William Stewart (1774-1827)

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William Stewart (10 January 1774 – 7 January 1827) was a military officer and Scottish Member of Parliament (MP) in the British Parliament. He was the fourth son of John Stewart, 7th Earl of Galloway.

He represented Saltash in Cornwall from 1795 to 1796, Wigtownshire 1796-1802, the Wigtown Burghs 1803-1805 and Wigtownshire again 1812-1816.

[edit] Military career

Stewart received his officer's commission in 1786 (at age 12!). In 1800 he became the first lieutenant-colonel of the Rifle Corps, which later became the famous 95th Foot (Rifle Brigade). Though Stewart held important commands in the army of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, his military talents were unremarkable.

At the Battle of Albuera Stewart led the all-British 2nd Infantry Division, which bore the brunt of Marshal Nicolas Soult's flank attack. Unwisely, he wheeled Lieut-Col John Colborne's brigade to attack the left flank of Soult's massive French column. At first, the maneuver went well, as British musketry savaged the French infantry. Suddenly attacked from flank and rear by mounted Polish lancers and French hussars, three of Colborne's regiments were massacred, losing 1,250 men. At that battle, Stewart's other two brigades also suffered severely, but this was not his fault. In an epic struggle, the survivors of his division held back the French until the 4th Division saved the day.

Wellington wrote of him, "It is necessary that Stewart should be under the particular charge of somebody." After Albuera, Wellington found that "somebody" in the person of Lieut-Gen Rowland Hill. For the rest of the Peninsular War, Stewart and his 2nd Division usually served under Hill's competent supervision. He fought in Hill's corps in the fall 1812 campaign in central Spain and at the Battle of Vitoria in 1813.

On November 15, 1812, Soult's 80,000 Frenchmen confronted Wellngton's 65,000 Anglo-Portuguese near Salamanca. When Soult failed to attack, Wellington ordered a withdrawal to Portugal. During the retreat, Stewart and two other division commanders disobeyed their commander's orders. Stewart, Wellington wrote, "and certain other generals held a Council of War to decide whether to obey my orders to march by a particular road. He [Stewart], at the head, decided they would not; they marched by a road leading they knew not where, and when I found them in the morning they were in the utmost confusion, not knowing where to go and what to do."

On the opening day of the Battle of the Pyrenees at Maya Pass, Stewart concluded that the French would not attack, then rode ten miles to the rear. When the battle began, his 2nd Division was left to fight all morning under an inexperienced brigade commander and lost 1,347 men. Still in Hill's corps, Stewart fought at the battles of the Nive, Orthez and Toulouse during Wellington's 1814 invasion of southern France.

[edit] References

• Glover, Michael. The Peninsular War 1807-1814. Penguin, 1974.
• Dictionary of National Biography