The Lost Gettysburg Address Read Free Page A

promotion, this time to
lieutenant colonel of Virginia’s Third Regiment. 4
    As the focus of the war shifted to Virginia, Richard Anderson’s
knowledge of the countryside became highly valued. Washington appointed
him aide-de-camp to General Lafayette. The French marquis
was under pressure fromCornwallis, so he abandoned Richmond in
order to protect his stores of supplies at Albemarle Court House. With
more than seven thousand British troops pressing him,Lafayette called
onGeneral Anthony Wayne for assistance. “The boy cannot escape
me,” crowed Cornwallis. When Wayne was delayed, Lafayette sent
Anderson to urge him to move faster. Three days passed with no
movement, so the marquis ordered Wayne to move by forced march and
instructed Anderson to send him hourly reports of troop movements. 5
    Anderson entered Wayne’s tent and immediately requested a pen,
ink, and paper. He told Wayne that he had been asked to repeat
the order to advance and asked what the contents of his first hourly
report should contain. Wayne was taken aback. “Do you mean to
insult me?” he asked Anderson. The aide replied that he was only
carrying out the orders of a superior officer. “Superior!” Wayne
fumed. “Superior! Do you dare call any damned foreigner, and a
boy, too, my superior?” A torrent of obscenities followed, in which
Wayne impugned Anderson for associating himself with a “fortune-seeking
Frenchman.” The general eventually lost all control, pacing
up and down in a ferocious rage. Little wonder his nickname was
“Mad Anthony.” After four such tirades had concluded, Anderson
suggested that the only hope for success in their cause was for every
officer to obey the orders of a superior. Wayne seemed about to
explode. Suddenly his expression changed from anger to excitement. He
responded to Anderson’s request by shouting, “I’ll jine him! Tell him
I’ll jine him! By God! Tell him I’ll jine him tomorrow!”
    Wayne and eight hundred muskets arrived at Lafayette’s headquarters
and the Marquis took the offensive. He forced Cornwallis to retreat
to Yorktown as part of Clinton’s ill-advised attempt to hold both
New York and Virginia. Lafayette wrote to Washington: “It is the
most beautiful sight which I may ever behold.” Anderson had grown
close to Lafayette during six months of service. When Washington
ordered the aide to help Governor Thomas Nelson Jr. organize the
state militia, Anderson and Lafayette said their reluctant goodbyes.
Cornwallis surrendered and the war ended, but Lieutenant Colonel
Anderson stayed with the army until it disbanded in 1783. 6
    Richard Anderson had served with great honor and bravery for
seven and a half years. He had witnessed many of the most important
events of the young nation’s fight for independence and was on
intimate terms with many of its most important military leaders. As
significant as his individual contributions to the Revolution were,
Anderson’s greatest legacy was the direction he gave to his children.
He had suffered many hardships to help win freedom for his fellow
Americans. His sons and daughters were expected to honor him by
making their own sacrifices in the service of their country.

CHAPTER TWO

Bear Grass Lessons
     
    R ICHARD CLOUGH ANDERSON returned home to Virginia a
changed man. His adventures on the high seas and on
countless battlefields were over. Only thirty-three years old, he
could not see himself leading a quiet life in the Virginia countryside.
His fellow founding members of the Society of the Cincinnati decided
that Anderson was the logical choice to take charge of land grants
due Virginia’s Revolutionary War veterans. In December of 1783,
Anderson signed a contract to becomesurveyor-general of two tracts
of land in the west. The first was in Kentucky, between the Green and
Cumberland Rivers. The other tract lay between the Little Miami
and Scioto Rivers in Ohio’s Northwest Territory. When spring came,
Anderson loaded his belongings on