Joseph R. Anderson

Joseph Reid Anderson ( born February 16, 1813 in Walnut Hill in Botetourt County, Virginia; † September 7, 1892 on the Isles of Shoals, New Hampshire ) was an American engineer, Brigadier General of the Confederate Army in the Civil War and an independent trader.

Life

Anderson was born in 1813 in Walnut Hill. He attended the Military Academy at West Point, New York, which he called Fourth best in his class graduated in 1836 with the rank of lieutenant. In 1837 he left the U.S. Army and worked for the next 5 years as an engineer in Virginia. His connection with the Tredegar Iron Co. in Richmond, Virginia, began in 1841 and made ​​him the greatest industrialists of the South at the time. He has built the company to the extent that they are one of the leading manufacturers of locomotives, hardware, cables and guns was until 1860.

As a supporter of the secessionist government, he was appointed on September 3, 1861 Brigadier General, first commanded a brigade in North Carolina, then to Virginia. He insisted several smaller battles during the Battle of Beaver Creek and Gaines Mill On Stand at White Oak Swamp he was wounded in June 1862. Just over a month later, he quit the service and again took over the management of the Tredegar Iron Co.

After that, the company was again increasingly productive, but also thwarted by the inability of the South procure sufficient mineral resources. After the fall of Richmond, the company was seized by the federal government until 1867 and then released with Anderson in the top management.