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—[From a Portrait in the Possession of Mrs. Anderson.]
MAJOR ANDERSON, U.S.A., COMMANDING AT FORT SUMTER.
We are indebted to Mrs. Anderson, wife of Major Anderson, for the likeness from which the accompanying portrait of that gallant officer has been copied. It may be safely said that he, above all other men is in every one's thoughts and conversation at the present time.
Major Anderson is a Kentuckian; he was born in that State in September, 1805. At the age of fifteen he entered the Military Academy at West Point, and graduated in 1825. He joined the army with the rank of Second-Lieutenant of the Second and subsequently of Third Artillery. In 1832 he was Inspector-General of the Illinois Volunteers, in the Black Hawk War; Mr. Lincoln, the President elect being a captain of those Volunteers. In 1833 he received his Commission as First-Lieutenant, arid became Instructor and Inspector at West Point. This post he held for four years, during which period he collected the material for his work on Artillery, the standard text-book on the subject.
In 1838, for gallantry in the Florida War, he was made Brevet-Captain, and soon afterward joined General Scott's military family as aid-de-camp. The relations of Major Anderson with the gallant old chief were so friendly and agreeable that one can well imagine the interest felt by the latter in the Major's present movements. In October, 1841, so slow is promotion in our army, Anderson received his commission as captain in his regiment.
In March, 1847, he was with the Third Regiment of Artillery in the Army of General Scott, and took part in the siege of Vera Cruz—being one of the officers to whom was intrusted, by General Bankhead, the command of the batteries. This duty he performed with signal skill and gallantry, and he continued with the army until its triumphal entry into the city of Mexico, in September following. During the operations in the valley of Mexico, he was attached to the brigade of General Garland, which formed a part of General Worth's division.
In the attack on El Molino del Rey, on the 8th of September, where he was wounded very severely, his conduct was the theme of especial praise on the part of his superior officers. Captain Burke, his immediate commander in his dispatch September 9, says: “Captain Robert Anderson (acting field-officer) behaved with great heroism on this occasion. Even after receiving a severe and painful wound, he continued at the head of the column, regardless of pain and self-preservation, and setting a handsome example to his men of coolness, energy, and courage.” General Garland speaks of him as being, with “some few others, the very first to enter the strong position of El Molino;” and adds, that “Brevet-Major Buchanan, Fourth Infantry, Captain Anderson, Third Artillery, and Lieutenant Sedgwick, Second Artillery, appear to have been particularly distinguished for their gallant defense of the captured works.” In addition to this testimony to his bearing on that occasion we have that of General Worth, who particularly directed the attention of the Commander-in-Chief to the part he had taken in-the action. “For gallant and meritorious conduct in the Battle of Molino del Rey” he was promoted to the brevet rank of Major, dating from September 8, 1847. October 5, 1857, he was promoted to the position of Major of the First Artillery, which he now holds.
All last summer Major Anderson was occupied as a member of the Commission appointed to inspect the United States Military Academy at West Point—a Commission, by-the-way, whose report singularly confirms certain strictures passed on the diet of the cadets in this journal last summer. It was only six weeks ago that he took the command at Fort Moultrie.
Of Major Anderson's physique a writer, who seems to know him well, says:
“In personal appearance he is about five feet nine in height; figure is well-set and soldierly; his hair is thin and turning to iron gray; his complexion swarthy; his eye dark and intelligent; his nose prominent and well formed. A stranger would read in his air and appearance determination and an exaction of what was due to him. In intercourse he is very courteous, and his rich voice and abundant gesticulations go well together. He is always agreeable and gentlemanly, firm and dignified.”
It is universally. conceded by all who know Major Anderson, that he is a man who will die at his post rather than Surrender. The following letter, written by him on Christmas Day to a friend in Baltimore, shows that he is as modest as he is brave:
Fort Moultrie, S. C.
December 25.
---- ---- Esq., Baltimore:
“Dear Sir:,—I thank you for the trouble you were kind enough to take in correcting some of the rumors about me. You are right in the opinion that I could not, and would not, say any thing contradictory of them. My plan has been to try to do my duty honestly and fully; and to trust that, in the good sense justice of the people, they would give me credit for good intentions, even if my judgement should turn out not to have been good.
“I must confess that I regret that the papers making so much of my position here. I do not deserve the least credit for what I am doing—nothing more any one else would do in my position — and, perhaps, not half so well many others would do. I receive, nearly by every mail letters of sympathy, and many of those are from strangers.
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“I hope that it will not be long before something will occur to give me a chance of being relieved from my present position.
“Thanking you for your kind remembrance of me, I am, yours truly,
All the officers of the command at Fort Sumter have seen service. Captain Truman Seymour, one of the most gallant officers in the service, is also renowned as a traveler; his successful ascent of Popocatepetl —the highest mountain in North America— has been frequently mentioned. Lieutenant Talbot crossed the Rocky Mountains with Frémont's first expedition; Lieutenant Davis was at Buena Vista, and Captain Foster was badly wounded at Molino del Rey.