Robert Anderson

Robert Anderson was a United States Army officer who commanded the federal garrison at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. His refusal to evacuate the fort led Confederate batteries to open fire in April 1861, beginning the American Civil War.

After surrendering, Anderson became a symbol of Union loyalty and later raised the national flag again over Fort Sumter in 1865. Ill health limited his active service during most of the war.

In Erik Larson’s The Demon of Unrest, in Charleston Harbor, Major Robert Anderson transfers his command to Fort Sumter and waits for supplies as South Carolina and other slave states leave the Union.