Samuel Read Anderson (February 17, 1804 – January 2, 1883) was an American businessman and military officer in two wars. He was the Postmaster of Nashville, Tennessee, from 1853 until 1861 and then was a Confederate Brigadier General during the American Civil War. He commanded a mixed brigade of infantry and cavalry in the Eastern Theater in Virginia until the spring of 1862 when he was forced to resign because of ill health.