Richard Heron Anderson (October 7, 1821 – June 26, 1879) was a career U.S. Army officer, fighting with distinction in the Mexican–American War.

He also served as a Confederate general during the American Civil War, fighting in the Eastern Theater of the conflict and most notably during the 1864 Battle of Spotsylvania Court House.

[4] In the Mexican–American War, Anderson took part in the Siege of Veracruz in March 1847 and then skirmished near La Hoya on June 9.

[5] He was promoted to brigadier general on July 19 and transferred to Pensacola, Florida, where he was wounded in the left elbow during the Battle of Santa Rosa Island on October 9.

His division engaged the final U.S. defensive line around Henry House Hill, but the sun started going down, and he did not press the attack.

At the Battle of Antietam in September 1862, he was in overall command at the sunken road, or "Bloody Lane", in the center of the Confederate defense.

After Anderson's departure, his division faltered and eventually succumbed to U.S. flank attacks that routed them from their position.

Anderson and Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaws left the main battle line on May 3 and struck east to check the advance of U.S. Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick's VI Corps that would have led into Gen. Robert E. Lee's rear.

[8] On July 3, Anderson's brigades participated in the waning minutes of Pickett's Charge, but both were driven back.

During the spring of 1864, at the Battle of the Wilderness, Longstreet was severely wounded, and Anderson took command of the First Corps, leading it throughout the Overland Campaign.

Anderson and his corps executed an all-night forced march on May 7 that secured that important position (reinforcing the Confederate cavalry earlier sent there) and arrived just before U.S. soldiers did.

Reaching and defending this spot denied the U.S. soldiers a way around Lee's army towards Richmond, and Anderson held it during heavy fighting from May 8–12.

[9] When Longstreet returned from his convalescence on October 19, 1864, Lee created the new Fourth Corps, which Anderson led through the Siege of Petersburg and the retreat towards Appomattox Court House in 1865.

The corps finally halted and fought at Sayler's Creek on April 6, which ended in a rout, and as Lee witnessed it, he exclaimed, "Has the army been dissolved?

In 1850 he wed Sarah Gibson, and the couple had two children together, a son and a daughter; after her death, he married Martha Mellette on December 24, 1874.

[13] Five years later, Anderson died at the age of 57 in Beaufort, South Carolina, and was buried there in the churchyard cemetery of Parish Church of St.