His grandfather, Captain George Anderson served in the American Revolutionary War and died aboard his ship, Georgia Paquet on a trip to Great Britain in 1775.

Fulfilling his dream, he was appointed acting midshipman by Secretary of the Navy Levi Woodbury on October 20, 1833, he served on USS St. Louis for a year.

During the Mexican–American War, he took part in expeditions against Alvarado, Tampico, Pánuco, and Laguna de Términos, all successful in tightening American control of the Mexican coastline and interrupting coastwise commerce and military supply operations.

At once she and her men plunged into amphibious operations against Veracruz, supplying guns and their crews to be taken ashore for the battery which fought the city to surrender in four days.

Through the remainder of the war, Mississippi contributed guns, men, and boats to a series of coastal raids on Mexico's east coast, taking part in the capture of Tabasco in June 1847.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Anderson was sent to Richmond by Governor Joseph E. Brown, to purchase ordinance from the Tredegar Iron Works for the State of Georgia.

Upon learning of the Southern victory at the First Battle of Bull Run, Anderson raised a Confederate Flag upon the rooftop of a friend's house in Liverpool.

[6] Returning home in November 1861, aboard the newly purchased Merchant Steamship Fingal with Bulloch, they delivered much needed arms and ammunition.

The loss of Fort McAllister opened the way to the sea for General Sherman, allowing him to link up with the Union Navy, resupply his forces, and bring the City of Savannah to its knees.

Edward Clifford Anderson was one of the Chatham County representatives at the convention, where a unique resolution was passed calling for a special election for a mayor and a board of aldermen for the City of Savannah.

Business and commerce were among the top priorities for the new mayor, along with removing obstructions from the river, expanding the docks, and finishing the Georgia Central Railroad.

To improve the lives of ordinary citizens, Anderson held a "Mayor's Court" each day, to hear and decide cases related to drunkenness, theft, wife-beating, murder, rioting and other public disturbances.

The Savannah City Council sent Anderson in secret to Washington, D.C., to protest Governor Rufus Bullock and his efforts to have Georgia remanded back to military control.

During this term in office, he succeeded in passing bonds to cover the city's debt, and working with the United States Government to dredge the Savannah River channel, and expanded telegraph lines to locations like Tybee Island.

In 1881 his nomination was recommended to President Garfield by the commanding general of the U.S. Army, William Tecumseh Sherman, and several Admirals[9] suggesting the high esteem in which Anderson was held, even by former enemies.

A week later, the Savannah Board of Education published a separate eulogy to his memory, extolling their former president's unselfish devotion to the encouragement of learning.