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/index.php/node/4985.