William Alexander (aka. Lord Stirling) was an American major general during the Revolutionary War.
William Alexander (Lord Stirling) was one of George Washington's most loyal military subordinates during the American Revolution. Sterling previously served as a supply officer during the French and Indian War, where he first met George Washington.
When the American Revolutionary War began, Stirling was made a colonel in the New Jersey colonial militia. Because he was a wealthy man, he outfitted the militia at his own expense and was always willing to spend his own money in support of the Patriot cause.
The Second Continental Congress appointed him brigadier general in the Continental Army. His most significant military contribution came in August 1776, when he held off the British troops during the battle of Long Island long enough to enable Washington to evacuate the remainder of his forces. As a result of these actions, Stirling was captured by the British and spent several months as a prisoner on parole in New York City. He was exchanged later the same year and promoted to Major General.
In June 1777, he prevented Washington's forces from being ensnared by British forces in the Battle of Short Hills. Subsequent battles at Brandywine, Germantown in Pennsylvania during the campaign to defend the colonial capital of Philadelphia and Monmouth, cemented his reputation for bravery and sound tactical judgment. Lord Stirling also played a part in exposing the "Conway Cabal," a conspiracy of disaffected Continental officers looking to remove Washington as Commander-in Chief and replace him with General Horatio Gates.
When Washington took his army south to catch Lord Cornwallis at his temporary base on the York River and the Chesapeake Bay at Yorktown, Virginia, he appointed Stirling commander of the elements of the Northern Army that he left behind to guard New York. Stirling, always a heavy drinker, was in poor health by this time, suffering from severe gout and rheumatism. He died in Albany just months before the official end of the War for American Independence with the Treaty of Paris of 1783.