[Alexander Stewart]. American soldier, born in New York City on the 15th of February 1835; son of James Watson Webb; graduated at West Point, 1855; commissioned in the artillery; served in Florida; then on frontier duty for two years, when he was appointed assistant professor of mathematics at West Point, 1857, which position he held until 1861; in this year was promoted successively until he became major of the First Rhode Island Artillery. He was at the first battle of Bull Run; was on duty in the defenses of Washington; served with the army of the Potomac through the Peninsula campaign, 1862; chief of staff Fifth Corps in the Maryland and Rappahannock campaigns; commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers, being assigned to the Second Corps; commanded a brigade at Gettysburg, during which he was wounded, and received a bronze medal for personal gallantry; commanded a division in the Rapidan campaign; brevetted lieutenant-colonel at Bristow Station, October 14, 1863; led a brigade at the battles of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania, at the latter being severely wounded, May 12, 1864; chief of staff to General Meade until the close of the war. Subsequently he acted as inspector-general of the Military District of the Atlantic (1865–66); brevetted major-general of the United States Army (1865); was then a professor at West Point until 1868; lieutenant-colonel Forty-fourth United States Infantry (1866); commanded the Fifth Military District (1869); president of the College of the City of New York (1869); resigned from the army in December 1870. He contributed articles on the war to the Century Magazine, and was the author of The Peninsula: McClellan’s Campaign of 1862 (1882).
