Booknotes: Hero of Fort Sumter

New Arrival:

• Hero of Fort Sumter: The Extraordinary Life of Robert Anderson by Wesley Moody (OU Press, 2025).

Kentuckian Robert Anderson's Civil War arc is well known to readers. Handling the situation in Charleston Harbor during the secession crisis as well as anyone could have expected under the circumstances, Anderson's conduct during the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter transformed the relatively obscure U.S. Army major into the Union's first war hero. He was rewarded with a major command in the western heartland, which poor health forced him to relinquish after only a short period in charge. He returned to Charleston in 1865 in an emotional flag raising ceremony at Fort Sumter, his Civil War career ending at the very place it began. Now readers will get the full story of Anderson's life and military service in Wesley Moody's Hero of Fort Sumter: The Extraordinary Life of Robert Anderson.

From the description: Moody "charts Robert Anderson’s path from an upbringing on the Kentucky frontier to a West Point education and a military career that saw him fighting in nearly every American conflict from the Black Hawk War to the Civil War—catching malaria fighting the Seminoles, taking several bullets while serving in Mexico, writing the textbook for field artillery used by both Union and Confederate forces, mentoring William Tecumseh Sherman."

Anderson had family and personal connections to a number of figures central to American history. More: "(His) family, harking back to the nation’s founding, included William Clark (of Lewis and Clark fame) and Chief Justice John Marshall. His father crossed the Delaware with George Washington. And among his acquaintances were presidents ranging from the aged John Adams to seven-year-old Theodore Roosevelt."

As fully expected, the centerpiece of Moody's biography is its coverage of the leadership Anderson displayed in Charleston Harbor between South Carolina's secession and the surrender of Fort Sumter. More from the description: "Central to Anderson’s story was his deft and decisive handling of the Fort Sumter crisis. Had Major Anderson been the aggressor, as many of his command urged, President Abraham Lincoln would have been unable to rally the Northern states to war. Had Anderson handed his command over to the Confederate troops, a demoralized North would have offered little resistance to secession." I don't know about that last point, but in upholding national honor Anderson surely did have to walk a fine line between provocation and showing strength.

If you are wondering about how much of the study addresses the remaining balance of Anderson's Civil War experience, around fifteen pages are devoted to his return to duty, promotion to brigadier general, his brief departmental command in 1861, and triumphal 1865 return to Fort Sumter. It will be interesting to get Moody's take on which factor, deteriorating personal health or lost favor with the Lincoln administration, was the principal driving force behind Anderson's replacement by William T. Sherman as Department of Kentucky commander. A handful of pages cover the final years of Anderson's life, from the end of the war to his death in 1871.