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BOOK DESCRIPTION: Small 8vo, 269 pgs, frontis portrait, plates. Rebound in red cloth, gilt titled spine, and with new endpapers. CONDITION DESCRIPTION: New binding very clean. Interior pages are clean and tight. With clear mylar wrapper. CONTENTS DESCRIPTION: Richard Heron Anderson was a career U.S. Army officer, fighting with distinction in the Mexican-American War. He also served as a Confederate general during the American Civil War, fighting in the Eastern Theater as part of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and participated in every one of its major battles. Nicknamed "Fighting Dick", he graduated from West Point in 1842; a class that produced 22 Civil War generals from the 37 graduated that were alive when the war began. He began his career as a brevet second lieutenant with the 1st United States Dragoons. He was cited "for gallant and meritorious conduct in combat" while he fought with them during the Mexican war where he took part in the siege of Vera Cruz and the capture of Mexico City. For this service he was promoted to first lieutenant of the 2nd Dragoons in 1848, and Captain in 1855. Late in 1860 when South Carolina voted to secede from the Union, Anderson resigned his commission in early 1861 and became the colonel of the 1st Carolina Infantry. He fought at the siege of Fort Sumter, succeeded General P.G.T. Beauregard in Charleston and was promoted to brigadier general and transferred to Pensacola. While there he was wounded in the arm at the Battle of Santa Rosa. In the Pennsylvania campaign of 1862, he fought in the battles of Seven Pines, Gaines' Mill, and Malvern Hill and was promoted to major general. Over the next two years he performed heroically at the Second Battle of Bull Run when his attack broke the lines of the Union, and they were forced to retreat to Washington. At Antietam, he was wounded in the thigh and his departure from the battlefield allowed the Union forces to route his men from their position. He continued with distinction at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor, being promoted to lieutenant general in 1864. His command was so scattered at the Battle of Sayler's Creek that he barely eluded being captured. He returned to Richmond, but there was no command equal to his rank, so he was relieved of duty and the next day General Lee surrendered. Scarce Confederate biography. REFERENCES: NEVINS II pg. 97: "So few of Anderson's papers survived the war that this inadequate study remains the sole biography".
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