[1] Joseph Stewart was born in Columbia, Kentucky on January 29, 1822, and graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1842.

In the years immediately preceding the Civil War, Stewart transformed the fort into the most powerful coastal defense in the west.

[3] In 1860 a vigilante force was soundly defeated by Paiute Indians in a battle near Pyramid Lake in present-day Nevada.

Captain Stewart took command of the so-called "Carson Valley Expedition" composed of 200 regular army soldiers from the 3rd Artillery and 6th U.S.

In 1861 he was transferred to the defenses of Washington, DC and commanded the artillery in George A. McCall's division of the Army of the Potomac from December 1861 to February 1862.

From April to October 1862 he served as recruiting officer for San Francisco and was the Inspector General of the Humboldt Military District during the Winter of 1862/1863.

He was chief of artillery for the Department of the Pacific from April to July 1863 and ended the war as recruiting officer for Salem MA from November to December 1865.