Lawrence O'Bryan Branch
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lawrence O'Bryan Branch (November 28, 1820 – September 17, 1862) was a North Carolina representative in the U.S. Congress and a Confederate general in the American Civil War, killed at the Battle of Antietam.
Branch was born in Enfield, Halifax County, North Carolina. He was orphaned as a child; his guardian was Secretary of the Navy John Branch and he was tutored by Salmon P. Chase. He pursued a preparatory course under a private teacher in Washington, D.C., before going on to train at North Carolina's Bingham Military Academy. He also attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for a short time and, in 1838, graduated from Princeton College before going to study law in Nashville, Tennessee, where he also owned and edited a newspaper.
In 1840, Branch moved to Tallahassee, Florida and was admitted to the bar to practice law by a special act of the legislature. Just one year later, he went to fight in the Seminole Wars. In 1852, he moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, where he continued to practice law and became president of the Raleigh & Gaston Railroad Co. Branch was elected as a Democrat to the 34th, 35th, and 36th Congresses (March 4, 1855, to March 3, 1861) but was not a candidate for renomination in 1860. On December 2, 1860, he was appointed, (but declined), the position of Secretary of the Treasury by President James Buchanan.
Branch entered the Confederate Army, in May 1861, and was appointed brigadier general the same year. He was the senior brigadier general in A.P. Hill's division, Stonewall Jackson's corps. He was killed at the Battle of Antietam, Sharpsburg, Maryland, while in command of the Fourth Brigade of the North Carolina Troops. He is buried at the Old City Cemetery, Raleigh, North Carolina.
[edit] References
- Eicher, John H., & Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
- This article incorporates facts obtained from the public domain Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
[edit] External links
- Branch, Lawrence O'Bryan, Congressional Intervention in Regard to Slavery in the Territories. Letter of Lawrence O'B. Branch to His Constituents, 1860
