From Robinson Township to Gettysburg - The Last Days of Alexander Stewart
Students of Civil War history – and many whose sole experience has been a visit to Gettysburg – are familiar with the Licensed Battlefield Guides (LBG); the extremely knowledgeable men and women who are the only official paid guides permitted by the National Park Service and the Gettysburg Foundation that manages park tourist services. LBGs are the gold standard of Gettysburg knowledge.
So imagine my surprise when a LBG called me to ask a Civil War-related question: “Do you know where Alexander Stewart’s grave is?”
As a Scout leader for decades, I’ve accompanied dozens of Scouts and Scouters to the Gettysburg battlefield, have walked the entire Union and Confederate lines more than once and have double-timed up Cemetery Ridge with young men re-living Pickett’s Charge on a sweltering July afternoon. We do the trip about every 5 years and in preparation I share some local angles for them to read to help introduce and place in context the soldiers who left their homes and families – many whom were not much older than those Scouts.
Somewhere along the line one of my primers made it onto the internet and that’s where the LBG got my name. She was a bit surprised – and extremely appreciative – when I said, “I sure do!” and sent her the coordinates, a map and a photo of the grave which I “just happened” to have on my desktop.
So who was Alexander McFarland Stewart? Here’s the “shortish” version.
At the extreme north end of Robinson Township, Washington County, the border formed by Raccoon Creek is joined by Potato Garden Run near the hamlet of Murdocksville. The Stewart family had several landholdings along that stream which flows mostly north and parallels the current Washington/Allegheny County line from its headwaters near the McDonald exit of US 22. Since the 1860s, geography has changed greatly due to strip mining so pinpointing exact landholdings from that era is difficult. Many of the hills in that area were 100 feet higher than they are today.
Stewart and his brother, Henry, left his parents and wife, Elizabeth Barton Stewart, when Lincoln called for volunteers and was mustered into service on August 23, 1862, and was chosen sergeant of Company D, 149th Pennsylvania Volunteers; one of the legendary units of the war who were dubbed “Bucktails” because that’s what they wore on their hats (that’s another story). It wasn’t until February 1863 that they were sent to the front near Belle Plain, VA, and participated in the Union defeat at Chancellorsville in late April. They then shadowed the Confederate Army as it headed north into Pennsylvania.
If you’ve read this far, you’re likely familiar with the three-day battle at Gettysburg and it was on the first day east of the town that the 149th became one of the first infantry units to engage the enemy on McPherson’s Ridge. And that’s where A.M. Stewart was mortally wounded, shot through the lungs and spine in action near the railroad cut. He was taken to a field hospital set up in St. Francis Xavier the Catholic Church on what is now West High Street in the town.
If you go there today, the historical plaque outside the church picks up the story right here, based mostly on the diaries of Sallie Meyers who was a teacher and now nurse in the field hospital set up on the street where she lived.
“I went into the Roman Catholic Church,” she wrote. “The men were scattered all over it, some lying on the pews and some on the bare floor.” The first one inside the door was Stewart.
“I knelt by the first one inside the door and said ‘What can I do for you?’ He looked up at me with mournful eyes and said, ‘Nothing. I am going to die.’
Stewart had been shot through the lungs and to get him off the floor, Sallie Myers had him moved to her family home. From the diaries:
Thursday, July 2. Morning. Went to the hospital. Saw a poor man by the name of Stewart of Barington, Pa., (editor note - Barington is most likely Bavington) who was shot through the lungs and will die. Brought him down to our house at noon. He seems better and worse by times. Watched by him all day and all night except two hours during which I rested. Our men were taken prisoners and we had three of them in the cellar. What awful noises, heavy shells flying over the town from 1 to 9 o'clock. While I was fanning Mr. Stewart a minnie ball came through two walls and struck the floor where I had been sitting but a few minutes before. Had I stayed a few minutes longer I would have been struck through the neck. One of my young companions was killed by a ball.
Friday, July 3. At the hospital occasionally through the day and watched by Mr. Stewart. He seems better but the poor fellow will not get well...I feel Mr. Stewart cannot bear to have me away from him...I wish Stewart was doing as well. The rebels have possession of the town. Saturday, July 4. Brought from the Hospital Mr. Andrew Crooks, a friend of Mr. Stewart who was wounded while helping Mr. S off the field. He has his right leg amputated. He is in the same company & from the same neighborhood as Mr. Stewart....Mr. Stewart is worse.
Sunday, July 5...Mr. Stewart's brother-in-law came to see him. His name is Barton. We thought Mr. Stewart dying in the afternoon but he rallied and seemed better...
Monday, July 6. Mr. Stewart's brother in law left. He has been sinking gradually all morning. About 9 o'clock he had a hard spell of coughing and until 10 he suffered dreadfully. I held him in my arms until nearly 11 when his head sank on the pillow and he died with only a slight struggle. I have never been so much interested in a stranger. I was with him almost constantly, wrote to his wife & friends. They will come for the body...
Tuesday, July 7...At 11 we buried poor Mr. Stewart. His funeral was very affecting. Mr. Bushman officiated....
Sunday, July 12. Mr. Stewart's father came to get the body of his son. He is a poor weak old man. He is very much distressed about his son. Mr. Baldwin came with him. His son was killed and buried by the rebels.
To reduce the chance of disease, bodies were buried quickly, but hundreds were disinterred within days of the battle as families such as the Stewarts and Baldwins arrived to claim their loved ones. Mr. Baldwin’s son, Pvt. Joseph Baldwin, had been killed the first day of battle as well while acting as guard for Gen. Abner Doubleday. Baldwin is buried in Robinson Run Cemetery near McDonald.
Both young men’s remains were taken by train to Pittsburgh and then Alexander by wagon home where he was buried in the cemetery of Robinson Church, less than two miles from his home. His tall, grey granite gravestone, where he rests along with Elizabeth, is among dozens of other graves of servicemen from the Civil War on in the nearly 200-year-old cemetery. His mother, Jane, is buried right next to her son beneath a weathering marble stone.
There is a bittersweet post-script to this history. Three weeks following the battle, Sallie received a letter from Alexander’s younger brother, Henry, that expressed his gratitude for the care she offered his brother and that Sallie referred to as “a splendid letter coming from a grateful heart.” They continued correspondence and in June the following year he visited Gettysburg and two days later she penned, “I am loved by one whom I have learned to love within a year...It seems as though the happiness is almost too great.”
Following a long, long-distance courtship, the couple married on Oct. 17, 1867. But the same tragedy that brought them together broke them apart as well. After just a year of marriage Henry passed away prior to the birth of their son, also named Henry.
Sallie returned to Gettysburg with her young son and taught at what was known as “the Colored School” on Franklin Street. She continued to teach and volunteer in the town until her death in 1922. She is buried within the familiar gates of the town’s Evergreen Cemetery.
Sources:
" General History of Company D,149th Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1862 – 1865..." compiled by John W Nesbit, Oakdale Printing & Publishing Company, 1908
“History of the United Presbyterian Congregation of Robinson,” Church History Committee, 1983
“The Ties of the Past: The Gettysburg Diaries of Salome Myers Stewart, 1854-1922,” by Sarah Sites Rodgers
Chris Kramer is a proud Civil War nerd and resident of Bavington. A graduate of Fort Cherry and the University of Pittsburgh, he worked 15 years as an award-winning journalist before “retiring” to operate Kramer’s Greenhouse, Raccoon Creek Winery and Coal Tipple Brewery with his wife, Dawn.
