rearward vs to/toward the rear

rearward

adj

  • Toward the back or rear of something. 

noun

  • The last troop; the rear of an army; a rear guard. 

  • The part that comes last or is situated in the rear; conclusion, wind-up. 

adv

  • Toward the back or rear of something. 

to/toward the rear

How often have the words rearward and to/toward the rear occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )