{{other people|William Steuart}} {{Infobox person | name = William Frederick Steuart | image = William_Frederick_Steuart.gif | image_size = 220 | caption = Portrait of Dr. William Frederick Steuart, CSA | birth_date = {{birth date|mf=yes|1816|01|01}} | birth_place = West River, Anne Arundel County, Maryland], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1889|12|10|1816|01|01|mf=y}} | death_place = Christ Church, Owensville, Maryland, U.S. | known_for = Spring Grove Hospital Center | years_active = | education = | module = {{Infobox military person | embed = yes | allegiance = Confederate States of America | branch = Confederate States Army | service_years = 1856-1865 | rank = Surgeon }} | module2 = {{Infobox medical details | profession = Physician | field = | work_institutions = Maryland Hospital for the Insane | specialism = | research_field = | prizes = }} | spouse = {{marriage|Anne Hall|27 February 1840}} | relatives = Richard Sprigg Steuart, cousin. George H. Steuart, great-grandfather }}
'''William Frederick Steuart''' (January 1, 1816 – December 10, 1889) was an American doctor who served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was a surgeon in the 3rd North Carolina Infantry Regiment, a unit that formed part of the brigade commanded by his cousin, General George H. Steuart. After the war he returned to Maryland and served as resident physician at the Maryland Hospital for the Insane, an institution founded largely thanks to the efforts of another cousin, Richard Sprigg Steuart.
==Early life== Steuart was born on January 1, 1816, in West River, Anne Arundel County, the son of Maryland physician Charles Calvert Steuart and his wife Anne Fitzhugh Biscoe.<ref name="Nelker, p.41">Nelker, p.41</ref> His grandfather was the Maryland physician Charles Mark Steuart<ref>Nelker, p.32</ref> and his great-grandfather was the planter and politician George Hume Steuart.<ref>Nelker, p.24</ref> On 27 February 1840 William Steuart married Anne Hall, the daughter of Henry Hall and Mary Stevenson, with whom he had a large family.<ref name="HansonHanson2009">{{cite book|author=George A. Hanson|title=Old Kent: The Eastern Shore of Maryland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u0AUCoIl4IcC&pg=PA267|edition=reprint|date=1 June 2009|publisher=Genealogical Publishing Com|isbn=978-0-8063-4632-8|page=267}}</ref>
==Civil War== Like other members of the Steuart family, Steuart was sympathetic to the Southern cause. On the outbreak of war, he found himself obliged to flee his home state of Maryland, which remained in the Union, to join the rebellion.<ref name="Fanning, p121"/> As a Confederate sympathiser he had been closely watched by the authorities in Maryland. One of his sons was arrested and imprisoned, and shot dead while attempting to escape, hardening Steuart's own views against the Union.<ref name="Fanning, p121"/>
Steuart and his wife fled their home state and joined the Confederate cause with around $20,000 in paper and precious metal which they smuggled out of Maryland, rolling up bills of exchange and hiding them in their belongings. They promptly invested their small fortune in Confederate bonds, so certain were they of Southern success in the war.<ref name="Fanning, p122">{{cite book|author1=Thomas Fanning Wood|author2=Donald B. Koone|title=Doctor to the Front: The Recollections of Confederate Surgeon Thomas Fanning Wood, 1861-1865|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0WO7WB0aNwMC&pg=PA122|year=2000|publisher=Univ. of Tennessee Press|isbn=978-1-57233-082-5|page=122}}</ref>
Steuart served as a surgeon in the 3rd North Carolina Infantry Regiment, a unit that mustered at Garysburg, North Carolina, in May, 1861 and formed part of the brigade commanded by his cousin, General George Hume Steuart.<ref>Fanning, xvii</ref> His assistant surgeon was Thomas Fanning Wood, whose detailed account of the regiment's wartime experience would be published in 2000 by the University of Tennessee Press.
Despite being "esteemed by officers and men" in the regiment, it appears that army life was too much for him, as the "rigors of march" and the "hardships of camp" <ref name="Fanning, p122"/> eventually obliged him to apply to be posted away from front line duty.<ref name="Fanning, p121">{{cite book|author1=Thomas Fanning Wood|author2=Donald B. Koone|title=Doctor to the Front: The Recollections of Confederate Surgeon Thomas Fanning Wood, 1861-1865|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0WO7WB0aNwMC&pg=PA121|year=2000|publisher=Univ. of Tennessee Press|isbn=978-1-57233-082-5|page=121}}</ref> This may have been due to his age; Steuart was around 50 years of age when he joined the Southern armies.<ref name="Fanning, p121"/>
He was replaced by Dr B M Cromwell, formerly of the 1st North Carolina Infantry Regiment, whose first service was at the Battle of Payne's Farm.<ref name="Fanning, p122"/>
==After the war== thumb|right|200px|Maryland Hospital for the Insane at Spring Grove. After the war, Steuart returned to Maryland and private practice, where he became resident physician at the Maryland Hospital for the Insane,<ref>{{cite book|title=American Journal of Insanity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7wlQAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA149|volume=27|year=1871|page=149}}</ref> a pioneering institution dedicated to the care of mental illness which had been founded largely thanks to the efforts of his cousin, Richard Sprigg Steuart.
William Steuart died on December 10, 1889, and was buried in Christ Church, Owensville, Anne Arundel County, Maryland.<ref name="Nelker, p.41"/>
==Family== Steuart and his wife Ann had eleven children:<ref name="Nelker, p.41"/> * Henry "Harry" August Steuart (1840-11 May 1862), Captain in the CSA.<ref name="Nelker, p.41"/> Blockade runner during the Civil War, captured while running medical supplies to the Confederacy, and killed. * Charles Steuart, born in 1842 and died in infancy<ref name="Nelker, p.41"/> * William Frederick Steuart (1843–1902), served in the CSA <ref name="Nelker, p.41"/> * Ann Steuart, born in 1845 and died in infancy<ref name="Nelker, p.46">Nelker, p.46</ref> * Louis Edward Steuart, born c1846 and served in the CSA.<ref name="Nelker, p.46"/> * Charles Steuart, born in 1847 and died in infancy<ref name="Nelker, p.46"/> * Richard Estep Steuart (1849–1923)<ref name="Nelker, p.46"/> * Mary Stevenson Steuart (1851–1897)<ref>Nelker, p.49</ref> * Eleanor Steuart (1856–1906)<ref>Nelker, p.51</ref> * George Biscoe Steuart (1857–1927)<ref name="Nelker, p.52">Nelker, p.52</ref> * Dr Cecil Calvert Steuart (1869–1919)<ref name="Nelker, p.52"/>
==Notes== {{reflist|2}}
==References==
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=u0AUCoIl4IcC&dq=william+frederick+steuart+csa&pg=PA267 Hanson, George A., p.267, ''Old Kent: The Eastern Shore of Maryland''] Retrieved June 2012 * Nelker, Gladys P., ''The Clan Steuart'', Genealogical Publishing (1970) * Wood, Thomas Fanning; Koone, Donald B. (2000). ''Doctor to the Front: The Recollections of Confederate Surgeon Thomas Fanning Wood, 1861-1865''. Univ. of Tennessee Press. p. 122. {{ISBN|978-1-57233-082-5}}.
==External links== {{commons category}} *[https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-battle-units-detail.htm?battleUnitCode=CNC0003RI 3rd North Carolina Infantry Regiment, CSA] Retrieved 23 February 2018 *[https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/32539381/william-frederick-steuart William Frederick Steuart at Findagrave] Retrieved 25 April 2020
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steuart, William Frederick}} Category:1816 births Category:1889 deaths Category:History of mental health in the United States William Frederick Category:Confederate States Army surgeons Category:19th-century American medical doctors Category:People from Anne Arundel County, Maryland Category:Medical doctors from Maryland