Background
Alexander was born on October 2, 1821, of Scotch-Irish ancestry in Rogersville, Tennessee, United States. He was the son of William and Elizabeth Decherd Stewart.
West Point, New York, United States
Alexander graduated twelfth in a class of fifty-six from the United States Military Academy in 1842.
Winchester, Tennessee, United States
Alexander attended Carrick Academy.
Alexander was born on October 2, 1821, of Scotch-Irish ancestry in Rogersville, Tennessee, United States. He was the son of William and Elizabeth Decherd Stewart.
Alexander attended Carrick Academy in Winchester, Tennessee, and graduated twelfth in a class of fifty-six from the United States Military Academy in 1842.
Alexander Stewart was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 3rd Artillery, but after being stationed a little over a year at Fort Macon on the coast of North Carolina, he was recalled to West Point to serve as an assistant professor of mathematics.
Until the Civil War, he was a professor of mathematics and natural and experimental philosophy at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, and at Nashville University. Stewart volunteered early and was made a major in the Confederate army.
Stewart soon distinguished himself, especially while in command of the heavy artillery at Columbus, Kentucky, and at the battle of Belmont. In consequence, he was commissioned brigadier-general in Cheatham's division at the battle of Shiloh and served with this division in the Kentucky campaign and the retreat toward Chattanooga.
On June 2, 1863, he was advanced to the rank of major-general and was placed in command of a division of Hardee's corps. After participating in the fighting at Chattanooga and Chickamauga, his division took part in the campaign from Dalton to Atlanta, and he was made lieutenant-general on June 23, 1864, after General Leonidas Polk was killed. Stewart was wounded in the battle of Mount Ezra Church near Atlanta. At the close of the war, he was in North Carolina commanding the Army of Tennessee. After the war, he turned for a second time from military to civil life and resumed his professorship at Cumberland University.
Early in 1870, Alexander made his only excursion into the field of business by going to St. Louis, Missouri, to become secretary of the St. Louis Mutual Life Insurance Company. In 1874 he was elected chancellor of the University of Mississippi. His experience as a teacher, his prestige as a lieutenant-general, and his strong character were all needed, for the future of the university was not promising and attendance was decreasing. In private, the university students continued to refer to him as "Old Straight, " the nickname first used by his soldiers during the war, both because of his military bearing and because of the impartial decisions which he strictly enforced during his twelve-year administration.
Resigning in 1886, Alexander Stewart spent the next four years partly in traveling and partly in the home of his son in St. Louis. When the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park was created in 1890, Stewart was appointed by President Harrison as the Confederate member of the controlling board of three commissioners. Taking his duties with characteristic seriousness, he moved to the reservation, supervised the laying out of roads and the placing of monuments, and had actual custody of the park for some years.
In 1904 his health began to fail and two years later he moved to Biloxi, Mississippi, where he spent the last two years of his life.
Although a Whig who had voted against secession, Stewart volunteered and was made a major in the Confederate army.
Alexander had three sons by his marriage to Harriet Byron Chase on August 27, 1845.