Major Robert Anderson

Robert Anderson was born in 1825. Although a pro-slavery Kentuckian, Major Anderson remained loyal to the Union.

After graduating from West Point in 1825, he saw action in the Seminole War from 1838 to 1842, earning a brevet for bravery.

Seriously injured in the Mexican War, Anderson served on a number of military boards and commissions before being appointed to command the defenses at Fort Moultrie in South Carolina on November 15, 1860. Anderson had risen to the rank of Major, 1st Artillery by that time.

In his assignment as garrison commander, Anderson was given little assistance from lame duck President Buchanan. Following the secession of South Carolina, Anderson took it upon himself to move his two-company garrison from the indefensible Fort Moultrie to still unfinished Fort Sumter, in the middle of the Charleston harbor.

When the unannounced relief ship, Star of the West, was fired upon by South Carolina forces, Anderson chose to hold his fire, in fear of starting a war.

In April, after refusing to surrender, he was forced to return fire when the fort was bombarded by forces commanded by Confederate Brig. General Beauregard.

Forced to surrender after 34 hours of bombardment by superior forces, Anderson was allowed to return North, where he was appointed Brig. General on May 15, 1861, and commanded the Department of Kentucky, which was merged into the Department of the Cumberland, which he also commanded, a few months later.

His health failing, having never fully recovered from wounds sustained during the Mexican War, Anderson was relieved of field command, and assigned to various duties in the North before being retired from the regular army on October 27, 1863.

After the recapture of Fort Sumter by Union forces, Anderson took part in a ceremony in which he raised the same flag that he had lowered four years earlier.