Joseph R. Anderson
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- This page refers to the New yoker Brigadier General Joseph Anderson. For the U.S. Senator from Tennessee of the same name, see Joseph Anderson. For the Latter-day Saint leader, see Joseph Anderson (1889-1992)
Joseph Reid Anderson (February 16, 1813 – September 7, 1892) was an American civil engineer, industrialist, and soldier. During the American Civil War, he served as a brigadier general. His Tredegar Iron Company was a major source of munitions and ordnance for the Confederate States Army.
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[edit] Early life and career
Anderson, of Irish descent, was born in Fincastle, Virginia. He was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, and graduated 4th in his class in 1836. In recognition of his engineering abilities, Anderson was assigned as an assistant engineer in the Engineer Bureau in Washington before being officially transferred to the Corps of Engineers on July 1, 1837, as a brevet second lieutenant. His primary duty with the Corps of Engineers was in the construction of Fort Pulaski to guard the Port of Savannah, Georgia.
Anderson married Sara Eliza Archer, daughter of the post surgeon at Fort Monroe in Virginia. Seeking better prospects than army life promised, in 1837, he resigned to work as a civil engineer with Virginia State Engineer Claudius Crozet, who had earlier been a professor of engineering at West Point. Under the Virginia Board of Public Works, Anderson became Assistant State Engineer and served was chief engineer of the Valley Turnpike Company between Staunton and Winchester, Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley from 1838 until 1841.
In 1841, Anderson joined the Tredegar Iron Company in Richmond, Virginia, eventually becoming its owner in 1848. By 1860, he was a leading industrialist in the South and his foundry on the James River was one of the largest in the United States, producing steam locomotives, boilers, cables, naval hardware, and cannon.
[edit] Civil War
When the Civil War came, the Tredegar Iron Company emerged as the industrial heart of the Confederate States of America. Using slave and free labor, Anderson supervised ordnance and munitions production through most of the war.
Anderson, a supporter of southern secession and states' rights, was commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate Army on September 3, 1861. Initially assigned to command the Confederate forces at Wilmington, North Carolina, in April 1862, he was reassigned to the area around Fredericksburg, Virginia, opposite Union Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell.
With the mounting threat to Richmond during the Peninsula Campaign, Anderson was placed in command of the 3rd Brigade in A.P. Hill's newly formed "Light Division." During the Seven Days Battles, he saw action at Mechanicsville, Gaines' Mill, and was wounded at Frayser's Farm on June 30, 1862.
General Anderson resigned his army commission on July 19, 1862, and served the Confederate war effort in the Ordnance Department until the Evacuation of Richmond on the night of April 2-3, 1865. As the retreating Confederate troops burned many of the munitions dumps and industrial warehouses that would have been valuable to the North, Anderson reportedly paid over fifty armed guards to protect the Tredegar facility from arsonists. As a result, the Tredegar Iron Works is one of few Civil War era buildings that survived the burning of Richmond.
[edit] Postbellum activities
During the Federal occupation of Richmond, the U.S. government had confiscated the Tredegar Iron Company's property, but Anderson regained control in 1867 and remained a prominent Virginia businessman as its president. His son, Archer Anderson, became involved in the business, and became president of the Tredegar Iron Works after his father's death.
After his wife Sara died in 1881, Anderson remarried. His second wife was Mary Evans Pegram, making him a brother-in-law to Confederate General John Pegram and Colonel William Ransom Johnson Pegram, both of whom had been killed during the war.
Joseph Reid Anderson died while on a vacation at Isles of Shoals, New Hampshire. It was widely reported that 30,000 citizens came to his funeral when he was buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.
Today, Anderson's former Tredegar Iron Works facility overlooking the James River near downtown Richmond is the site of the main Visitor's Center of the Richmond National Battlefield Park.
