[9] It is the largest Army installation east of the Mississippi River, covering 280,000 acres (1,100 km2), which include parts of Liberty, Long, Bryan, Evans and Tattnall Counties.

Tank, field artillery, helicopter gunnery, and small arms ranges operate simultaneously throughout the year with little time lost to bad weather.

In June 1940, Congress authorized funding for the purchase of property in coastal Georgia for the purpose of building an anti-aircraft artillery training center.

Live-firing exercises were conducted on the beaches of St. Augustine and Amelia Island, Florida, since the necessary ranges and impact areas had not been completed at Camp Stewart.

Reverend Terrill wrote a letter to Asa H. Gordon, director of the Colored SSSS, extending the invitation to the soldiers.

Scout Westley W. Law was master of ceremonies (source: page 71, Dr. Charles J. Elmore, "First Bryan 1788–2001 The Oldest Continuous Black Baptist Church in America.")

Anti-aircraft artillery training was upgraded and soon a detachment of Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP's) arrived at the air facility on post, Liberty Field, to fly planes to tow targets for the live-fire exercises.

By late 1943, Camp Stewart assumed a new responsibility as one of many holding areas designated in the United States for German and Italian prisoners of war (POWs), who had fallen into Allied hands during fighting in North Africa.

These men were held in two separate POW facilities on post, and they were used as a labor force for base operations, construction projects, and area farming.

Beside its initial purposes as an anti-aircraft artillery training center, Camp Stewart also served as a Cooks' and Bakers' School, and as a staging area for a number of Army postal units.

With the end of the war, Camp Stewart came to life briefly as a separation center for redeployed soldiers, but on 30 September 1945, the post was inactivated.

Only two officers, 10 enlisted men, and 50 civilian employees maintained the facilities, and the Georgia National Guard only did training during summer months.

Camp Stewart was reopened on 9 August 1950, its facilities repaired, and National Guard troops brought in for training.

Since control of the air in Korea wasn't seriously challenged by the Communist forces, in late 1953 Camp Stewart's role changed from solely anti-aircraft training to include armor and tank firing as well.

When the Korean War eventually cooled down, it was recognized that the U.S. would be required to maintain a ready and able military force to deal with any potential threat to itself and its allies.

In 1959, Fort Stewart was redesignated as an Armor and Artillery Firing Center, since its old anti-aircraft ranges and impact areas were better suited for this purpose in the new age of missiles.

From there he was taken to the new conference room where he was briefed on armed forces readiness to respond to the Cuban Missile Crisis, and then he visited troops in nearby training areas.

After the Cuban Missile Crisis had passed, the Cold War situation kept Fort Stewart in an active training role.

The Vietnamese terrain and the type of war being fought there demanded an increased aviation capability through the use of helicopters and light, fixed-wing aircraft.

The following year Hunter Field was closed entirely and Fort Stewart sat idle, with the exception of the National Guard training which continued to be conducted at the installation.

This historic unit, which had seen active and arduous service in the Pacific during WW II and in the Korean War, and served as an element of NATO forces defending western Europe, had been inactive since 1970.

Facilities were upgraded, and new permanent structures replaced many of the old World War II-era wooden buildings from the days of Camp Stewart.

The 24th Infantry Division began intensive training over the expanse of piney woods and lowlands of the post, and conducted live-fire exercises on many of the old Camp Stewart anti-aircraft ranges.

Fort Stewart saw a growing influx of National Guard and Reserve units who were being mobilized to support the operations in Saudi Arabia and to assume the tasks at the post which had formerly been accomplished by 24th Infantry Division personnel.

In many ways, Fort Stewart appeared to be almost a ghost town, as never before had the entire division been deployed from the post at one time.

Within eight months, the crisis at the Persian Gulf had concluded, and the 24th Infantry Division triumphantly returned to its home in coastal Georgia.

Fort Stewart also was a leading mobilization station for Army units preparing for tours in Operation Iraqi Freedom as well as two-week National Guard annual training.

[10] A small portion of the base has been designated as a census-designated place (CDP) for statistical purposes, with a residential population at the 2020 census of 8,821.