dorchester, South Carolina, early in the eighteenth century.

2-- In early 1752, the congregation of the White Meeting House in Dorchester, South Carolina, petitioned for grants of land in the Midway District of Georgia. Both John Stewart Sr. and his son, John Stewart Jr. received grants in 1752, but did not relocate to Midway until 1756.

3--Daniel Stewart’s father, John Stewart Jr. established “ Tranquil Plantation” in Liberty County where he lived with his wife, children and parents. John’s mother, Jerusha died in 1762, and his father, John Sr., died one year later in 1763.

4-- Daniel Stewart’s father, John Stewart, Jr., was a Colonel in a militia unit, called the Georgia Brigade of Artillery. When his father died in 1776, Daniel Stewart enlisted in the Georgia Militia at the age of fifteen. For two years, he served in the St. John’s Riflemen under the command of Colonel John Baker, and took part in the First and Second Florida Expeditions, including the Battle of Thomas Creek on May 17, 1777.

5-- By late 1778, Daniel Stewart served in the South Carolina Troops commanded by William Harden and Generals Thomas Sumter and Francis Marion. He was captured at Pocotalego, but later escaped. In 1779, he enlisted in Captain Alexander Boyes Company of 6th South Carolina Continental Line. He also served under Captain William Alexander and Colonel Wade Hampton.

6-- During the Battle of Charleston on May 12, 1780, Stewart was captured, and put aboard a prison ship in the Charleston harbor. He and other prisoners escaped by swimming ashore. While in hiding with South Carolina relatives, he met Martha Pender. They were married on February 20, 1782, and she died giving birth to their only child, John Stewart, in 1784.

7—Daniel Stewart returned to Liberty County after the war, and established a home which he called “ Cedar Hill Plantation” and later a summer home near Walthourville. Daniel Stewart was a member of the Midway Church since his christening in 1761. He served on a committee to build a brick wall around the Midway Church Cemetery in 1807.

8—After the Revolutionary War, Daniel Stewart was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Liberty County Militia, and charged with defense of Liberty County’s frontiers from Creek Indian raids from the west and south of the Altamaha River. A treaty of peace with the Creek Indians was arranged by Colonel Daniel Stewart by 1790. During that period and into the nineteenth century, he also served as a state representative for two years, as sheriff of Liberty County, and state senator for ten years.

9—On March 6, 1809, Colonel Daniel Stewart was promoted to the rank of brigadier general, and assigned command of the newly authorized Brigade of Cavalry, Georgia Militia. He was also appointed to a Committee of Safety for Liberty County, authorized to take charge of all local defenses during the War of 1812. In 1815, General Stewart ordered the Liberty Independent Troop to protect the retreat of two U.S. Army units who had been routed by the British at St. Marys. The militia units marched as far south as Darien, but were not engaged by the expected Tories.

10—After his first wife, Martha Pender died, he married Sarah Susannah Oswald (1770- 1807 in 1785). They had six children, as follows: Mary (1788); Daniel McLachlan (1791); Sophia (1792); Susannah (1794); Joseph Oswald 1797), and Martha “ Patsy” Stewart (1799) whose grandson was President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1810, Daniel Stewart married his third wife, a widow, Sarah Hines Lewis, and they had two daughters: Sarah Caroline (1813) and Georgia Drussilla Stewart (1814).

11—Daniel Stewart died on May 27, 1829 at his winter home, Cedar Hill Plantation, in Liberty County He was buried in the Midway Church Cemetery on Row C Grave19. Inscription on tombstone: "This stone marks the spot where beside his wife and children repose the remains of Brigadier General Daniel Stewart, in recognition of whose life and services the Congress of the United States has reared a monument in this cemetery. He was one of the youthful patriots who fought to achieve the independence of America and who later rendered signal service to his country, being brevetted by the Legislature of Georgia for bravery in the Indian Wars”. 12- Mrs. Sarah Stewart, wife of Daniel Stewart, was buried in the Midway Church Cemetery on Row C Grave 18, adjacent to Daniel Stewart. His daughters, SarahStewart and Georgia D. Stewart were also buried in the Midway Church Cemetery on Row C Grave 22.

13-- General Stewart’s actions were recognized by both state and national governments. Fort Stewart (the largest Army installation east of the Mississippi River, primarily located in Liberty and Bryan Counties) and Stewart County (on the Chattahoochee River south of Columbus) were both named in his honor. On April 26, 1915, the U.S. Congress erected a memorial shaft to Brigadier Generals Daniel Stewart and James Screven in the Midway Cemetery. President Theodore Roosevelt arranged for one thousand Army Infantry to participate in the dedication ceremony for his great-grandfather, General Daniel Stewart. Part of the inscription on the Screven- Stewart Monument is as follows: 1761– 1829 Sacred to the Memory of Brigadier General Daniel Stewart A gallant soldier in the Revolution and an Officer Brevetted for bravery in the Indian Wars

Sources- Liberty County Historical Society web site; Georgia Revolutionary Soldiers & Sailors, Patriots & Pioneers, GASSAR: Vol 2, pages 22 & 23; DAR Patriot Index, vol 3, Sweet Land of Liberty, A History of Liberty County, Georgia" by Robert Long Groover; Page(s) 16-19; Roster of South Carolina Patriots in the American Revolution, Moss, page 40; Men of Mark in Georgia; Edited- William Northern, Daniel Stewart p 302-304NOTE: McCall listed Stewart’s SC Militia service, but not his GA Militia service; Moss & GASSAR Graves book used McCall’s information. The DAR Patriot Index lists Stewart as a Rev War soldier who served in GA, as do the Liberty County books.

Send a biographical sketch of your patriot!

Patriot biographies must be the original work of the author, and work submitted must not belong to another person or group, in observance with copyright law. Patriot biographies are to be written in complete sentences, follow the established rules of grammar, syntax and punctuation, be free of typographical errors, and follow a narrative format. The narrative should unfold in a logical manner (e.g. the narrative does not jump from time period to time period) or have repeated digressions, or tell the history of the patriot's line from the patriot ancestor to the author. The thinking here is that this is a patriot biography, not a lineage report or a kinship determination project or other report published in a genealogy journal. The biography should discuss the qualifying service (military, patriotic, civil) of the patriot ancestor, where the service was rendered, whether this was a specific state or Continental service, as well as significant events (as determined by the author) of the patriot's life. This is the entire purpose of a patriot's biography.

Additional guidelines around the Biography writeup can be found here: Patriot Biography Do's and Don'ts

Send your submission¹, in a Microsoft Word compatible format, to patriotbios@sar.org for inclusion in this space

---

¹Upon submission of a patriot biography, the patriot biography becomes the property of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and may be edited to conform to the patriot biography submission standards.