Anderson, James Patton, 1822-1873

Born Franklin County, Tenn.; first territorial delegate to Congress from Washington; brigadier general, Confederate Army.

James Patton Anderson (1822-1873), native of Tennessee, was a politician in Mississippi and Florida, Mexican War officer, federal officer in the Washington Territory, and Confederate congressman and general.

James Patton Anderson was a 19th century American doctor and politician, most notable serving as a United States Delegate from the Washington Territory, a Mississippi state legislator and a delegate as the Florida State secession convention to withdraw from the United States. He was subsequently a major general in the Confederate States Army, at one point commanding the Army of Tennessee. James Patton Anderson was born in Franklin County, Tennessee on February 16, 1822. He was admitted to the Bar in 1843 and practiced law in DeSoto County, Mississippi. In 1847, he was asked by Gov. A.G. Brown to raise and command the 1st Battalion Mississppi Rifles in the Mexican War. During the Mexican War, he met Jefferson Davis, who became President Pierce's Secretary of War. President Pierce appointed Anderson Marshal for Washington Territory, from which he was elected to Congress. Anderson refused a second appointment to Washington State and moved to Florida in the late 1850's. He became a member of the Florida State secession convention. Anderson was appointed Colonel of the 1st Florida Regiment (Infantry). In the battle of Jonesboro in 1864 he was seriously wounded and forced home to Monticello, FL where he wrote the sketch of his lilfe. He died at his home in Memphis on September 20, 1872, due to his war wound and was buried there.

James Patton Anderson was born in Franklin County, Tennessee on February 16, 1822. He served in the Mexican War with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. After the war, he spent one term in the Mississippi legislature where he met Jefferson Davis.

Through Davis, he was appointed by President Pierce as Marshal for Washington Territory. Declining a second appointment he moved to Florida in the late 1850s where he served as a member of the state secession convention.

He joined the Confederate Army as a Colonel and was promoted to Brigadier General in 1862. At the battle of Jonesboro in 1864 he was seriously wounded. After the war he moved to Memphis where he died September 20, 1873.

James Patton Anderson was born in Franklin County, Tennessee on February 16, 1822. He served in the Mexican War with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. After the war, he spent one term in the Mississippi legislature where he met Jefferson Davis.

Through Davis, he was appointed by President Pierce as Marshal for Washington Territory. Declining a second appointment, he moved to Florida in the late 1850s where he served as a member of the state secession convention.

He joined the Confederate Army as a Colonel and was promoted to Brigadier General in 1862. At the battle of Jonesboro in 1864 he was seriously wounded. After the war he moved to Memphis where he died September 20, 1873.

Lawyer, U.S. Marshall, Confederate military officer, Businessman.

James Patton Anderson was born on February 16, 1822, in Winchester, Tennessee. He was educated at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, studied law at Montrose Law School in Kentucky, and, after being admitted to the Bar, practiced law in Hernando, Mississippi. In 1846, during the Mexican-American War.

he served as Lieutenant Colonel of the Second Battalion Mississippi Rifles. In 1853 he was appointed United States Marshall for the Territory of Washington, relocating to Olympia. From 1855 to 1857 he was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-fourth Congress, after which he declined an appointment from President Buchanan as.

Governor of the Territory of Washington. Instead, he moved to his plantation, Casa Bianca, near Monticello, Florida, where he served in the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States. With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, he entered the Confederate Army as colonel of the First Regiment Florida Infantry. He was appointed brigadier general in 1862, followed by major general in 1864, when he was given command of the district of Florida.

After the war, he settled in Memphis, Tennessee, where he produced an agriculture paper and was a tax collector for Shelby County, Tennessee. Anderson died on September 20, 1872.

James Patton Anderson was born on February 16, 1822, in Winchester, Tennessee, one of seven children of Colonel William Preston Anderson, a veteran of the War of 1812, and Margaret L. Adair, also from a prominent military family. Anderson, who was always known within the family as Patton, spent his early years on the family farm. After his father died in 1831, he moved with his mother to his grandfather's home in Kentucky. Five years later, his stepfather, Dr. Joseph Bybee, sent him to Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. His education was interrupted by financial difficulties and by his stepfather's decision to relocate the family to DeSoto County, Mississippi; however, Anderson eventually resumed his schooling and graduated from Jefferson College in 1840. He read for law at Montrose Law School and passed the Mississippi bar. In 1847, he raised a company of volunteers for the Mexican War, served as a captain, and eventually achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel in command of the 1st Battalion, Mississippi Rifles. Following this service, he served one term in the Mississippi legislature, then accepted an appointment as United States Marshall to the Territory of Washington in 1853. This was also the year of his marriage to Henrietta (Etta) Buford Adair, his eighteen-year-old cousin. The couple departed for the Northwest and settled in Olympia.

Anderson's political career continued and he served as a Democrat in the Thirty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1855-March 3, 1857) after which he was offered but declined an appointment as governor of Washington Territory. Instead, in 1857, he and Etta moved to Florida, where they agreed to take over the management of Casa Bianca plantation near Monticello. This plantation was the property of Etta's aunt, Ellen Adair White Beatty, well known in Florida as the widow of Florida's congressional delegate Joseph M. White. In a complicated legal agreement, Anderson bought Casa Bianca plantation but also agreed to pay a yearly stipend to "Aunt Ellen" as part of the purchase price. This placed him under a heavy financial obligation, one that proved hard to meet over the years.

With the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, Anderson joined ardent secessionists and gave his full support to the Confederacy. He entered the Confederate Army as colonel of the 1st Regiment Florida (Infantry), received promotion to brigadier general February 10, 1862 and to major general February 17, 1864. His war-time command started out in Pensacola, took him through all the major campaigns of Tennessee and Georgia, and placed him for awhile in charge of the home front in Florida. He was wounded at the Battle of Jonesboro, Ga., in August 1864 and retired from the field to recuperate. Even after the restoration of the Union, Anderson remained unreconciled to the new order in the South, refusing to countersign his presidential amnesty. His finances were ruined and he took his family to Memphis, Tenn., where he earned his living by editing a publication on agriculture, working in insurance, and serving as a collector of delinquent taxes for Shelby County. He died of complications from war-time wounds on September 20, 1872, and was interred in Elmwood Cemetery, Memphis. Anderson was survived by his widow, Etta, and their children William Preston (b. 1856), Theophilus Beatty (b. 1858), James Patton, Jr. (1860), Elizabeth Cromwell (1863), and Margaret Bybee (1866). The Anderson family returned to Florida in 1883 and settled in Palatka, where Etta became the president of the local J. Patton Anderson Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. She died in 1917. Margaret (Maggie) Anderson, the last of the Anderson children, served as the family historian and keeper of the family papers until she passed away on May 7, 1965, at the age of 99.

Source: Biographical Directory of Congress 1774-Present . Also: Larry Rayburn, "'Wherever the Fight is Thickest': General James Patton Anderson of Florida," Florida Historical Quarterly 60(3) (Jan. 1982): 313-336; James W. Raab, J. Patton Anderson, Confederate General, A Biography, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Company, 2004. Margaret Anderson Uhler, The Floridians, Lincoln: Writers Club Press, 2003.