Brigadier General George T. Anderson is a native of Georgia and before the war was a man of considerable property. He did not have the advantage of a military training at West Point, but did acquire practical knowledge of warlike affairs during the conflict with Mexico, where he served as a captain. When the Eleventh Georgia regiment was organized in 1861, he was elected its colonel and went with his regiment to Virginia. During the Seven Days' battles around Richmond, he led a brigade consisting of his own regiment, the First regulars, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Georgia, and was engaged in all the operations of Magruder's command during those eventful days. Speaking of the battle of Malvern Hill, Gen. D. H. Hill says: "I never saw anything more grandly heroic than the advance after sunset of the nine brigades under Magruder's orders."

Still holding the rank of colonel, he led this brigade through the fiery ordeals of Second Manassas and Sharpsburg, conducting himself with such gallantry and showing such skill in the handling of his troops that on the 1st of November, 1862, he received the commission of brigadier-general, the duties of which position he had performed so faithfully throughout the year. The next battle in which he was engaged was at Fredericksburg. At the time of the battle of Chancellorsville, he was with Longstreet in south-east Virginia. [At this time, the 59th Georgia Volunteer Infantry had replaced the First Georgia Regulars in Anderson's Brigade, which consisted of the 7th, 8th, 9th, 11th, and 59th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiments through the remainder of the War]. In the desperate struggle for the possession of Round Top on the afternoon of July 2, 1863, at Gettysburg, more than 2,000 officers and men of Hood's division were killed or wounded, and among the severely wounded were Generals Hood and G. T. Anderson.

In September following he had sufficiently recovered to go with Longstreet to the assistance of Bragg in north Georgia, and after the investment of Chattanooga he and his brigade marched under Longstreet into east Tennessee and took part in the siege of the city of Knoxville and the assault upon the Federal works. Here Anderson's Brigade was again called upon for desperate fighting. True to its record, it bravely seconded the efforts of the commanding general, adding to its already brilliant reputation. In the second day of the battle of the Wilderness, Anderson's was one of the four brigades under Mahone which attacked the Federal left wing in flank and rear, and rolled it up in confusion toward the Plank Road and then back upon the Brock Road. At Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor and throughout the protracted struggle around Richmond, Anderson and his brigade continued their faithful and heroic work. He was in Field's division of Longstreet's corps in the final scene at Appomattox Court House.

After the return of peace, General Anderson returned to Georgia and served in several important official stations. For awhile he was local freight agent of the Georgia Railroad at Atlanta. He became chief of police of that city and brought the force to a high state of efficiency. He afterward moved to Anniston, Ala., where he resided in 1898.

[From "Confederate Military History," vol. 6, ed. by Clement A. Evans, c. 1899.]

Official Records (O.R.) Reports: July 8, 1862 and July 14, 1862