| Sir William Drummond Stewart | |
|---|---|
Portrait of Sir William Drummond Stewart in Murthly Castle |
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| Born | 26 Dec 1795 Murthly Castle, Perthshire |
| Died | 28 April 1871 (aged 75) |
| Buried at | Chapel of St.Anthony the Eremite, Murthly Castle |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service/branch | British Army |
| Years of service | 1812 - 1820 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Unit | 6th Dragoon Guards 15th The King's Hussars |
| Battles/wars | Peninsular War Waterloo |
| Awards | Knight of the Military Order of Christ |
William Drummond Stewart (Dec. 26, 1795 - Apr. 28, 1871) was a Scottish adventurer and British military officer. He traveled extensively in the American West for nearly six years in the 1830s, wintering in New Orleans, where he speculated in the cotton market, and Cuba. In 1837 he took along the American artist, Alfred Jacob Miller, hiring him to do sketches of the trip. Many of his completed oil paintings of American Indian life and the Rocky Mountains hang in Murthly Castle.
After his older brother John Stewart died childless in 1838, William inherited the baronetcy and returned to Scotland. In 1842 he returned to the American West for a hunting trip, hiring as a guide Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, the son of Sacagawea of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He was in the United States for nearly a year and explored what is now Yellowstone Park.
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Born at Murthly Castle, Perthshire, Scotland, Stewart was the second son and one of seven children of Sir George Stewart, 17th Laird of Grandtully, 5th Baronet of Murthly and of Blair. The family decided that William would go into the Army (as his older brother would inherit his father's estate and title). After his seventeenth birthday in 1812, William asked his father to buy him a cornetcy in the 6th Dragoon Guards. After his appointment was confirmed on April 15, 1813, he immediately joined his regiment and began a programme of rigorous training.
Stewart was anxious to participate in military action; on December 22, 1813he applied for an appointment to a Lieutenancy in the 15th King's Hussars, which was soon to deploy. The appointment was confirmed on January 6, 1814, within days of the regiment's being sent out to take part in the Peninsular War and subsequently the Waterloo campaign in 1815. On June 15, 1820, Stewart was promoted to a Captain and soon thereafter retired on half pay.
In 1830 he married Christina Mary Battersby.[1]. They had several children, including a son William George Drummond Stewart. He had an illustrious career in the British Army and was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions in relieving the Siege of Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny.
Seeking adventure, Stewart traveled to St. Louis, Missouri in 1832, where he contacted William Clark, Pierre Chouteau, Jr.; William Ashley and other prominent residents. He arranged to accompany Robert Campbell, who was taking a Sublette pack train to the 1833 rendezvous of mountain men[2]. The party left St. Louis on April 13 and attended the Horse Creek Rendezvous in the Green River Valley of Wyoming. Here Stewart met the mountain men Jim Bridger, Antoine Clement, and Thomas Fitzpatrick, and Benjamin Bonneville, who led a governmental expedition in the area. With some of the men, Stewart visited the Big Horn Mountains, wintered at Taos, and attended the next rendezvous at Ham's Fork of the Green River. Later that year, he journeyed to Fort Vancouver, Washington, at the coast of the Pacific Ocean.
Stewart attended the 1835 rendezvous at the mouth of New Fork River on the Green and reached St. Louis in November. Finding his income from Murthly had declined, he went to New Orleans, speculated in cotton to recoup, and wintered in Cuba. In May, he joined Fitzpatrick's train to the Rockies for another rendezvous on Horse Creek. He wintered in 1836-1837 at New Orleans, where he speculated again in cotton. He learned that his childless older brother John was dying of cancer. William Stewart would become the seventh baronet of Murthly and have ample money.
For the rendezvous of 1837, Stewart took along an American artist, Alfred Jacob Miller, whom he hired in New Orleans. Miller painted a notable series of works on the mountain men, the rendezvous, American Indians, and Rocky Mountain scenes. In 1840 he delivered finished oils to Stewart, who hung the works in a gallery at Murthly Castle. Stewart accompanied Fitzpatrick's train to the rendezvous on the Green River, and later visited the Wind River Mountains.
Stewart attended the next rendezvous on the Popie Agie River in present-day Wyoming. While en route back to St. Louis, he learned that his brother John had died. Stewart returned to Scotland and Murthly Castle in July 1838 with Antoine Clement, some American Indians, and his many trophies. Miller arrived in 1840 with the commissioned paintings, which hang in a gallery at the castle devoted to the American West.
Homesick for the American West, Stewart returned to North America in late 1842[3]. He hired Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, the Métis son of Sacagawea of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, as his guide for a lavish hunting trip.[4] Stewart and his entourage joined the Sublette train to the 1843 rendezvous (the last in the Rockies). Afterward he visited the area that would be preserved as Yellowstone Park, and returned to St. Louis in October. He then returned to to Scotland for good.
Stewart's later life was generally tranquil. His son William George Drummond Stewart served with the 93rd Highlanders in the Crimean War. He also served in the Indian Mutiny, where he was awarded the Victoria Cross.[5] He died before his father.