The Anderson House
Once described by a local newspaper as "...the largest and best arranged dwelling house west of St. Louis," the Anderson House was a three-story, Greek-Revival style house constructed by Oliver Anderson, a prominent Lexington manufacturer. Sometime around July 1861, the Anderson family was evicted from their home, which lay adjacent to Col. Mulligan's fortifications, and the Union garrison established a hospital there.
At the start of the Battle of Lexington, over a hundred sick or wounded Union soldiers occupied the Anderson House hospital. Medical care was entrusted to a surgeon named Dr. Cooley, while Father Butler, Chaplain of the 23rd Illinois, provided for the spiritual needs of the soldiers.
Because of its strategic significance, General Thomas Harris of Price's command ordered soldiers from his 2nd Division (MSG) to capture the house on September 18. Shocked at what he considered a violation of the Laws of War, Col. Mulligan ordered the structure to be retaken. Company B, 23rd Illinois, Company B, 13th Missouri, and volunteers from the 1st Illinois Cavalry charged from the Union lines and recaptured the house, suffering heavy casualties in the process. Harris’s troops recaptured the hospital later that day, and it remained in State Guard hands thereafter.
The most controversial incident of the battle would occur during the Federal assault on the Anderson house, when Union troops summarily executed three State Guard soldiers at the base of the grand staircase in the main hall. The Southerners claimed the men had already surrendered, and should have been treated as prisoners of war. The Federal troops, who had sustained numerous casualties in retaking the residence, considered the prisoners to have been in violation of the Laws of War for having attacked a hospital in the first place.
The Anderson home was heavily damaged by cannon and rifle projectiles, with many of the holes still visible both inside and outside the house (which is now a museum) today.
Read more about this topic: First Battle Of Lexington
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