page_title: George H. Steuart (militia general)
section_title: First Light Division formed
hierarchical_section_title: George H. Steuart (militia general) / Post-war career / First Light Division formed
caption_attribution_description: English: Baltimore City Guards march through Charleston in 1859
context_page_description: George Hume Steuart was a United States general who fought during the War of 1812, and later joined the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. His military career began in 1814 when, as a captain, he raised a company of Maryland volunteers, leading them at both the Battle of Bladensberg and the Battle of North Point, where he was wounded. After the war he rose to become major general and commander-in-chief of the First Light Division, Maryland Militia.
  During John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859, Steuart personally led a detachment of militia, and, as the prospect of civil war drew closer, he was among those who lobbied unsuccessfully for Maryland to secede from the Union. In 1861, at the start of the Civil War, Steuart left his home state of Maryland and joined the Confederacy, though at 71 years of age he was by then considered too old for active service. This did not prevent him from personally riding with Lee's army and even being captured at the First Battle of Manassas.
  He is sometimes confused with his eldest son, Brigadier General George H.
context_section_description: In 1833 a number of Baltimore regiments were formed into a brigade, and Steuart was promoted from colonel to brigadier general. From 1841 to 1861 he was Commander of the First Light Division, Maryland Volunteer Militia. Until the Civil War he would be the Commander-in-Chief of the Maryland Volunteers. The First Light Division comprised two brigades: the 1st Light Brigade and the 2nd Brigade. The First Brigade consisted of the 1st Cavalry, 1st Artillery, and 5th Infantry regiments. The 2nd Brigade was composed of the 1st Rifle Regiment and the 53rd Infantry Regiment, and the Battalion of Baltimore City Guards.
  In 1843 Steuart reviewed his troops and those of a visiting regiment from Pennsylvania at Camp Frederick, accompanied by Governor David R. Porter of Pennsylvania and various senior officers. The event was attended by "an immense concourse of spectators", and was commemorated in a lithograph published in the same year.
  On July 19, 1844, the Boston City Greys visited Baltimore, and marched in parade with various companies of the 53rd Regiment. Steuart hosted a party for the visiting militia, which was held at his family estate in West Baltimore, known as Maryland Square. The event was celebrated by extensive coverage in the Baltimore American and, like the previous year's visit from Pennsylvania, was commemorated in a lithograph.
  Steuart also appears to have formed an acquaintance with the social reformer Dorothea Dix, who in July 1850 was his guest at Steuart's country residence Sparrow's Point on the Chesapeake Bay. Also a guest was the  Swedish feminist and activist Fredrika Bremer, who wrote in a letter to her sister Agathe: "Late in the evening I sat in the most beautiful moonlight with Miss Dix on the veranda of General Stuarts' [sic] house, looking towards the shining river and the wide Chesapeake Bay, listening to the story of her simple yet remarkable life". Dix was a campaigner for better treatment of the mentally ill, a subject which was also the life's work of Steuart's brother, the physician Richard Sprigg Steuart. Also among Steuart's social circle was the writer Washington Irving, who was a regular guest at Maryland Square.
caption: Steuart's Baltimore City Guards march through Charleston in 1559, wearing bearskins "taller than the Grenadier Guards".[18]
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