James Washington Stewart (b. in Georgia ca. 1824) was a farmer from Pinkneyville, Talladega County, Alabama. At the time of the 1860 Federal Census, Stewart and his wife, Mary Ann Wood Stewart (b. Georgia ca. 1832), were living on their farm with their four children. James W. Stewart served in Co. I, 18th Alabama Infantry and died at Rock Island Prison Camp in Illinois on March 31, 1864. It is uncertain when Stewart enlisted, but it was likely not long before he wrote the first letter in this collection, at which time he would have been 38 or 39 years old. Most of the letters in the collection were written while Stewart was fairly close to home, either in Talladega County or neighboring Shelby County. It is also uncertain when or where he was taken prisoner, but he may have been among several members of the 18th Alabama taken prisoner at the Battle of Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863, only ten days after he wrote his final letter and four months before he died at Rock Island Prison Camp.