Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-05-31

he was particularly ready, and
subjects or problems that ordinary minds
agonized over for hours, he comprehended
and mastered with n single reading. But
he was too fond of reading and genial COM
panions to confine himself to the dry stud
les of the Academy and hence 1t was that
he graduated only ninth in his class,-a
high standing, of itself, but nothing to
whatlie might have accomplished, as was
evidenced by the fact that, at the first ex-
animation, in January, after his admission
he stood second. The library was his IA
vorite resort, and, among the haunts Of
history, philosophy, and general literature
he strolled and culled their choicest fruits
In 1850, the strife in Congress between
the North and the South, growing out of
the Compromise agitation of that period,
invaded the precincts Of the Academy, and
controversy was as excited and blood as
hot there as in the National Legislature
While young Anderson was earnest and de-
cided III the vindication Of the inperiled
rights of his section, and devoted, with all
the enthusiasm Of his generous nature, to
the sunny land of his nativity, his discus
sions were always marked by courtesy. In
one of these discussions, as described by
General Stanly, it was remarked by u par
ticipant ; "Well, if war n1uSi follow, [ hope
that day may have passed. that / may not
live to see it" No." said Anderson,
''deeply rs [ too deploro it, if it must
come, would feel it wrong thatI should put
off, for Il succeeding generation, misery
that am more entitled to bear" Those
who we're most intimately acquainted with
George Is. Anderson huOtC that if there was
any one trait next to his sCrupulous con-
scientiousness and exalted sense of person
al honor that distinguished him and made
him the natures nobleman he was, it was
his utter abncgation of self. And what
superb illustration Of it was here !
In 1882 the class graduated, and Ander
SON standing emitting him to the choice
of the arm of service he should enter, he
selected that Of the Dragons. After spend
jug six months at the Cavalry School, at
Carlisle, he was detailed by the Hon. JET
ferson Davis, then Secretary Of War, as
an assistant to Lieut. Parke, Of the En9in-
GERS, ordered to make a survey for a prac-
tical railroad route in California. In this
scientific duty, he spent most of the sum-
mer, fall and winter Of 1888. We next
find Lieut.. Anderson joining his regiment,
the "a Dragons at Fort Chadburne, Tex
as. Among the officers more or less con-
nected with this extreme and desolate from
tier post, during the year of his stay, may
be mentioned w. J. Hardee, r. II. Ander-
son, Albert Sidney Johnson, Geo. H. Stu
art and FL. II. Sib,ey, afterwards Confeder
ate Generals, and Pleasanton and Stanly,
subsequently general officers in the Federal
marched across the plains from Texas to
Fort Riley, Kansas, when Anderson, then
LIST. Lieutenant, commanded his company
in the absence of Capt. Patrick Calhoun,
then in his last illness. The winter of
1886 was spent at Fort Riley, and in
the spring of the latter year, the Kansas
troubles commenced. From that time IN
til the middle of the summer of 1857, the
troops in the country were necessarily en-
gagged either in the arrest of predato-
ry parties headed by such marauders as
Jim Lane and Ossawatamie Brown, OF in
interposing to prevent the destruction Of
some exposed village by Missouri mob
Here Lieut.. Anderson had for command
er Gen. E. Y. Sumner, and served III the
command with the since illustrious Joseph
E. Johnston. In 1857, the Utah expedi-
ton was undertaken, the End Dragons
was one of the regiments detailed for the
duty, and Lieutenant Anderson was ap-
pointed its Adiutant. In the autumn of
| 1859, passing over intermediate events, he
| left Utah for Kentucky.
On the Sth of November Of that year he
was married to Miss Mildred Ewing, OF
! Louisville. The following Spring, lie re-
| ceived the recruiting detail and was station
ed at Louisville until April 1861, when he
resigned his commission in the United
States Army and fastened to North Carroll
Ia to link his fortunes with those of his
State. lie ocoS the first o1iceT Qf lie old an
1ny, then IN service, ach0 Py'VfeTed lis SacOTn
and his life to No,th Caroli1a. True to the
patriotic and flial instincts Of his great
heart, he rushed to the defence of the dear
land of his nativity and his affections. In
that defence he died, -nobly died, in the
prime vigor Of manhood, in the full flush
Of promise, and in the possession Of all the
endearing heart-treasures that make life
lovely and attractive, gloriously died, fol
IL cause, in one sense, now lost but none
the less, right and holy, because so lost
and in the justice of which he believed as
fully as he did in the existence Of that
truth which he idolized.
Arriving in Raleigh, he was commission
ed, by Governor Ellis, as Colonel Of the
It'll Regiment, North Carolina State Troops
on the 18th day Of May. This regiment
being one of the earliest formed in the
State, was composed of the choicest mate
rial, and included in it's ranks some of the
best representatives of North Carolina
Jno. 4. Young, of Charlotte, we'll known
throughout the State as Il gentleman OF
high character, and as a leading public
man in his section, WAS Lieutenant Colo
nel and Bryan Grimes, Of Pitt, who sub
sequontly won a merited promotion to a
Major Generally, was its Major. Among
its line officers were men who had repre-
scented the people in many positions of
trust and prominence. Colonel Anderson
proceeded at once, with energy and en-
thusiasm, to reduce the raw and incongrll-
Gus clements of his command to system,
and although applying to it the rigid reg
linen of the regular army, he combined
with discipline and decision so much of af-
liability and kindness as to reconcile the
impatient mU!eriM to this rule, and TO win
the Aedrts of his regiment His men loved
him from the start, and their affection
grew almost to idolatry as they, in the
course of time, experienced bis tender re-
gard for their comfort, his just and impair
tial administration, and the Judgment, prrl-
dence and caution, which he united with
tue gallCntry of the Marshals of the En-
pire. And he, i'll turn, was proud of his
regiment; and well ne might have been,
for a Drawer band of heroes never faced q
foe OF marched ulder martial banners.
H., To-. f,,1