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L. O. Branch

L. O. Branch

Confederate (CSA)

Brigadier General

Lawrence O'Bryan Branch

(1820 - 1862)

Home State: North Carolina

Education: Princeton, Class of 1838

Command Billet: Brigade Commander

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: Branch's Brigade

Before Sharpsburg

Pre-War he was an editor, lawyer, and US Congressman (resigned 1861). He had served in the US Army in the Seminole War. In 1861 he was appointed Quartermaster/Paymaster General of NC troops then Col. of the 33rd North Carolina Regiment. Promoted to Brigadier General in Nov 61, he led a brigade at Seven Days, Cedar Run, and Second Manassas.

On the Campaign

In command of Branch's Brigade of Hill's Light Division which arrived at Sharpsburg after an all day march from Harpers Ferry late on the afternoon of 17 September. He led part of the counterattack which drove the Federal Left Wing back from Sharpsburg at the end of the battle, where he was killed by a sharpshooter while consulting with General Hill and his other Brigade commanders.

He was one of the 6 General Officers killed or mortally wounded at Sharpsburg, and was honored about 1897 by a mortuary cannon on the battlefield.

References & notes

His picture from a CDV in the Alabama Archives.1 His gravesite is on Findagrave.

Birth

11/28/1820; Enfield, NC

Death

09/17/1862; Sharpsburg, MD; burial in Old City Cemetery, Raleigh - Durham, NC

Notes

1   State of Alabama, Dept. of Archives & History, Confederate Officers Photograph Album, Published 2013, first accessed 13 July 2019, <https://archives.alabama.gov/conoffalb/>, Source page: /conoffalb/photo154.html  [AotW citation 21219]