Richard Heron Anderson

Background

Richard Heron Anderson was born on October 7, 1821, in Hill Crest, Sumter County, South Carolina, United States. He was the son of Dr. William Wallace Anderson and his wife, Mary Jane Mackenzie.

Education

Richard graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1842.

Career

In 1842, Richard Heron Anderson attended cavalry school at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and was breveted a second lieutenant in the 1st Dragoons. He spent the years 1843-1845 in frontier service and fought under William Hardee during the Mexican War, where he saw action at Vera Cruz, Contreras, and Churubusco.

He was breveted a first lieutenant at San Augustine. He returned to cavalry school at Carlisle in 1849-1850 and again served on the frontier in 1852-1856, where he was a captain of dragoons in 1855. He was stationed in Kansas in 1856 and participated in the Utah expedition of 1858-1859.

From 1859 to 1861, he was stationed at Fort Kearney, Nebraska. Upon the secession of South Carolina, he resigned his commission. Anderson entered the Confederate Army as a major in the Department of South Carolina and Florida.

Promoted to brigadier general on July 18, 1861, he succeeded P.G.T. Beauregard as commander in Charleston, South Carolina. In the spring and early summer of 1862, he fought at the battles of Seven Pines, Cold Harbor, and Malvern Hill during the Peninsular campaign in Virginia. He was promoted to major general on July 14, 1862.

Anderson subsequently fought in the battles of Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, and Fredericksburg in 1862 and at the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg in 1863. He distinguished himself throughout and became one of Lee's trusted lieutenants. Promoted to lieutenant general under General James Longstreet on May 31, 1864, he commanded Longstreet's Corps at Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor.

Anderson was vindicated from Fitzhugh Lee’s accusation of incompetence after the battle of Five Forks in April 1865. He was nevertheless relieved of command and did not surrender with Lee’s army at Appomattox. After the war, he tried planting at his ancestral home in Hill Crest, South Carolina, but he knew nothing about agriculture and went bankrupt.

He was a state phosphate agent at Beaufort, South Carolina, and a day laborer in a railroad yard before being made a railroad agent, a job from which he was fired.

Achievements

• Anderson's most important contribution towards the battle during the Mexican-American War was when a Union counterattack under General Sedgwick came close to changing the result of the battle. Anderson's division (with McLaws) led the Confederate response, forcing Sedgwick to retreat back over the Rappahannock River. For his actions during the American Civil War, Richard Anderson was promoted to lieutenant general.

Religion

Anderson was a vestryman at St. Helena Episcopal Church.

Connections

Anderson had a son and a daughter by his 1850 marriage to Sarah Gibson. She died and he married Martha Mellette on December 24, 1874.

Father:

William Wallace Anderson

1789-1864

Mother:

Mary MacKenzie Anderson

1788-1832

late wife:

Sarah Gibson Anderson

1830-1872

Wife:

Martha Mellette Anderson

1855-1928

Sister:

Mary Heron Anderson

1820-1825

Brother:

William Wallace Anderson

1824-1911

Son:

Richard Gibson Anderson

1852-1898

Daughter:

Sarah Gibson Anderson Blanding

1857-1949

colleague:

Robert E. Lee

References

• Civil War High Commands
  2002
• The Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography
  2000
• The Civil War: A Narrative: Red River to Appomattox
  1974
• The Generals of Gettysburg: The Leaders of America's Greatest Battle
  1998
• Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy
  1977
• The Life of Lieutenant General Richard Heron Anderson of the Confederate States Army
  2019
• Lee's Noble Soldier
  1985