It has been very difficult to find any reference to exactly caused Major later General Anderson to resign from the Army so early in the war. It was always stated it was because of his health but not exactly what. I have always suspected it was a mental break down due to the weight of knowing his actions caused so much loss of life, and as the war progressed his condition only got worse. Here is some proof in that theory...

"American and Commercial Advertiser August 14, 1861.

Colonel Anderson

Colonel Anderson, United States Army, of Fort Sumter fame, reached Washington from Cresson, Pennsylvania, yesterday. His health, we regret to have to say, is not yet sufficiently restored to permit him to take the field. His affliction is in the head, and results from the state of bodily and mental excitement incident to his late position in Charleston Harbor."

I have found no other reference to his state of mind; any reference to his exact "condition" was kept from most print.

How sad it is that the Lincoln Administration would drag a mentally sick man to the place where his pain all started to raise the original flag above the battered Fort Sumter after it was retaken in 1865, for basically a political media event. He eventually left the United States to live in the South of France trying to improve his health, but he died there an invalid in 1871.