earlier sent there), and arrived just before Union soldiers did. Reaching and defending this spot denied the Federals a way around Lee's army towards Richmond, and Anderson held it during heavy fighting from May 8–12. Anderson then fought at the Battle of Cold Harbor in early June, and participated in the rest of the Army of Northern Virginia's operations to the south of Petersburg, Virginia, from mid-June until October. Anderson was promoted to temporary lieutenant general on May 31. 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. Because of several attacks by Federal cavalry nipping at his corps, Anderson was forced to slow and even stop from time to time and beat off the attacks. This caused the Confederates to become isolated from the rest of Lee's army moving west, and they were now the army's rear guard. 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?" As the corps' survivors reformed and rejoined the army, what was left of the Fourth Corps was merged with the Second Corps on April 8. This left Anderson without a command and he proceeded home to South Carolina. Anderson assumed command of M. H. Hannon's Cavalry Brigade after Hannon was wounded at Monroe's Crossroads. Anderson was pardoned on September 27, 1865, although there is no record of his parole. Postbellum career and death After the war Anderson was a planter in Stateburg from 1866 to 1868, attempting to grow cotton. Having no agricultural background this effort ended in bankruptcy. He then became a worker and later an agent of the South Carolina Railroad, working out of Camden from 1868 to 1878. However Anderson was fired from this position, and next served as a state phosphate inspector/agent of South Carolina in 1879. Anderson was married twice. 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. Five years later Anderson died at the age of 57 in Beaufort, South Carolina, and is buried there in the churchyard cemetery of St. Helena's Episcopal Church. See also List of American Civil War