No other captain commanded this ship for a longer wartime period or through more naval engagements. Undefeated in battle, including defeating the British warships Cyane and Levant simultaneously, both ship and captain came to be known as "Old Ironsides." "Few sailors in U.S. history approach Stewart's length of service to the Navy. In 1798, at the age of nineteen, he was commissioned a lieutenant on board the frigate USS United States. Eight years later he was promoted to captain. He would continue to serve throughout the nineteenth century, surrendering his final command of the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1860, but in 1861 offering to serve yet again when the Union was threatened by secession..."No captain of the Constitution--arguably the most famous American warship in U.S. history--commanded her for a longer period in war not through more naval engagements than Charles Stewart, who would in his own lifetime also come to be known by the Constitution's moniker--'Old Ironsides.' His ability to survive controversy and surmount disappointment and setbacks mirrored the Constitution's ability to repel enemy shot off her hull."
A contemporary and friend of such luminaries as Stephen Decatur, Claude Berube and John Rodgaard have produced the first full-length biography of one of the US Navy's earliest heroes.
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