08/18/2026
Discover more about Jimmy Stewart’s grandfathers, and get a fresh perspective on the film SHENANDOAH from Historian Jared Frederick, who recently appeared on our podcast, “Talking um … uh … Jimmy Stewart.”
I visited the final resting place of James Stewart. No, not Jimmy Stewart--his namesake, his grandfather! As a follow up to my Reel History review of "Shenandoah," I trekked to Greenwood Cemetery in Indiana, Pennsylvania, to find the Stewart plot. James Maitland Stewart (1839-1932) actually served in the theater of the Civil War that his grandson would depict on screen exactly one century later. According to his obituary, J. M. Stewart "enlisted in January 1864, in the Civil War, as a member of the Signal Corps. He participated in the battles of Wi******er, Cedar Creek, Fisher's Hill, and the operations about Richmond and was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and served until the end of the war."
He later outlived three of his four wives, dying just as his grandson was starting to make a name for himself in the acting world. The Signal Corps emblem on his obelisk denotes his military service, but unlike his wives, his biographical information was never etched on the stone following his burial. Jimmy Stewart's other grandfather, Samuel McCartney Jackson, became a brigadier during the Civil War--just as Jimmy would after WWII. To learn more about this overlapping history, check out my latest episode of Reel History on the movie "Shenandoah:" youtu.be/lHsLovZjyhY
