Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 54.djvu/299

 and temper he showed in dealing with the very various and conflicting elements of which the force under my command was composed, were beyond praise’ (London Gazette, 16 Jan. 1880). From 7 Feb. to 25 May 1880 he acted as military secretary to Sir Garnet (afterwards Lord) Wolseley in Natal and the Transvaal. He was made brevet lieutenant-colonel on 24 July 1880.

He thereupon returned to England, but went back to South Africa in the beginning of 1881, when the Boers of the Transvaal, with some of whom he had been serving twelve months before, had risen to recover their independence. He was appointed assistant adjutant and quartermaster-general on 7 Jan., and joined the force under Sir George Pomeroy Colley [q. v.] at Mount Prospect about 20 Feb. as chief staff officer. He shared in the disaster on Majuba Hill on the 27th, and attributed it to the neglect to make some simple entrenchment upon which the men might have formed. He proposed this, but it was thought the men were too tired, and no collision with the Boers was anticipated. In the rush that took place he was knocked over, fell down the side of the hill, and lay hid in a wood till night. He then tried to make his way back to the British camp, but failed, and he was discovered next day and made prisoner by a Boer patrol. He was well treated, and was released with the rest of the prisoners at the end of March (London Gazette, 3 May and 10 June).

Stewart was promoted major in his regiment on 1 July 1881. He was appointed aide-de-camp to Lord Spencer, as lord-lieutenant of Ireland, from 9 May 1882, but left Ireland on 4 Aug. following to take part in the Egyptian campaign which followed the rising of Arabi Pasha. He was brigade major of the cavalry brigade sent out from England, and when a second brigade arrived from India he was made assistant adjutant-general of the cavalry division. After the victory of Tel-el-Kebir on 13 Sept. 1882, the cavalry was pushed on rapidly to within a few miles of Cairo, largely owing to Stewart's energy, and he was sent forward with fifty men to the Abbasiyeh barracks, outside Cairo. The troops in those barracks at once surrendered, and Stewart sent for the governor of Cairo, the chief of police, and the officer in charge of the citadel, and told them to arrange immediately to hand over the town and citadel. That same night, the 14th, the citadel was occupied by a detachment sent in under Captain Watson, R.E., and next day Lord Wolseley telegraphed home that the war in Egypt was over. Stewart was three times mentioned in despatches (London Gazette, 8 Sept., 6 Oct., and 2 Nov.), and was described by Lord Wolseley as ‘one of the best staff officers I have ever known.’ He was made brevet colonel, C.B., and aide-de-camp to the queen (18 Nov.), and received the medal for Egypt, with clasp and bronze star and the Osmanieh order (third class).

At the close of the war (on 3 Nov. 1882) he resumed his post as aide-de-camp to Lord Spencer in Ireland. He remained there till 17 Jan. 1884, when he was selected for the command of the cavalry in the force sent to Suakim under Sir Gerald Graham. As brigadier from 12 Feb. to 17 April he was at the action of El Teb (29 Feb.), in which the cavalry made some dashing charges, the relief of Tokar which followed it, the action at Tamai, and the advance to Tamanib. He had made a reconnaissance on the Berber road on 22 March, and was convinced that the mounted troops could push through to Berber. At Graham's request he prepared a scheme for the advance, which he was eager to carry out, but the government thought the risk too great. He was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette, 27 March, 3 April, 6 May), received two additional clasps, and was made K.C.B. on 21 May.

He was assistant adjutant and quartermaster-general in the south-eastern district in England from 18 April to 1 Sept. 1884, when he went back to Egypt with Lord Wolseley, to take part in the expedition for the relief of Khartoum. He was sent up the Nile to Dongola to command the troops there, obtain supplies, and organise the camel corps. He arrived there on 29 Sept., and did what he could with the shifty mudir of Dongola. In December the news from Gordon made Wolseley decide to push part of his force across the desert to Metemmeh, while the remainder continued its advance up the river. Stewart was chosen to command the desert column. He was appointed brigadier on 24 Nov., and reached Korti with part of the camel corps on 15 Dec.

As the number of transport camels was insufficient for the stores thought necessary, it was decided to form in the first place an intermediate depot halfway across the desert, at the wells of Jakdul. On 29 Dec. Stewart started from Korti with about eleven hundred men and two thousand two hundred camels. He reached Jakdul on 2 Jan. 1885, having marched ninety-eight miles in sixty-four hours. Leaving a guard there for his stores, he returned at once to Korti. The exhaustion of the camels and the want of food for them delayed his movements, but on the 12th he was again at Jakdul with a larger force. On the 14th he set out for