Stewart purchased a
Cornet’s commission in the British
11th Hussars in 1865. In 1882 Lieutenant Colonel Stewart was instructed to prepare a report on the Sudan where
Muhammad Ahmad Al-Mahdi was defying the
Egyptian Government with success. After a journey to Khartoum and return to Egypt the "Report on the Soudan" (1883) was finished. He returned with Gordon as second-in-command on his journey to Khartoum commencing with departure from
Victoria station in February 1884. Wounded during the
siege, Stewart led an attempt to break the blockade aboard the Steamer
Abbas in September 1884, along with the British consul Frank Power (who was also the correspondent from
The Times), the French consul Léon Herbin, and other residents of Khartoum. The attempt failed when the
Abbas ran aground on a rock near
Abu Hamad. All passengers and crew were killed by Arab tribes ashore. Gordon learned of this a few weeks later when he received a letter from the Mahdi that quoted from letters that Stewart had been carrying with him on the
Abbas. ==Legacy==