Military biography of Lt. Gen. Richard H. Anderson, whose career led him from West Point to Mexico, Charleston to Appomattox

Richard H. Anderson excelled as a soldier. Including his time at West Point, he was in uniform continuously from the age of sixteen. He knew little else but a life in the saddle. When the canons rang out over Charleston harbor, signaling the start of America's Civil War, Anderson resigned his US Army commission and joined his native South Carolina in rebellion against the United States.

Soldier of the South is the first comprehensive examination of Anderson's life, providing a view of an officer's experiences on the frontier, in Mexico, and during the American Civil War. Anderson led Confederate soldiers first in Florida, then from the Peninsula Campaign to Sailor's Creek, where his patchwork corps disintegrated. Edward J. Hagerty considers both the strategic details of Anderson's failures and successes on the battlefield and his personal struggles off it. One of Robert E. Lee's corps commanders, Anderson was the most senior ranking soldier from South Carolina, yet he fell into relative obscurity after the war. Hagerty examines the causes for Anderson's postwar decline and makes the case for his continued significance.

Edward J. Hagerty taught history at American Military University from 1994–2025. He teaches Leadership classes at the Air Force Global College. He is author of Collis' Zouaves: The 114th Pennsylvania Volunteers in the Civil War and The Air Force Office of Special Investigations, 1948-2000.

"Edward J. Hagerty's Soldier of the South is a grand and thoroughly written biography of Richard H. Anderson, an important senior commander under Robert E. Lee, whose life has evaded such scrutiny until now."—Gregory J.W. Urwin, Temple University, author of Custer Victorious

"Anyone interested in the antebellum US Army and the military campaigns of the Civil War's Eastern Theater and Reconstruction-era South Carolina should read this very thoughtful and deeply researched biography."—Keith S. Bohannon, University of West Georgia, Civil War Institute 2025 Summer Conference Faculty Member

"Edward J. Hagerty has written a first-rate biography of the most enigmatic lieutenant general in Lee's army, introducing us to a man we never knew."—Francis Augustín O'Reilly, historian, author of The Fredericksburg Campaign

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Soldier of the South

Lieutenant General Richard H. Anderson at War and Peace

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