Character Interview: Susan Anderson

(While doing this interview, I was unprepared for the information volunteered by Mrs. Anderson. The military interviews have been pretty sparse with volunteered information. Because of that, I have decided to split this interview into two. We will start with the Army Wife side and her family history, and we shall continue in the next post with her children.)

I've finally tracked down a civilian to interview. With a major Sort of. I guess an army wife still qualifies as a civilian. The Civilian in question is Susan Anderson, wife of General John Lee Anderson. She looks to be about 50, originally a brunette, but now mostly gray.

CG: Tell us about your life before you became an Army Wife.

SA: Army wife, it makes it sound so official. I like it. I was born in the deep south. Mobile, Alabama to be precise. I was born Susan Ruth Davis at Sauf Asir, the Davis family plantation.

CG: All you left out is your age.

SA: It's impolite to ask a lady about her age. I will say that I am four years younger than my brother James and ten years younger than my husband.

CG: From what you've told me already I can infer that you are old enough to have been raised among slaves.

SA: Both my husband and I are from slave owning families. I'm the youngest of four siblings and the only girl. At our families greatest we had six slaves. By the time I married John when I was eighteen there was only Uncle Ezra. John was fresh out of the Mexican War, a Major, and stationed at Fort Morgan at the time. Soon after our wedding he resigned from the army and we moved to Trenton, New Jersey. I was a young mother of two boys when my cousin Jefferson, who was Secretary of War, informed my husband that he was being sent to the northern parts of the Nebraska Territory. He was re-commissioned into the army with a rank of Brigadier-General.

CG: At least the bump in pay was appreciated.

SA: Not that I could appreciate it. Fort Pierre, which the army renamed Fort Bennett, but which we settlers still called Fort Pierre, was sold by John Jacob Astor of the American Fur Company. If A trading post couldn't survive, money was useless. I probably shouldn't say this, but I think I know how Astor made his money. By selling useless forts to the Army. It was a wreck from the day we moved in until we burned it to the ground and moved into Fort Ansdale. I thought we had arrived in Hades itself when we arrived. And then we met the savages.

CG: The Ansdales?

SA: Yes

CG: I take it from your answers that you are a Democrat?

SA: Women can't vote in the United States, but yes, my family was Democrat. It is the natural home of the slave owner. And yes, I know we can vote in the Republic, but I haven't so far. My husband is a founder of the New Republic Party, so I guess I am too if I chose to vote.

CG: Back to the Ansdales.

SA: I did see them as savages when I met them. Savages that lived in houses, but still savages. Now Red Thunder and his tribe are our closest allies. Red Thunder is also godfather to the twins J.D. and Katherine.

CG: J.D., that's....

SA: Jefferson Davis Anderson. One of his brothers is Robert Lee Anderson, affectionately called Bobby Lee. I guess I'm the rebel, even though they call John one.

CG: That's four children, and all of them are in the military.

SA: Along with her age, never ask a lady about her failures.

CG:  You didn't want your children to be soldiers?

SA: I had no objection to my sons joining the military. I did insist on them being officers. You have no idea how difficult it can be for someone from the territories to get into west point. Thomas and Robert both graduated from there, but J.D. resigned a year before he would have graduated because war broke out. I have managed to keep my boys out of harms way, however. J.D. is finishing an assignment as Warden of Fort Baranov Military Prison in Southwest Alaska and is about to begin an assignment as Commander of Fort Bannock, because Colonel Renault wants to have a field command before the war ends. Thomas has been at Fort Sitka from before the war, and Robert has been at Fort Bannock as a Ranger. War is a mans job. John is a warrior, it is only natural that our sons should be.
CG: As a Southerner by birth, did you influence your husbands decision to Keep Fort Ansdale out of the previous war?

SA: Not at all. John felt, as did I, that the war was unnecessary, and that he owed it to the people of the territories to maintain an army presence. Washington was busy emptying western garrisons of their troops to send them South. While the orders to do so never reached Fort Ansdale, I think they would have been the only orders my husband ever would have disobeyed.

CG: So then your sympathies were with the South.

SA: No, though we have tapped former Confederates and their families for service in the Republic. Sauf Asir also served as a waystation for escaped Union Prisoners, as well as Confederates wishing to escape capture. We played both sides.

CG: You say you have Confederates in your army.

SA: The best known is Lieutenant Commander Hunter, commanding officer at Fort Bering Naval Yard. He was a blockade runner, escaped prisoner of war, and passed into the territories through Sauf Asir. And then there is Rachel Semmes, niece of Raphael Semmes of the CSS Alabama. She commanded one of our first Naval Vessels in the war and is currently Minister of the Navy, commanding From Hawaii. She is also creator of the Pacific Alliance and temporary ambassador to the court of King Kalakaua.

I think this is as good a place to end it, and I think it gives me a jumping off place to discuss the concept of Women in the Military. Should be fun.