J.R. Branch

Confederate (CSA)

Captain

James Read Branch

(1828 - 1869)

Home State: Virginia

Education: Randolph-Macon, Class of 1847

Command Billet: Battery Commander

Branch of Service: Artillery

Unit: Branch's Petersburg (VA) Field Artillery

Before Sharpsburg

He headed Thomas Branch and Sons, a banking firm in Petersburg from 1853 to the War. He raised a company of troops at the start of the War, and in July 1861 they became Company K, 16th Virginia Infantry with Branch as Captain. He transferred with his company to be a battery of Virginia Light Artillery on 18 March 1862.

On the Campaign

He commanded his battery in action at Sharpsburg.

The rest of the War

He was promoted to Major of Artillery on 14 May 1863 and to Lieutenant Colonel on 25 August. He retired from active duty in March 1865 having been disabled since being injured at Plymouth, NC in April 1864.

After the War

He moved his family to Richmond in 1863, and resided there after his service. A candidate for the Virginia Senate in 1869, he was killed in the collapse of a temporary bridge to a campaign event on an island in the James River just before the election.

References & notes

Details of his life and the photograph here from Branchiana (1907). Thanks to Tom Branch for the pointer to that family history.

Birth

7/28/1828; New Market, VA

Death

07/02/1869; Richmond, VA; burial in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, VA