Robert Anderson (officer, 1805)

Robert Anderson

Robert Anderson (born June 14, 1805 in Louisville , Kentucky , † October 26, 1871 in Nice ) was a major general in the US Army in the American Civil War . He became known as the commandant of Fort Sumters in South Carolina at the beginning of the Civil War in 1861. He was the brother of Charles Anderson .

After completing his training at the US Military Academy in West Point , New York in 1825, Anderson was an officer in the US Army for over 30 years . He served in various Indian Wars and in the American-Mexican War in 1848, in which he was wounded. Promoted to major in 1857 , he was in 1861 at the outbreak of the Civil War in command of Fort Sumter, which ruled the port entrance of the city of Charleston . Anderson and his soldiers remained loyal to the government in Washington, DC despite the secession of the southern states.After various attempts to supply the besieged occupation of the fort by the northern states had failed, the southern states began to bombard Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, and with it the civil war . Anderson had to surrender in a hopeless situation - he had only 85 men and few cannons - after one day on the evening of April 13th. He and his subordinate soldiers were captured by the southerners and handed over to the northern states. Anderson brought the fort's flag, which became a symbol of the Union.

Upon arriving in the north, he was promoted to brigadier general and became the Union's first war hero to take part in recruitment events. Due to illness, he could hardly take part in the rest of the war. In 1865 he received the rank of major general. On April 14th of this year he brought the old flag back to the fort, which had been occupied by the US Army since February 1865. Anderson died in Nice in 1871 and was buried in the West Point cemetery. A memorial stone commemorates him in Fort Sumter.

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Commons : Robert Anderson  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Robert Anderson in the database of Find a Grave (English)