Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 4.djvu/311

 Brigadier-General George Burgwyn Anderson, the oldest son of William E. Anderson and his wife, Eliza Burgwyn, was born near Hillsboro, Orange county, N. C., April, 1831. At an early age he entered the State university at Chapel Hill, and on graduation divided first honors with three others of his class. He was appointed to the United States military academy when seventeen years old, and was graduated tenth in a class of forty-three in 1852, with a commission in the Second dragoons. After a few months at the cavalry school at Carlisle he was detailed to assist in the survey of a railroad route in California, after that duty rejoining his regiment at Fort Chadbourne, Tex. Having been promoted first lieutenant in 1855, he commanded his troop in the march from Texas across the plains to Fort Riley, Kan.; accompanied his regiment as adjutant in the Utah expedition of 1858, and remained in that territory until 1859, when he was ordered on recruiting service at Louisville, Ky. There he was married in November following to Mildred Ewing, of that city. When the crisis of 1861 arrived he promptly resigned, being, it is said, the first North Carolinian in the old army to take this step, and offered for the defense of his State the sword which he had worn with honor, and which descended to him from his uncle, Capt. John H. K. Burgwyn, U. S. A., who was killed at Puebla de Taos during the Mexican war. Anderson was at this time a magnificent specimen of manhood, full six feet, erect, broad-shouldered, round-limbed, with a deep, musical voice, and a smile wonderfully gentle and winning. Being commissioned colonel of the Fourth regi-