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L.O'B. Branch
(1820 - 1862)
Home State: North Carolina
Education: Princeton College, 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.
Birth
11/28/1820; Enfield, NC
Death
09/17/1862; Sharpsburg, MD; burial in Old City Cemetery, Raleigh - Durham, NC
1 As per the Archive: No wartime photograph exists; [pre-war] photograph has been retouched to show him as a brigadier general.
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]