Anderson, Richard Heron

Life Span
to
    Full name
    Richard Heron Anderson
    Place of Birth
    Burial Place
    Birth Date Certainty
    Exact
    Death Date Certainty
    Exact
    Gender
    Male
    Race
    White
    Sectional choice
    South
    Origins
    Slave State
    No. of Spouses
    2
    No. of Children
    2
    Family
    William Wallace Anderson (father), Mary Mackenzie (mother), Sarah Gibson (first wife), Martha Mellette (second wife)
    Education
    West Point (US Military Academy)
    Occupation
    Military
    Farmer or Planter
    Government
    Other state government
    Military
    US military (Pre-Civil War)
    Confederate Army

    Richard Heron Anderson (American National Biography)

    Scholarship
    The approach of the war found Anderson's family divided over the issue of slavery. His father was an ardent supporter of states' rights and a defender of the institution of slavery. Anderson was not as impassioned, and he attempted to remain neutral on the emotional issues. Privately he objected to slavery. The pressures of his father and his state forced him to take a stand when the war came, and on 15 February 1861 he resigned his commission in the U.S. Army. He was commissioned colonel of the First South Carolina Regular Regiment, which he commanded until 27 May 1861, when he relieved General P. G. T. Beauregard as commander of South Carolina forces and defenses.
    D. Scott Hartwig, "Anderson, Richard Heron," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/05/05-00027.html.
    How to Cite This Page: "Anderson, Richard Heron," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/4985.