Anderson’s Division was transferred to Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill’s newly created Third Corps. At the Battle of Gettysburg,  however, Anderson suffered a costly repulse when he failed to exert close control of his brigades as they attacked Cemetery Ridge late on July 2. That setback did not change Lee’s opinion that Anderson would be a good corps commander, affirmed by his decision to choose the South Carolinian to lead the First Corps when Longstreet was wounded at the Wilderness.

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Anderson started out well. On May 7, he rapidly marched the corps from the Wilderness to Spotsylvania Court House, arriving just in the nick of time to repulse “the enemy with heavy slaughter,” and prevent Federal forces from turning Lee’s right flank.

Anderson ably led Longstreet’s Corps for the remainder of the Overland Campaign, which was characterized by some of the most fearsome fighting of the entire war. Fighting Dick, one of Longstreet’s staffers wrote, “fell easily into position as a corps commander.”

On June 4 Lee promoted Anderson to lieutenant general, and the South Carolinian led the First Corps in the fighting around Richmond and Petersburg for the next two months. In August Anderson guided a task force supporting Lt. Gen. Jubal Early in the Shenandoah Valley. When that mission ended in mid-September, Anderson returned to Petersburg. One month later he relinquished his command when Longstreet resumed duty, but Lee promptly placed Anderson in command of a new corps and instructed him to establish his headquarters “in the vicinity of Petersburg.”

On paper, Anderson’s new command comprised the infantry divisions of Maj. Gens. Bushrod Johnson and Robert Hoke, formally under the command of General P.G.T. Beauregard in the Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia, then headquartered in Petersburg. Beauregard had left for Charleston, S.C., in September 1864 and had been given command of the Military Division of the West on October 17—the same day Lee assigned Anderson to Beauregard’s old command.

Actually, Anderson’s Corps was composed of Bushrod Johnson’s Division and several small reserve units—a total of about 6,000 muskets defending a thick belt of earthworks east of Petersburg. Commanding Johnson’s four brigades were Brig. Gens. Henry A. Wise, Wil­liam H. Wallace, Matthew W. Ransom and Archibald Gracie Jr. Providing the corps’ heavy firepower were four artillery battalions commanded by Colonel Hilary Jones.

Although Hoke’s Division was supposed to be part of the corps, it remained north of the city, temporarily under Longstreet, before heading south to Wilmington, N.C., in December 1864. Hoke “never joined me,” Anderson would say later.

As the fourth winter of the war descended, the besieged Army of Northern Virginia occupied a muddy sluice of trenches stretching from Richmond to Petersburg. Anderson lamented their “want of fuel, clothing and provisions,” and the fact that “the scarcity of timber” prevented his men from building stronger earthworks.”

Relentless gunfire from nearby Union works also plagued the corps. “[D]aily casualties were seldom less than five,” Anderson wrote, “and frequently amounted to ten or fifteen.” Surpassing those losses were the numerous desertions that swept the army during the severe winter of 1864-1865. “This caused a daily drain on our strength,” Anderson wrote. “The depressed and destitute condition of the soldiers’ families was one of the prime causes…but the chief…reason was a conviction among them that our cause was hopeless and that further sacrifices were useless.” Anderson observed, however, that the majority of “troops generally preserved a spirit of great fortitude and cheerfulness.”

In early March 1865, Lee shifted the Fourth Corps—except for Jones’ artillery—to Burgess’ Mill, about 11 miles southwest of Petersburg. From the mill on Hatcher’s Run, Anderson’s entrenchments crossed Boydton Plank Road and followed White Oak Road to Claiborne Road, then angled northwest to anchor again on Hatcher’s Run. This key position guarded the South Side Railroad, and Lee’s extreme right flank.

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