Robert Houston Anderson

Civil War Confederate Brigadier General. An 1857 graduate of West Point, he graduated 35th in his class, then served at a New York state garrison and at Fort Walla Walla in Washington Territory as a lieutenant of infantry. At the time of the secession crisis, he accepted a commission as a Confederate lieutenant of artillery and was listed as "absent without leave" from the United States Army until May 17, 1861, when his resignation was received. Promoted to Major September 1861, he assumed the administrative post of assistant adjutant general to William Henry Talbot Walker, Major General of Georgia state troops, commanding on the Georgia coast. In January 1863 he was transferred to line duty but not beore finally seeing action in coastal Georgia at Fort McAllister, where he helped repel assaults by Federal ironclads testing the strength of the Confederate works. His transfer came with a promotion to Colonel of the 5th Georgia Cavalry, which was now serving in the Army of Tennessee. A few months later, he was raised to brigade command and made Brigadier General on July 26, 1864. He took part in all of the operations in the Atlanta Campaign. During a raid near Franklin, Tenneessee, Brigadier General John H. Kelly, a division commander, was killed and he was temporarily placed in divisional command. Following the fall of Atlanta and his reversion to brigade command, he fought on through the March to the Sea and the Carolinas Campaign and was surrendered with the rest of the army by General Joseph E. Johnston. After the war, he returned to Savannah and was that city's chief of police from 1867 until his death.