Character Interview: Susan Anderson, Part Two

Welcome Back to our interview with Susan Anderson, the matriarch of the Republic of Ansdale. If you missed part one, click on the link. When we left off our interview, Susan was beginning to tell about her daughter Katherine joining the war effort as a soldier.

CG: You bring up Lieutenant Commander Semmes. Can I infer that you think women should be warriors like your husband?

SA: Women don't belong in the Army. Or the Navy. I know John and James have decided to let women serve because we've got a bigger population deficit than the south did, but I still don't like it. Women should rule the home. That's why one of the first things I did after the last war was to send Katherine off to Mobile Bay School For Girls. To learn to be a lady.

CG: It didn't work?

SA: I should have known better. I did know. I knew it when she first picked up a pistol when she was five. She wanted to be just like her brothers, even though the blast knocked her down. She didn't cry. She wanted to try again, and again, until she mastered it. So while I was disappointed when she told my husband that she wanted to be a soldier, I wasn't surprised. John got her stationed to Fort Shoshone in Wyoming as part of the Territorial Police, which is sort of like a police officer. Then the war erupted and the Territorial Police became Cavalry and she also became a sniper. She was also one of the founding members of the Emerald Guard, which is also tasked with protecting our government officials, including Prime Minister Davis.
CG: Your brother.

SA: Yes. Katherine seems to seek out the most dangerous assignments. A mother wants to protect all her children, so I saw to it that she got her first command with the founding of Fort Republic in Southwest Alaska. One of the reasons J.D. is going to Fort Bannock is because "he doesn't want to be bossed around by his sister."

CG: But you did get half of what you wanted. She did recently get married.

SA: Yes, to Major Morgan of Fort Shoshone. So she is an army wife as well. Though the couple is hardly together. Major Morgan is soon to replace my husband at Reno as Minister of War. It was a grand wedding which would be the envy of every Southern Belle. The distance is not conducive to grandchildren. That may change. Katherine is asking to go back to the Emerald Guard. Perhaps I can get her assigned to Reno.
CG: A related question. What is the status of Sauf Asir?

SA: Sauf Asir is an active plantation. All workers are hired. At twice the freedman's bureau rate, I should add. I inherited the plantation. James wanted nothing to do with it. I think Katherine wants to inherit it from me. That gives me joy. Uncle Ezra manages the estate, and has defended it proudly against United States troops since war broke out. He actually almost shot Katherine during one of her missions east. Another reason I wish she wasn't a soldier. Perhaps Major Morgan will settle her down.

CG: Perhaps. I hear there may be another wedding in the Anderson family. I hear rumors that your son Robert and Captain Quantrill are courting.

SA: They are. Young lovers never realize how obvious their actions are to others. I want Robert to be happy, but he could have done much better.

CG: I take it you don't approve?

SA: Her father was a cold blooded murderer and her mother a saloon girl. They weren't even married at the time of her birth.

CG: There was nothing she could do about any of that

SA: She is a gambler, frequents saloons, and dresses like one of General Hooker's camp followers. Like most gamblers she is probably a cheat.

CG: I have interviewed Captain Quantrill previously. She appears to be a good Christian girl who reads the Bible every day.

SA: Even Satan masquerades as an angel of light. She taught Robert to play poker. Even if she is an honest girl, it is tradition that the bride's family pays for the wedding.

CG: And since Captain Quantrill is an orphan, there's no family.

SA: Captain Quantrill will gain much more from the marriage than Robert.

CG: Pardon me for saying this, Mrs. Anderson, but while your family may have been Southern Royalty, there doesn't seem to be any High Society here in the West.

SA: He could have done much better.

CG: Mrs. Anderson, thank you for this interview. I will not ask you another question, but I hope you will permit me a final comment. You have raised four children who have risen to the highest ranks of prominence in a new nation. That takes character. I believe despite surface appearances Captain Quantrill is a woman of excellent character because of the fact that Robert is in love with her. He learned to judge character from you.

And that concludes my interview with Susan Anderson. Not much left to cover here. Thank you, Mrs. Anderson, for being a talker. Not sure who will be next, but stay tuned.

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.