{{Short description|American Civil War Union Army officer (1805–1871)}} {{about|the Union officer in the American Civil War|the Confederate officer in the same war|Robert H. Anderson (Confederate officer)|other uses|Robert Anderson (disambiguation)}} {{Use American English|date=May 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2026}} {{Infobox military person | name = Robert Anderson | birth_date = {{birth date|1805|6|14}} | death_date = {{death date and age|1871|10|27|1805|6|14}} | birth_place = Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. | death_place = Nice, France | burial_place = West Point Cemetery | burial_label = Place of burial | image = Portrait of Maj. Robert Anderson, May 15, 1861, officer of the Federal Army (3x4 cropped).tif | caption = Anderson, {{circa|1861}} | alt = Black-and-white portrait of Anderson holding a hat | nickname = | branch = United States Army | service_years = 1821–1863 | rank = 35px Brigadier general<br>35px Brevet major general | commands = Fort Sumter<br />Army of the Cumberland<br>Fort Adams | unit = 3rd Regiment of Artillery<br>1st Regiment of Artillery | battles = {{tree list}} *Black Hawk War **Battle of Bad Axe *Second Seminole War **Battles of the Loxahatchee *Mexican–American War **Siege of Veracruz **Battle of Cerro Gordo **Battle of Molino del Rey{{WIA}} *American Civil War **Battle of Fort Sumter{{surrendered}} {{tree list/end}} | awards = | alma_mater = United States Military Academy | other_work = }} '''Robert Anderson''' (June 14, 1805 – October 26, 1871) was a United States Army officer during the American Civil War. He was the Union commander in the first battle of the American Civil War at Fort 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 to brigadier general and given command of Union forces in Kentucky. He was removed late in 1861 and reassigned to Rhode 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.
==Early life and career== Anderson was born at "Soldier's Retreat," the Anderson family estate near Louisville, Kentucky. His father, Richard Clough Anderson Sr. (1750–1826) was of Scots-Irish ancestry from Antrim, Northern Ireland. He served in the Continental Army as an aide-de-camp to the Marquis de Lafayette during the American Revolutionary War. He was a charter member of the Society of the Cincinnati. Anderson's mother, Sarah Marshall (1779–1854), was a cousin of John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt98700720/|title=Anderson Family Papers: Finding Aid|website=oac.cdlib.org|access-date=January 30, 2024|archive-date=October 30, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221030123929/https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt98700720/|url-status=live}}</ref>
Anderson graduated from the United States Military Academy (West Point) in 1825, and received a commission as a second lieutenant in the 3rd Regiment of Artillery.
A few months after graduation, he became a private secretary to his older brother Richard Clough Anderson, Jr., who was serving as the US Minister to Gran Colombia. He served in the Black Hawk War of 1832 as a colonel of Illinois volunteers, where he had the distinction of twice mustering Abraham Lincoln in and once out of army service. He also was in charge of transporting Black Hawk to Jefferson Barracks after his capture, assisted by Jefferson Davis.<ref>{{cite journal |date=October 1, 1917 |title=Robert Anderson to E. B. Washburne |url=https://archive.org/details/jstor-40187020 |journal=Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society |volume=10 |access-date=July 22, 2015 }}</ref>
Returning to regular Army service 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 was promoted to captain in October 1841.
Anderson was the author of ''Instruction for Field Artillery, Horse and Foot'', published in 1839.
In the Mexican–American War in 1847, he participated in the Siege of Veracruz (March 9–29), the Battle of Cerro Gordo (April 17–18), the Skirmish of Amazoque, (May 14), and the Battle of Molino del Rey (September 8), during which he was severely wounded while assaulting enemy fortifications, for which he received a brevet promotion to major.
Due to his wounds, Anderson was on sick leave during 1847–48. He was then in garrison at Fort Preble, Maine, from 1848 to 1849. He 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 at Fort Preble from 1850 to 1853.<ref>''Register of Graduates of the United States Military Academy''. George W. Cullum. Vol. I. pg. 347–349.</ref>
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. He eventually received a permanent promotion to major of the 1st Regiment of Artillery in the Regular Army on October 5, 1857.<ref>Eicher, p. 105.</ref>
While residing in Trenton, Anderson became a Freemason, and was a member of Mercer Lodge No. 50
==Civil War== ===Fort Sumter=== {{further|Battle of Fort Sumter}} {{see also|Raising the Flag at Fort Sumter}}
thumb|Major Robert Anderson and his officers Ft Sumpter South Carolina [[File:Major Robert Anderson by Mathew Brady.jpg|thumb|upright|Major Robert Anderson, photo by Mathew Brady]]
In November 1860, Anderson was assigned to command of U.S. forces in and around Charleston, South Carolina, replacing Colonel John L. Gardner. With South Carolina headed for secession in December 1860, Gardner, feeling that the small garrison at Fort Moultrie was under-armed, had attempted to draw arms and ammunition from the Federal arsenal in the city, but was prevented from doing so by a crowd of civilians. His attempt sparked local protests, and Secretary of the Army John B. Floyd decided that Gardner, a Massachusetts native, should be replaced by a Southerner. Anderson, a former slave owner from Kentucky and generally sympathetic to the South, was selected.<ref name=catton>Catton, Bruce (1967) [1961] ''The Coming Fury''. New York: Pocket Books. pp.141–183</ref>
Anderson moved the garrison from Fort Moultrie, which was indefensible, to the more modern and more defensible Fort Sumter, in the middle of Charleston Harbor, an action which caused great consternation in South Carolina, which responded by taking Fort Moultrie and the other Federal assets in the harbor and the city. In the immediate aftermath of Anderson's move, President James Buchanan and War Secretary Floyd claimed that Anderson had gone against orders, until an examination of War Department files showed that he had acted within the discretion he had been given.<ref name=catton/>
In February 1861, the Confederate States of America was formed and took command of the campaign against Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Confederate President Jefferson Davis ordered that the fort should be taken. The artillery attack was commanded by Brigadier General P. G. T. Beauregard, who had been Anderson's student at West Point. The attack began on 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.
===Status as national hero=== Anderson's actions in defense of Fort Sumter made him an immediate national hero.<ref>{{cite book|editor=John E. Kleber|title=The Kentucky Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8eFSK4o--M0C&pg=PA21|year=1992|page=21|publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=0813128838}}</ref> He was promoted to brigadier general in the Regular Army, 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 was, at the time, the largest public gathering in North America.
===Symbolism of the American flag=== thumb|Anderson's personal flag, which was later captured by rebel forces<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Rocky Mountain News (Daily) March 26, 1898 — Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection |url=https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=RMD18980326-01.2.204&e=--1890---1945--en-20--41--img-txIN%7CtxCO%7CtxTA-%22museum%22+%22flag%22-ILLUSTRATION------2------ |access-date=August 15, 2025 |website=www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org}}</ref> The modern meaning of the American flag, according to Harold Holzer in 2007 and Adam Goodheart in 2011, was forged by Anderson's stand at Fort Sumter. Holzer states that New York City:
{{blockquote|responded with a "feast of the American flag." Eyewitnesses estimated that as many as 100,000 flags were quickly displayed 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.<ref>{{cite book |editor-link=Robert W. Watson |editor-first=Robert W. |editor-last=Watson |title=White House Studies Compendium |volume=2 |first=Harold |last=Holzer |author-link=Harold Holzer |isbn=9781600215339 |chapter=New Glory for Old Glory: A Lincoln-Era Tradition Reborn |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mFDl3fo9iEQC&pg=PA316 |year=2007 |publisher=Nova Publishers |pages=315–318, at p. 316}}</ref>}}
During the war, the flag was used throughout the North to symbolize American nationalism and to reject secessionism. Goodheart explained that the flag was transformed into a sacred symbol of patriotism: <blockquote>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 would die for.<ref name=goodheart-1861-2012ed>{{cite book |author=Adam Goodheart |title=1861: The Civil War Awakening |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bCPbnsUPhB0C&pg=PA22 |year=2012 |publisher=Vintage Books (reprint) |page=22 |via=books.google.com |isbn=978-1-4000-3219-8 |access-date=July 31, 2015}}</ref></blockquote>
left|thumb|upright|Robert Anderson's telegram announcing the surrender of Fort Sumter
===Assignments=== 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 the Department of the Cumberland), in a border state that had officially declared neutrality between the warring parties. He began serving in that position on May 28, 1861. Historians commonly attribute failing health as the reason for his relinquishing command to Brigadier General William T. Sherman on October 7, 1861. Still, a letter from Joshua 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 York Society of the Cincinnati in which his grandnephew, Ambassador Larz Anderson, was highly active.
Anderson's last military assignment was a brief period as commanding officer of Fort Adams in Newport, 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." Still, 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.<ref>''Register of Graduates of the United States Military Academy''. George W. Cullum. Vol. 1. pg. 349.</ref> On February 3, 1865, Anderson was brevetted a major general for "gallantry and meritorious service" in the defense of Fort Sumter.
==Later life== [[Image:Major Robert Anderson monument at Fort Sumter, SC IMG 4538.JPG|upright|right|thumb|Major Robert Anderson is honored with his likeness inscribed in a monument atop Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor.]]
After Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox 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 battered Fort Sumter. Hours after the ceremony of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln.<ref>Anderson poster, Fort Sumter National Monument, Charleston, South Carolina</ref><ref>Douglas R. Egerton, The Wars of Reconstruction (Bloomsbury Press 2014) pp. 4–6</ref>
[[File:Grave of MG Robert Anderson, West Point, NY.JPG|thumb|left|Gravesite at the West Point Cemetery]] After the war, Anderson became a companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. In 1869, he discussed the future of the U.S. Army with Sylvanus Thayer. Afterward, they helped establish the Military Academy's Association of Graduates (AoG).<ref>Kershner, James William, ''Sylvanus Thayer– A Biography'', Arno Press, New York, 1982, p. 329.</ref>
In 1869, Anderson was reported to have sold his library<ref>{{cite news |title=News and miscellaneous items |newspaper=Charleston Daily Courier (Charleston, South Carolina) |date=May 25, 1869 |page=4 |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/65460817/sale-of-robert-andersons-library/ |access-date=December 17, 2020 |archive-date=January 25, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125055631/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/65460817/sale-of-robert-andersons-library/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and moved to Europe, "as half pay would not support his family here".<ref>{{cite news |title=(Untitled) |newspaper=The Courier (Waterloo, Iowa) |date=April 29, 1869 |page=2 |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/65443281/robert-anderson-moves-to-europe/ |archive-date=January 25, 2022 |access-date=December 17, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125054200/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/65443281/robert-anderson-moves-to-europe/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=(Untitled) |newspaper=Yorkville Enquirer (York, South Carolina) |date=April 15, 1869 |page=2 |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/65443744/robert-anderson-compelled-to-move-to/ |access-date=December 17, 2020 |archive-date=January 19, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220119193224/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/65443744/robert-anderson-compelled-to-move-to/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Someone questioning his need informed us that Anderson's half salary as brigadier general was $4,125 ({{inflation|US|4125|1871|fmt=eq}}).<ref>{{cite news |title=General Robert Anderson |page=1 |newspaper=Philadelphia Inquirer |date=October 3, 1871 |via=newspaperarchive.com |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/philadelphia-inquirer-oct-03-1871-p-1/ |access-date=December 17, 2020 |archive-date=November 1, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101155108/https://newspaperarchive.com/philadelphia-inquirer-oct-03-1871-p-1/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
Anderson died in Nice, France, in 1871, seeking a cure for his ailments.<ref>{{cite news |title=Gen. Robert Anderson |newspaper=Tiffin Tribune (Tiffin, Ohio) |date=November 2, 1871 |page=2 |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/66163626/obituary-for-robert-anderson-conplete/ |access-date=November 1, 2022 |archive-date=November 1, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101155107/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/66163626/obituary-for-robert-anderson-conplete/ |url-status=live }}</ref> He was interred at West Point Cemetery.
{{Clear}}
==Family== thumb|upright|Anderson with his wife, Eliza Bayard Anderson, and son, Robert Jr. Anderson's brother, Charles Anderson, served as Governor of Ohio from 1865 to 1866. A second brother, Larz Anderson II, was the father of Nicholas Longworth Anderson, who served as a Union Army general. Nicholas' son, Larz Anderson III, was a diplomat and a leading member of the Society 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.<ref>Anderson, William Marshall (edited by Ramon Eduardo Ruiz), ''An American in Maximilian's Mexico, 1865–1866''; the diaries of William Marshall Anderson, Huntington Library, San Marino, 1959, 132p.</ref><ref>This and other Anderson family papers are kept at the Huntington Library in California: [http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt98700720&doc.view=entire_text&brand=oac Anderson Family Papers 1810–1848] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325053141/http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt98700720&doc.view=entire_text |date=March 25, 2020 }}.</ref> W. Marshall Anderson's son, Thomas M. Anderson, was a brigadier general who fought in the Spanish–American War and Philippine–American War.
In 1845, Anderson married Eliza Bayard Clinch (1828–1905), the daughter of Duncan Lamont Clinch. They were the parents of five children: Marie (1849–1925), Sophie (1852–1934), Eliza, Robert Jr. (1859–1879), and Duncan.<ref>''Encyclopedia of Biography of New York: A Life Record of Men and Women Whose Sterling Character and Energy and Industry Have Made Them Preëminent in Their Own and Many Other States'', Volume 1 (Google eBook), p. 182</ref> Anderson was the great-grandfather of actor Montgomery Clift through his daughter Maria,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://famouskin.com/famous_kin_chart.php?name=7397+robert+anderson&kin=7403+montgomery+clift|title=Family relationship of Maj. Gen. Robert Anderson and Montgomery Clift via Maj. Gen. Robert Anderson|access-date=May 8, 2015|archive-date=May 18, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518074351/http://famouskin.com/famous_kin_chart.php?name=7397+robert+anderson&kin=7403+montgomery+clift|url-status=live}}</ref> although genealogical sources have not definitively established this relationship. 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. Still, no documentation exists to verify the relationship.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=glencoe&id=I30721 |title=RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: The Ancestry of Overmire Tifft Richardson Bradford Reed |website=rootsweb.ancestry.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170929044434/https://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=glencoe&id=I30721 |archive-date=September 29, 2017 |access-date=January 30, 2024 |url-status=dead}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=January 2024}} Nonetheless, the legend continues. Virtually all sources that advance this theory reference Ethel's own statements or Clift's biographies.<ref>Bosworth, Patricia, ''Montgomery Clift: A Biography''. {{ISBN?}}{{page needed|date=April 2023}}</ref>
==Dates of rank== ===United States Army=== {| class="wikitable" |+ ! style="text-align:center;width:135px;" | Date<ref>{{cite book |last=Heitman |first=Francis B. |year=1903 |title=Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, From Its Organization, September 29, 1789, to March 2, 1903 |volume=1 |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Government Printing Office |via=Internet Archive |page=164 |url=https://archive.org/details/historicalregist01heitrich/page/164/mode/2up |access-date=April 20, 2026}}</ref> ! style="text-align:center;width:100px;" | Insignia ! style="width:180px;" | Rank ! style="width:250px;" | Brevet promotions |- | July 1, 1821 || style="text-align:center;" | 75px || Cadet || |- | July 1, 1825 || style="text-align:center;" | <div style="position:relative; top:0px; left:0px; {{Transform-rotate|-90|display=block}}"> 40px</div> 75px || Brevet second lieutenant <br /> Second lieutenant || |- | June 30, 1833 || style="text-align:center;" | 75px || First lieutenant || Bvt. Captain (1838){{efn|April 2, 1838, for gallant and successful conduct during the Second Seminole War.}} |- | October 23, 1841 || style="text-align:center;" | 75px || Captain || Bvt. Major (1847){{efn|September 8, 1847, for gallantry and meritorious conduct in the Battle of Molino del Rey.}} |- | October 5, 1857 || style="text-align:center;" | 75px || Major || |- | May 15, 1861 || style="text-align:center;" | 75px || Brigadier general || |- | October 27, 1863 || colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" | Placed on the retired list with the rank of brigadier general (died October 26, 1871). || Bvt. Major general (1865){{efn|February 3, 1865, for gallant and meritorious service in the defense of Fort Sumter.}} |}
== Notes == {{notelist}}
==See also== {{Portal|American Civil War}} * List of American Civil War generals (Union) * List of people from the Louisville metropolitan area
==References== '''Notes''' {{Reflist}}
'''Bibliography''' * Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., ''Civil War High Commands'', Stanford University Press, 2001, {{ISBN|0-8047-3641-3}}. * Lawton, Eba Anderson, ''Major Robert Anderson and Fort Sumter, 1861'' (New York, 1911). * Silkenat, David. ''Raising the White Flag: How Surrender Defined the American Civil War''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019. {{ISBN|978-1-4696-4972-6}}. * Warner, Ezra J., ''Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders'', Louisiana State University Press, 1964, {{ISBN|0-8071-0822-7}}. * [https://archive.org/stream/officersofarmyna00powe/officersofarmyna00powe_djvu.txt Civil War Officers] * Robert Anderson to Abraham Lincoln, September 16, 1861, and Joshua F. Speed to Lincoln, October 7, 1861, both in Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress.
==External links== {{Commons category|Robert Anderson (Civil War)}} * {{cite BDA1906 |wstitle= Anderson, Robert |volume= 1 |pages= 112 |short=}} '''Obituaries''' * {{cite news |title=Major General Robert Anderson |newspaper=New York Herald |date=October 28, 1871 |page=10 |via=newspaperarchive.com |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/new-york-herald-oct-28-1871-p-10/}} * {{cite news |page=4 |title=General Robert Anderson |newspaper=Cincinnati Commercial |date=October 28, 1871 |via=newspaperarchive.com |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/cincinnati-commercial-oct-28-1871-p-4/9}}
{{Authority control}}
{{American Civil War|Leaders}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Robert}} Category:1805 births Category:1871 deaths Category:American military personnel of the Seminole Wars Category:American people of the Black Hawk War Category:Burials at West Point Cemetery Category:Military personnel from Louisville, Kentucky Category:People of Kentucky in the American Civil War Category:Slave owners from Kentucky Category:Southern Unionists in the American Civil War Category:Union army generals Category:United States Army personnel of the Mexican–American War Category:United States Military Academy alumni