Robert Anderson | |
|---|---|
 Anderson,c. 1861 | |
| Born | (1805-06-14)June 14, 1805 Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Died | October 27, 1871(1871-10-27) (aged 66) |
| Place of burial | |
| Branch | United States Army Union Army |
| Years of service | 1825–1863 |
| Rank | Brigadier general Brevetmajor general |
| Unit | 3rd Regiment of Artillery 1st Regiment of Artillery |
| Commands | Fort Sumter Department of the Cumberland Fort Adams |
| Battles / wars | |
| Alma mater | United States Military Academy |
Robert Anderson (June 14, 1805 – October 26, 1871) was aUnited States Army officer during theAmerican Civil War. He was the Union commander in the first battle of the American Civil War atFort Sumter in April 1861 when the Confederates bombarded the fort and forced its surrender, starting the war. Anderson was celebrated as a hero in the North and promoted tobrigadier general and given command of Union forces in Kentucky. He was removed late in 1861 and reassigned toRhode Island, before retiring from military service in 1863. In 1865, he returned to Fort Sumter to again raise the American flag that he had lowered during the 1861 surrender.
Anderson was born at "Soldier's Retreat," the Anderson family estate nearLouisville, Kentucky. His father,Richard Clough Anderson Sr. (1750–1826) was of Scots Irish ancestry in Antrim, N.Ireland and served in theContinental Army as an aide-de-camp to theMarquis de Lafayette during theAmerican Revolutionary War, and was a charter member of theSociety of the Cincinnati; his mother, Sarah Marshall (1779–1854), was a cousin ofJohn Marshall, the fourthChief Justice of the United States.[1] He graduated from theUnited States Military Academy (West Point) in 1825, and received a commission as asecond lieutenant in the3rd Regiment of Artillery.
A few months after graduation, he became a private secretary to his older brotherRichard Clough Anderson, Jr., who was serving as theUS Minister to Gran Colombia. He served in theBlack Hawk War of 1832 as acolonel ofIllinois volunteers, where he had the distinction of twice musteringAbraham Lincoln in and once out of army service. He also was in charge of transportingBlack Hawk toJefferson Barracks after his capture, assisted byJefferson Davis.[2]
Returning to regular Army service as afirst lieutenant in 1833, he served in theSecond Seminole War as an assistantadjutant general on thestaff ofWinfield Scott, and was promoted to captain in October 1841.
In theMexican–American War, he participated in theSiege of Veracruz, March 9–29, 1847, theBattle of Cerro Gordo, April 17–18, 1847, the Skirmish of Amazoque, May 14, 1847, andBattle of Molino del Rey on September 8, 1847. He was severely wounded atMolino del Rey while assaulting enemy fortifications, for which he received abrevet promotion tomajor.
Due to his wounds, Anderson was on sick leave of absence during 1847–48. He was then in garrison atFort Preble, Maine from 1848 to 1849. He then served from 1849 to 1851 as a member of the Board of Officers to devise "A Complete System of Instruction for Siege, Garrison, Seacoast, and Mountain Artillery," which was adopted on May 10, 1851. He then returned to garrison duty atFort Preble from 1850 to 1853.[3]
From 1855 to 1859, in view of his precarious health and probably also due to his connections to General Winfield Scott, Anderson was assigned to the light duty of inspecting the iron beams produced in a mill in Trenton, New Jersey for Federal construction projects. (While residing in Trenton, Anderson became aFreemason and was a member of Mercer Lodge No. 50.) He eventually received a permanent promotion to major of the1st Regiment of Artillery in theRegular Army on October 5, 1857. He was the author ofInstruction for Field Artillery, Horse and Foot in 1839.[4]
In November 1860, Anderson was assigned to command of U.S. forces in and aroundCharleston, South Carolina. WhenSouth Carolina seceded in December 1860, Anderson remained loyal to the Union although he was a native of Kentucky and a former slaveowner. He moved his small garrison fromFort Moultrie, which was indefensible, to the more modern and more defensibleFort Sumter, in the middle ofCharleston Harbor. In February 1861, theConfederate States of America was formed and took charge. Confederate PresidentJefferson Davis ordered for the fort be captured. The artillery attack was commanded byBrigadier GeneralP. 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 13. The battle began the American Civil War. No one was killed in the battle on either side, but one Union soldier was killed and another was mortally wounded during a 50-gun salute to the flag just before the fort was surrendered.
Anderson's actions in defense of Fort Sumter made him an immediate national hero.[5] He was promoted tobrigadier general in theRegular Army, effective May 15. Anderson took the fort's33-star flag with him to New York City, where he participated in aUnion Square patriotic rally that was the largest public gathering in North America until then.
The modern meaning of theAmerican flag, according toHarold Holzer in 2007 and Adam Goodheart in 2011, was forged by Anderson's stand at Fort Sumter. Holzer states that New York City:
responded with a "feast of the American flag." Eyewitnesses estimated that as many as 100,000 flags quickly went on display across the city. To punctuate this feast of national colors, New York's graphic artists rushed out patriotic engravings and lithographs depicting avenging soldiers or gowned goddesses, bayonets upthrust, carrying "The Flag of Our Union" into future battles that, at the time, could only be imagined. Composers dedicated songs like "Our Country's Flag" to President Lincoln, and adorned their published sheet music with colorful images of resolute soldiers gripping the national banner.[7]
During the war, the flag was used throughout the North to symbolizeAmerican nationalism and the rejection of secessionism. Goodheart explained that the flag was transformed into a sacred symbol of patriotism:
Before that day, the flag had served mostly as a military ensign or a convenient marking of American territory ... and displayed on special occasions like the Fourth of July. But in the weeks after Major Anderson's surprising stand, it became something different. Suddenly the Stars and Stripes flew ... from houses, from storefronts, from churches; above the village greens and college quads. ... [T]hat old flag meant something new. The abstraction of the Union cause was transfigured into a physical thing: strips of cloth that millions of people would fight for, and many thousands die for.[8]
Anderson then went on a highly successful recruiting tour of the North and was promoted to brigadier general as of May 15, 1861. His next assignment placed him in another sensitive political position as commander of the Department of Kentucky (subsequently renamed theDepartment of the Cumberland), in aborder state that hadofficially declared neutrality between the warring parties. He started to serve in that position from May 28, 1861. Historians commonly attribute failing health as the reason for his relinquishment of command to Brigadier GeneralWilliam T. Sherman, on October 7, 1861, but a letter fromJoshua Fry Speed, Lincoln's close friend, suggests that Lincoln preferred Anderson's removal.
Speed met with Anderson and found him reluctant to implement Lincoln's wishes to distribute rifles to Unionists in Kentucky. Anderson, Speed wrote to Lincoln on October 8, "seemed grieved that [he] had to surrender his command ... [but] agreed that it was necessary and gracefully yielded."
In 1862, Anderson was elected an honorary member of the New YorkSociety of the Cincinnati in which his grandnephew, AmbassadorLarz Anderson, was highly active.
Anderson's last military assignment was a brief period as commanding officer ofFort Adams inNewport, Rhode Island, in August 1863. Anderson officially retired from the Army on October 27, 1863 "for Disability resulting from Long and Faithful Service, and Wounds and disease contracted in the Line of Duty," but he continued to serve on the staff of the general commanding the Eastern Department, headquartered in New York City, from October 27, 1863, to January 22, 1869.[9] On February 3, 1865, Anderson was brevetted a major general for "gallantry and meritorious service" in the defense of Fort Sumter.
AfterRobert E. Lee's surrender atAppomattox and the effective conclusion of the war, at the behest of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, Anderson returned to Charleston in uniform. Four years after lowering the 33-star flag in surrender,Anderson raised it in triumph over the recaptured but badly batteredFort Sumter. However, hours after the ceremony of April 14, 1865,John Wilkes Boothassassinated President Lincoln.[10][11]
After the war, Anderson became a companion of theMilitary Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. In 1869, he discussed the future of the U.S. Army withSylvanus Thayer. Afterward, they helped establish the Military Academy's Association of Graduates (AoG).[12]
In 1869 Anderson was reported to have sold his library[13] and moved to Europe, "as half pay would not support his family here".[14][15] Someone questioning his need informed us that Anderson's half salary as brigadier general was $4,125 (equivalent to $108,270 in 2024).[16]
Anderson died inNice, France in 1871, seeking a cure for his ailments.[17] He was interred atWest Point Cemetery.
Anderson's brother,Charles Anderson, served asGovernor of Ohio from 1865 to 1866. A second brother, Larz Anderson II was the father ofNicholas Longworth Anderson who served as a general in the Union Army. Nicholas' son,Larz Anderson III, was a diplomat and a leading member of theSociety of the Cincinnati.
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.[18][19] W. Marshall Anderson's son,Thomas M. Anderson, was a brigadier general who fought in theSpanish–American War andPhilippine–American War.
In 1845, Anderson married Eliza Bayard Clinch (1828–1905), the daughter ofDuncan Lamont Clinch. They were the parents of five children: Marie (1849–1925), Sophie (1852–1934), Eliza, Robert Jr. (1859–1879) and Duncan.[20] Anderson was the great-grandfather of actorMontgomery Clift through his daughter Maria,[21] although this relationship has not been definitively established by genealogical sources. Allegedly, the doctor who delivered Ethel Anderson Clift told her when she was an adult that she was the illegitimate daughter of Maria Anderson and Woodbury Blair, but no documentation exists to verify the relationship.[22][better source needed] Nonetheless, the legend continues. Virtually all sources that advance this theory reference Ethel's own statements or Clift's biographies.[23]
Johnson, Rossiter, ed. (1906). "Anderson, Robert".The Biographical Dictionary of America. Vol. 1. Boston: American Biographical Society. p. 112.Obituaries
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