John Stuart, Count of Maida
Encyclopedia
Sir John Stuart, Count of Maida GCB
(1759–1815), was a British Lieutenant-General during the Napoleonic Wars
.
Stuart was born in Georgia
, the son of Colonel John Stuart
, superintendent of Indian affairs
in the southern district, and a prominent loyalist
in the War of Independence
. Educated at Westminster School
, young Stuart entered the 3rd Foot Guards
in 1778, and almost immediately returned to America with his regiment. He was present at the siege of Charleston
, the battles of Camden
and Guilford court-house
, and the surrender of Yorktown
, returning a regimental lieutenant and an army captain, as was then usual in the Guards.
Ten years later, as captain and lieutenant-colonel, he was present with the Duke of York's
army in the Netherlands and in northern France. He took part in the sieges and battles of the 1793 campaign, Valenciennes
, Lincelles, Dunkirk and Lannoy
. The following year, now at the head of his battalion, he was present at Landrecies
and at Pont-a-Chin or Tournay
, and when the tide turned against the allies, he shared with his guards in the discomforts of the retreat. As a brigadier-general he served in Portugal in 1796, and in Minorca in 1799. At Alexandria
, in 1801, his handling of his brigade called forth special commendation in general orders, and a year later he became substantive major-general.
After two years in command of a brigade in Kent
, Stuart went with Sir James Craig
to the Mediterranean. The English were employed along with Lacy's Russians in the defence of the kingdom of Naples
but Austerlitz
led to the recall of the Russian contingent, and the British soon afterwards evacuated Italy. Thus exposed, Naples
fell to the advancing troops of Masséna
but Gaeta
still held out for King Ferdinand
and Masséna's main force became locked up in the siege of this fortress
. Stuart, who was in temporary command, realized the weakness of the French position in Calabria
and on the 1st of July 1806 swiftly disembarked all his available forces in the Gulf of Sant'Eufemia. On the 4th the British force, 4,800 strong, won the celebrated victory of Maida
over Reynier's
army. After this success, Stuart marched south and after a series of minor skirmishes, returned to Sicily as he felt his force was too weak to go onto a full offensive against Masséna's foothold in Naples. After besieging and taking the castle of Scylla, the force returned to Messina. Besides the dignity of Count of Maida from the court of Palermo
, Stuart received the thanks of parliament and an annuity of £1,000, as well as the KCB
. Superseded by two other generals, Henry Fox
and John Moore, the latter of whom was his junior, Stuart came home in 1806.
A year later, now a lieutenant-general, he received the Mediterranean command which he held until 1810. His operations were confined to south Italy where Murat
, king of Naples, held the mainland whereas the British and Neapolitan troops held Sicily for the Bourbon
king. Of the events of this time may be mentioned the failure to relieve Colonel Hudson Lowe
at Capri
, the expedition against Murat's gunboats in the bay of Naples
and the second siege of Scylla. The various attempts made by Murat to cross the straits
uniformly failed, though on one occasion the French actually obtained a footing in the island. In 1810 Stuart returned to England. He died at Clifton in 1815. Two months previously he had received the Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB).
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
(1759–1815), was a British Lieutenant-General during the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
.
Stuart was born in Georgia
Province of Georgia
The Province of Georgia was one of the Southern colonies in British America. It was the last of the thirteen original colonies established by Great Britain in what later became the United States...
, the son of Colonel John Stuart
John Stuart (loyalist)
John Stuart was a Scottish-born official of the British Empire in North America. He was the superintendent for the southern district of the British Indian Department from 1761 to 1779; his northern counterpart was Sir William Johnson.Born in Inverness, by 1748 Stuart had emigrated to South...
, superintendent of Indian affairs
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
in the southern district, and a prominent loyalist
Loyalist (American Revolution)
Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the Kingdom of Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. At the time they were often called Tories, Royalists, or King's Men. They were opposed by the Patriots, those who supported the revolution...
in the War of Independence
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
. Educated at Westminster School
Westminster School
The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...
, young Stuart entered the 3rd Foot Guards
Scots Guards
The Scots Guards is a regiment of the Guards Division of the British Army, whose origins lie in the personal bodyguard of King Charles I of England and Scotland...
in 1778, and almost immediately returned to America with his regiment. He was present at the siege of Charleston
Siege of Charleston
The Siege of Charleston was one of the major battles which took place towards the end of the American Revolutionary War, after the British began to shift their strategic focus towards the American Southern Colonies. After about six weeks of siege, Continental Army Major General Benjamin Lincoln...
, the battles of Camden
Battle of Camden
The Battle of Camden was a major victory for the British in the Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War...
and Guilford court-house
Battle of Guilford Court House
The Battle of Guilford Court House was a battle fought on March 15, 1781 in Greensboro, the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, during the American Revolutionary War...
, and the surrender of Yorktown
Siege of Yorktown
The Siege of Yorktown, Battle of Yorktown, or Surrender of Yorktown in 1781 was a decisive victory by a combined assault of American forces led by General George Washington and French forces led by the Comte de Rochambeau over a British Army commanded by Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis...
, returning a regimental lieutenant and an army captain, as was then usual in the Guards.
Ten years later, as captain and lieutenant-colonel, he was present with the Duke of York's
Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany
The Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany was a member of the Hanoverian and British Royal Family, the second eldest child, and second son, of King George III...
army in the Netherlands and in northern France. He took part in the sieges and battles of the 1793 campaign, Valenciennes
Valenciennes
Valenciennes is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It lies on the Scheldt river. Although the city and region had seen a steady decline between 1975 and 1990, it has since rebounded...
, Lincelles, Dunkirk and Lannoy
Lannoy, Nord
Lannoy is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.-Heraldry:-Geography:With a land area of only , it is the fourth-smallest French commune by surface area and the smallest chef-lieu of a canton...
. The following year, now at the head of his battalion, he was present at Landrecies
Landrecies
Landrecies is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It is the site of a skirmish between the British I Corps under Douglas Haig and the German Fifth Army on 25 August 1914.-Heraldry:-People:...
and at Pont-a-Chin or Tournay
Battle of Tournay
The Battle of Tournay or Tournai was fought on 22 May 1794 as part of the Flanders Campaign in the Belgian province of Hainaut on the Schelde River between French forces under General Pichegru and Coalition forces under Prince Josias of Coburg, in which the Coalition forces were victorious.In the...
, and when the tide turned against the allies, he shared with his guards in the discomforts of the retreat. As a brigadier-general he served in Portugal in 1796, and in Minorca in 1799. At Alexandria
Battle of Alexandria
The Battle of Alexandria or Battle of Canope, fought on March 21, 1801 between the French army under General Menou and the British expeditionary corps under Sir Ralph Abercrombie, took place near the ruins of Nicopolis, on the narrow spit of land between the sea and Lake Abukir, along which the...
, in 1801, his handling of his brigade called forth special commendation in general orders, and a year later he became substantive major-general.
After two years in command of a brigade in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, Stuart went with Sir James Craig
James Henry Craig
General Sir James Henry Craig KB was a British military officer and colonial administrator.-Early life and military service:...
to the Mediterranean. The English were employed along with Lacy's Russians in the defence of the kingdom of Naples
Kingdom of Naples
The Kingdom of Naples, comprising the southern part of the Italian peninsula, was the remainder of the old Kingdom of Sicily after secession of the island of Sicily as a result of the Sicilian Vespers rebellion of 1282. Known to contemporaries as the Kingdom of Sicily, it is dubbed Kingdom of...
but Austerlitz
Battle of Austerlitz
The Battle of Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of Napoleon's greatest victories, where the French Empire effectively crushed the Third Coalition...
led to the recall of the Russian contingent, and the British soon afterwards evacuated Italy. Thus exposed, Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
fell to the advancing troops of Masséna
André Masséna
André Masséna 1st Duc de Rivoli, 1st Prince d'Essling was a French military commander during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars....
but Gaeta
Gaeta
Gaeta is a city and comune in the province of Latina, in Lazio, central Italy. Set on a promontory stretching towards the Gulf of Gaeta, it is 120 km from Rome and 80 km from Naples....
still held out for King Ferdinand
Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies
Ferdinand I reigned variously over Naples, Sicily, and the Two Sicilies from 1759 until his death. He was the third son of King Charles III of Spain by his wife Maria Amalia of Saxony. On 10 August 1759, Charles succeeded his elder brother, Ferdinand VI, as King Charles III of Spain...
and Masséna's main force became locked up in the siege of this fortress
Siege of Gaeta (1806)
The Siege of Gaeta of 1806 was a siege of the fortress city of Gaeta by French forces under André Masséna, which began in late February during the War of the Third Coalition....
. Stuart, who was in temporary command, realized the weakness of the French position in Calabria
Calabria
Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....
and on the 1st of July 1806 swiftly disembarked all his available forces in the Gulf of Sant'Eufemia. On the 4th the British force, 4,800 strong, won the celebrated victory of Maida
Battle of Maida
The Battle of Maida on 4 July 1806 saw a British expeditionary force fight a First French Empire division outside the town of Maida in Calabria, Italy during the Napoleonic Wars. John Stuart led 5,200 British troops to victory over about 6,000 French soldiers under Jean Reynier, inflicting...
over Reynier's
Jean Reynier
Jean Louis Ebénézer Reynier rose in rank to become a French army general officer during the French Revolutionary Wars. He led a division under Napoleon Bonaparte in the French Campaign in Egypt and Syria...
army. After this success, Stuart marched south and after a series of minor skirmishes, returned to Sicily as he felt his force was too weak to go onto a full offensive against Masséna's foothold in Naples. After besieging and taking the castle of Scylla, the force returned to Messina. Besides the dignity of Count of Maida from the court of Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
, Stuart received the thanks of parliament and an annuity of £1,000, as well as the KCB
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
. Superseded by two other generals, Henry Fox
Henry Edward Fox
General Henry Edward Fox was a British Army general. He also served for a brief spell as Governor of Minorca.-Family:...
and John Moore, the latter of whom was his junior, Stuart came home in 1806.
A year later, now a lieutenant-general, he received the Mediterranean command which he held until 1810. His operations were confined to south Italy where Murat
Joachim Murat
Joachim-Napoléon Murat , Marshal of France and Grand Admiral or Admiral of France, 1st Prince Murat, was Grand Duke of Berg from 1806 to 1808 and then King of Naples from 1808 to 1815...
, king of Naples, held the mainland whereas the British and Neapolitan troops held Sicily for the Bourbon
House of Bourbon
The House of Bourbon is a European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty . Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma...
king. Of the events of this time may be mentioned the failure to relieve Colonel Hudson Lowe
Hudson Lowe
Sir Hudson Lowe KCB, GCMG was an Anglo-Irish soldier and colonial administrator who is best known for his time as Governor of St Helena where he was the "gaoler" of Napoleon Bonaparte.-Early life and career:...
at Capri
Capri
Capri is an Italian island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples, in the Campania region of Southern Italy...
, the expedition against Murat's gunboats in the bay of Naples
Gulf of Naples
The Gulf of Naples is a c. 15 km wide gulf located in the south western coast of Italy, . It opens to the west into the Mediterranean Sea. It is bordered on the north by the cities of Naples and Pozzuoli, on the east by Mount Vesuvius, and on the south by the Sorrentine Peninsula and the main...
and the second siege of Scylla. The various attempts made by Murat to cross the straits
Strait of Messina
The Strait of Messina is the narrow passage between the eastern tip of Sicily and the southern tip of Calabria in the south of Italy. It connects the Tyrrhenian Sea with the Ionian Sea, within the central Mediterranean...
uniformly failed, though on one occasion the French actually obtained a footing in the island. In 1810 Stuart returned to England. He died at Clifton in 1815. Two months previously he had received the Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB).