Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/396

 390 Southe7'n Historical Society Paper's.

a liberal share of ii to pleasant society, his number, when he gradu- ated in 1852, was nine ; but this was in a class of forty-one graduates, and was therefore a high standing, and entitled him to select the arm of the service which he preferred. He selected the Dragoons, and ren- dered his first service at the cavalry school at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he remained for six months, at the expiration of which time he was detailed to assist Lieutenant Parke, of the engineers, in surveying a route for a railroad in California. When this duty was completed, he was ordered to his regiment, the Second Dragoons, then stationed at Fort Chadbourne, Texas, and there was associated with a group of offi- cers who afterwards became distinguished generals on both sides in the war between the States. Having been promoted to a first lieuten- ancy, and the regiment having been ordered, in the fall of 1855, to Fort Riley, Kansas, he commanded his company in the march across the plains to the latter fort from Fort Chadbourne. While stationed at Fort Riley, in the spring of 1856, the Kansas prelude to the great tragedy, in which he was destined to lose his life, began to stir the passions of the people of both sections of the country, and he had an opportunity of seeing and reflecting upon the inevitable tendency of events, as illustrated by the career of a notorious horse-thief and murderer, who'was alterwards canonized as a sainted hero and mar- tyr. It is natural to suppose that the experience thus acquired was not without its effect upon one who was of an ardent temperament, anxiously observant of the drift of public affairs, and intensely South- ern in his feehngs.

About this time another saint in Utah was also engaged in defying the laws (as his successors still are), and an expedition under the command of Albert Sidney Johnston was sent to that Territory to vindicate the supremacy of the Federal authority and the rights of civilization and decency. The Second Dragoons was a part of the force detailed for this service, and Lieutenant Anderson served on the expedition as adjutant of the regiment. Remaining there until the fall of 1859, he was detached and sent to Kentucky, where, on the 8ih of November of that year, he was united in marriage to Miss Mildred Ewing, of Louisville, and was soon thereafter stationed in that city as a recruiting officer. There he remained — in the enjoy- ment of what were, doubtless, the happiest days of his life — until the demon of civil war stamped his foot for the first time in our land in Af>ril, 1861, when, knowing full well what that meant and how dire would be the need of North Carolina lor all her true sons, and espe- cially those with military knowledge and experience, he immediately