Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/808

582 rival of our troops at Skagway, a Canadian official, known as the commissioner of the Yukon, had opened an office, raised the British flag and claimed the entire country as far as the coast, as British territory. But the timely arrival of five companies of regular troops enabled Colonel Anderson, as commandant of the district of the Lynn canal, to take forcible possession for the United States. But for this, our British cousins would have had the occupancy which is conceded to be nine points in the law.

On the outbreak of the Spanish American war. General Anderson as a brigadier general of volunteers, was given the command of the first military land forces sent from this county to the Philippines. This expedition which was made up of the Fourteenth Infantry, the Second Oregon Infantry, the First California Infantry and a company of California Heavy Artillery, left San Francisco on three transports on May 23, 1898, and reached Cavite on the 30th of June, two months after Dewey's great victory on the 1st of May. This command of General Anderson's was the first army of American soldiers that ever crossed an ocean. It raised the first American flag at Cavite on the 1st of July, 1898.

General Anderson commanded the land forces which carried Manila by assault on August 13. It has been claimed by some that Manila was surrendered by agreement but as we lost men, killed and wounded in taking Manila, including preceding actions, this assertion cannot be accepted as true, unless some one in high authority was responsible for a needless sacrifice of American soldiers.

In the Filipino insurrection, as the major general in command of the Eighth Army Corps and of the Cavite province south of the Pasig river; was in command in the battles of Santa Anna, Passag, Guadalupe, San Pedro Macate, Pasig and Pateros. In these engagements the insurgents suffered a loss of three thousand men and all of their artillery.

On March 17, 1899, General Anderson was transferred to the command of the department of the lakes in this country and retired from active service in 1900. For several years past he has been a citizen of Portland.

General Robert Anderson represents one of the most distinguished families in the history of the United States. Related to George Rogers Clark and other distinguished Virginians, the family name is associated with the great events of war and statesmanship from the foundation of the nation down to the present. Colonel Robert Anderson, the gallant defender of Fort Sumter, who stood by his guns until the last pound of powder was burned and the old fort turned into a seething furnace by the shells of the rebels before he would surrender on his own terms, was an uncle of Oregon's General Anderson; and who also rendered distinguished services in overthrowing the southern rebellion.