After the death of his father he was brought up by strangers and experienced the hardships that usually fall to the orphan, yet he was never known to complain. His youthful days were brightened by a natural love for music, and he became a fine singer and master of the violin. In 1856 they went to Wisconsin, and after a short experience there at farming returned to Bernardston, Mass., and being a natural mechanic, he took up the trade of carpenter and wagon maker, soon after moving to South Deerfield where he followed his trade successfully until 1862, when he enlisted as a sergeant in the 52d Regt. Mass. Vol. for nine months. His Chaplain ins speaking of him said, "Sergeant Stewart never swears, but vows and vums." He participated in the Battle of Baton Rouge and much skirmishing in the Battle of Indian Bend, and the Forty Days' Siege of Port Hudson. Here he found time to exercise his fine mechanical genius in carving numerous fancy articles from bone and southern woods, which he brought home as souvenirs of army life in the fall of 1863. He was mustered out of army service, and again took up his residence and trade in South Deerfield. About 1869 he joined his relatives on the beautiful shore of Anoka Lake and died in Linwood, Minn., Aug. 11, 1872 (Severance, B. Frank. Genealogy and biography of the descendants of Walter Stewart of Scotland and of John Stewart who came to America in 1718 and settled in Londonderry, N.H. Greenfield, Mass. : T. Morey & Son, 1905, 161-162).
findagrave.com lists his middle initial as "J" but this may be a misreading of the stone (EAD)