Charles de Witt Anderson - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Charles DeWitt Anderson was born in July of either 1827 or 1829 in South Carolina. In 1839 his family immigrated by sea to Texas, at the time an independent nation and not a U.S. state until 1845. During the voyage both of his parents died, and after arriving at the port of Galveston Anderson and his brother were adopted by an Episcopal minister, who raised them both.

In 1846 Anderson became the first Texan appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point. He had been recommended by Texas' founder, Sam Houston, and he began attending on September 1. Anderson struggled academically at West Point; during his sophomore year he was found "deficient" in both French and mathematics, and resigned from the academy on November 13, 1848. Despite this, in 1856 Anderson was directly commissioned into the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant on June 27. He was assigned to the 4th U.S. Artillery and was promoted to first lieutenant on July 6, 1859. Anderson served with the 4th in Florida and then in the Utah Territory, and he was there when the Civil War began in 1861. Acquiring a leave of absence he headed home, and (after covering about 100 miles of wintry terrain) Anderson then decided to resign from the U.S. Army, which was accepted effective on April 1, 1861.