Brevet Major General Robert Anderson (USA)

Brevet Major General Robert Anderson (USA)

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Anderson_(Civil_War)
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/2299/robert-anderson

Anderson was an American military leader. He served as a Union Army officer in the American Civil War, known for his command of Fort Sumter at the start of the war. He is often referred to as Major Robert Anderson, referring to his rank at Fort Sumter. Later, in 1871 he died in France at age 66.

Early Life

Anderson was born in "Soldier's Retreat," near Louisville, Kentucky. He graduated from the United States Military Academy (West Point) in 1825 and received a commission as a brevet second lieutenant in the 2nd Regiment of Artillery. He served in the Black Hawk War of 1832 as a colonel of Illinois volunteers, where he had the distinction of twice mustering Captain Abraham Lincoln in and out of army service. Returning to the Army as a first lieutenant in 1833, he served in the Second Seminole War as an assistant adjutant general on the staff of Winfield Scott, and in the Mexican-American War, where he was severely wounded at Molino del Rey, and for which he received a brevet promotion to major. He eventually received a permanent promotion to major of the 1st Regiment of Artillery in the Regular Army on October 5, 1857. He is the author of Instruction for Field Artillery, Horse and Foot in 1839.

Civil War

As Southern states began to secede, Major Anderson, a pro-slavery, former slave-owner from Kentucky, remained loyal to the Union. He was the commanding officer of Fort Sumter at Charleston Harbor in Charleston, South Carolina, when at the time it was bombarded by forces of the Confederate States of America. The artillery attack was commanded by Brig. General P.G.T. Beauregard, who had been Anderson's student at West Point. The attack began April 12, 1861, and continued until Anderson, badly outnumbered and outgunned, surrendered the fort on April 14. The battle began the American Civil War. No one was killed in the battle on either side, but one Union soldier, Daniel Hough, was killed during a 100-gun salute.

Anderson's actions at Fort Sumter made him an immediate national hero. He was promoted to brigadier general, effective May 15. Anderson took the fort's 33-star flag with him to New York City, where he participated in a Union Square patriotic rally that is thought to have been the largest public gathering in North America up to that time. Anderson then went on a highly-successful recruiting tour of the North. His next assignment placed him in another sensitive political position, commander of the Department of Kentucky (subsequently renamed the Department of the Cumberland), in a border state that had officially declared neutrality between the warring parties. He served in that position from May 28, 1861, until failing health required his replacement, by Brig. General William T. Sherman, on October 6, 1861.

General Anderson's last assignment of his military career was as commanding officer of Fort Adams in Newport, Rhode Island, in August 1863. By coincidence, Fort Adams had been General Beauregard's first assignment after his graduation from West Point. Anderson officially retired from the Army on October 27, 1863, and saw no further active service.

Later Life

Days after Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox and the effective conclusion of the war, Anderson returned to Charleston in the uniform of a brevet major general (ranking as of February 3, 1865) and, four years after lowering the 33-star flag in surrender, raised it in triumph over the recaptured but badly battered Fort Sumter during ceremonies there. (The same evening, April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated). A notable post-war achievement of Anderson took place in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1869, when he visited Braintree to discuss the future of the U.S. Army with the "father of the United States Military Academy," Major General Sylvanus Thayer. An outcome of that visit was establishment of the Military Academy's Association of Graduates (AoG).

Gravesite at the West Point CemeteryAnderson died in Nice, France, and is buried at West Point Cemetery.

Family

Anderson's mother Sarah Marshall was first cousin to Chief Justice John Marshall. Anderson's brother, Charles Anderson, served as Governor of Ohio from 1865 to 1866. Another brother, William Marshall Anderson, was a Western explorer and Ohio attorney. A zealous Catholic and Confederate sympathizer, he briefly moved to Mexico during the reign of Emperor Maximilian in hopes of establishing a Confederate colony there. W. Marshall Anderson's son, Thomas M. Anderson, was a brigadier general who fought in the Spanish-American War and Philippine-American War.

Anderson was the uncle of Ambassador Larz Anderson, a Washington, D.C. socialite, who donated his house to serve as the headquarters of the Society of the Cincinnati. He was also the great-grandfather of actor Montgomery Clift '(only if Clift's mother's story about her adoption and family line is correct see Montgomery Clift)' and the first cousin twice removed of William Clark and George Rogers Clark.

---

Robert Anderson (June 14, 1805 – October 26, 1871) was an American military leader. He served as a Union Army officer in the American Civil War, known for his command of Fort Sumter at the start of the war. He is often referred to as Major Robert Anderson, referring to his rank at Fort Sumter.

Days after Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox and the effective conclusion of the war, Anderson returned to Charleston in the uniform of a brevet major general (ranking as of February 3, 1865) and, four years after lowering the 33-star flag in surrender, raised it in triumph over the recaptured but badly battered Fort Sumter during ceremonies there. (The same evening, April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated).

---

BIRTH 14 Jun 1805 in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky, United States
DEATH 27 Oct 1871 (aged 66) in Nice, Departement des Alpes-Maritimes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
BURIAL U.S. Military Academy Post Cemetery in West Point, Orange County, New York, United States
PLOT Section 27, Row A, Grave 4
MEMORIAL ID 2299

Civil War Union Brigadier General. He was a long-time career United States Army officer who is best remembered in history as being in command of Fort Sumter, Charleston, South Carolina when Confederates bombarded it on April 12, 1861, starting the Civil War.

A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1825, he placed 15th of 37, and his classmates included future Union Generals Charles F. Smith and William R. Montgomery, as well as future Confederate Generals Daniel S. Donelson and Benjamin Huger. His subsequent service was spent mostly in the artillery arm, which he fought in during the Black Hawk War, the various Seminole Wars in Florida, and in the Mexican War (he would receive two brevets for gallantry there). Promoted to Major in 1857, he was placed in command of the forts in Charleston Harbor in November 1860.

In April 1861, after a number of Southern states had formed the Confederate States of America, he was presented with a formal surrender demands by Confederate authorities in Charleston, which he refused. After 34 hours of constant shelling, he would capitulate, but not before he saluted the flag with a 50-gun salute. The rebel bombardment and his defense of the Fort constituted the true beginning of the Civil War, and the commander of the Confederate forces that shelled the Fort, General P.G.T. Beauregard, had been taught and mentored by Robert Anderson at West Point.

Promoted to Brigadier General after his exchange, his successive Civil War service was brief. General Anderson commanded forces in his native Kentucky for a time, fell ill, and was retired in 1863. When the South surrendered in 1865, General Anderson was detailed to raise the American flag over Fort Sumter exactly four years after he was forced to surrender it. He received the brevet of Major General, US Regular Army in April 1865.

Parents

• Richard Clough Anderson, 1750–1826
• Sarah Marshall Anderson, 1779–1854

Spouse

• Eliza Bayard Clinch Anderson, 1828–1905

Siblings

• Maria William Anderson Latham, 1798–1887
• Frances Marshall Anderson, 1800–1802
• Larz Anderson, 1803–1878
• William Marshall Anderson, 1807–1881
• Mary Louise Anderson Hall, 1809–1889
• Hugh Roy Anderson, 1811–1812
• John Roy Anderson, 1811–1863
• Charles Anderson, 1814–1895
• Lucelia Poindexter Anderson, 1817–1820
• Matthew Marshall Anderson, 1819–1820
• Sarah Jane Anderson Kendrick, 1822–1895

Half Siblings

• Richard Clough Anderson, 1788–1826
• Ann Clark Anderson Logan, 1790–1863
• Cecilia P. Anderson, 1792–1863
• Elizabeth Clark Anderson Gwathmey, 1795–1870

Children

• Eliza McIntosh Anderson Lawton, 1845–1919
• Maria L Anderson, 1849–1925
• Sophie Clinch Anderson, 1852–1934
• Robert Anderson, 1859–1879