Robert H. Anderson

Robert Houstoun Anderson (October 1, 1835 – February 8, 1888) was an infantry officer in the United States Army then a cavalry and artillery officer in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. After the war he served as the Chief of the Police for the city of Savannah for 23 years, and played an important role with reunification activities at his alma mater, the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.

Born in Savannah, Georgia on October 1, 1835, Anderson was the son of John Wayne Anderson, a local businessman. His siblings include Major George Wayne Anderson, Captain J. W. Anderson II, and Colonel C. W. Anderson. He was educated in the local schools before receiving an appointment to the United States Military Academy. "Bob" Anderson would return to West Point one day to help heal the wounds that the civil war would bring, as a member of the Board of Visitors after the war.

After graduation in 1857, as a brevet second lieutenant of infantry he was stationed in upstate New York at Fort Columbus with the 9th Infantry Division. He later served as an infantry second lieutenant at Fort Walla Walla in the Washington Territory on frontier duty from 1858-1861.

In March 1861, shortly before the official secession of his home state, Anderson left the US Army and accepted a commission as a lieutenant of artillery in the Confederate Army, formally resigning his U.S. Army commission on May 17, 1861.

In September 1861 he was promoted to the rank of Major, and was acting adjutant general of the troops on the Georgia coast. Anderson was then appointed assistant adjutant general to Maj. Gen. W. H. T. Walker of the Georgia State militia located in Pensacola, Florida. When Walker transferred to Virginia in July 1861, Anderson went with him.

After Walker resigned, Anderson remained in Confederate service and was promoted to the rank of Major. In April 1862 Major Anderson formed the 1st Georgia Sharpshooters, and quickly built them into an effective and disciplined unit. The battalion was mustered at Camp Anderson, on the banks of the Ogeechee River. In early 1863 he and was placed in command of nearby Fort McAllister, located just downriver from Savannah, Georgia to help slow the advancing Union ironclads. Fort McAllister was one of the key forts defending the port of Savannah, and would become the biggest obstacle in Sherman's March to the Sea.

Anderson was promoted to colonel and being placed in command of the 5th Georgia Cavalry. on January 20, 1863. He led Confederate defenses at the Battle of Fort McAllister (1863). General P. G. T. Beauregard in his official report to the war department, commended very highly the conduct of officers and men engaged in the successful defense of Fort McAllister in February 1863.

Anderson and the 5th Georgia Cavalry were transferred to the Army of Tennessee under General William W. Allen as part of Kelly's Division, under General Joseph Wheeler before the opening of the Atlanta Campaign. Earning a battlefield promotion to brigadier general on July 26, 1864 after the death of commanding officer Brig. Gen. John H. Kelly near Franklin, Tennessee, Anderson assumed temporary command of the division before resuming his former position as brigade commander following the fall of Atlanta.

Anderson would later lead his brigade against advancing Union forces during Sherman's March to the Sea (Savannah Campaign), being wounded at the Battle of Griswoldville. Then he joined Wheeler's Cavalry Corps in the Carolinas Campaign before the collapse of the Confederacy in April 1865. He was wounded at the Battle of Brown's Mill near Newnan, Georgia on July 30, 1864 during the Atlanta Campaign and at Fayetteville, North Carolina during the Carolinas Campaign, on March 11, 1865.

Bust of General Anderson, by Alexander Dole

Following the war, Anderson established and served as the police chief for the city of Savannah from 1865-1888. As Chief of Police for the city of Savannah, he brought order and through his leadership made the force one of the most effective in the nation. After founding the Georgia Sabre Club, Anderson was elected to Captain of the Georgia Hussars from December 4, 1876 to February 1880.

General Anderson was appointed by President Rutherford B. Hayes to the Board of Visitors, US Military Academy at West Point. The Board of Visitors is a panel that includes Senators, Congressional Representatives, and presidential appointees who "shall inquire into the morale and discipline, curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, fiscal affairs, academic methods, and other matters relating to the academy that the board decides to consider." As a member of the board, he chaired the committee for academics and discipline, and working alongside General "Fighting Joe" Wheeler helped reunite old friends, and assisted with reconciliation efforts. He was appointed again to the Board by the next president, Grover Cleveland in 1887 when they recommended bringing both the telephone and electricity to West Point.

As Police Chief, Anderson employed mostly veterans from both sides of the civil war in his force, putting his words of reconciliation into action.

Robert Houstoun Anderson died in Savannah, Georgia the age of 52 on February 8, 1888 and was buried at Bonaventure Cemetery. An estimated seven thousand people attended the unveiling of a copper and granite monument, crowned with a bust of the general at Bonaventure Cemetery in February 1894. He is buried there with his wife and children beside him. His son Robert Houstoun Anderson Jr. also served in the U.S. Army with distinction on the Mexican border, and in China before his death due to disease in the Philippines in 1901.