Robert Anderson (Civil War) - Later Life

Later Life

Days after Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox and the effective conclusion of the war, Anderson returned to Charleston in the uniform of a brevet major general (ranking as of February 3, 1865) and, four years after lowering the 33-star flag in surrender, raised it in triumph over the recaptured but badly battered Fort Sumter during ceremonies there. The same evening, April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, and Anderson's return to Sumter was overshadowed by the tragic events in Washington, D.C..

A notable post-war achievement of Anderson's took place in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1869, when he discussed the future of the U.S. Army with the "father of the United States Military Academy," Major General Sylvanus Thayer. An outcome of that visit was establishment of the Military Academy's Association of Graduates (AoG).

Anderson died in Nice, France, and is interred at West Point Cemetery.

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