Joseph Anderson was an American civil engineer, industrialist, politician, soldier, and Confederate general. His company, Tredegar Iron Company, was a major source of resources for the Confederate military during the Civil War. His service in the Civil War was short-lived when he was wounded and then returned to his iron company. He used slave labor to increase his profits, and his plant was confiscated after the war. He then became active in politics until his death.
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Joseph Anderson: Early Life
- Joseph Anderson was born in Botetourt County, Virginia, in 1813.
- He was a grandson of a Scotch-Irish immigrant family and the son of Colonel William Anderson, who served in the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.
- Anderson graduated 4th in his class in 1836 at West Point.
- He married Sara Eliza Archer.
- 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.
- Anderson became Assistant State Engineer and served was chief engineer of the Valley Turnpike Company, a toll road that extended between Staunton and Winchester, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley from 1838 until 1841.
Joseph Anderson: Early Military and Political Career
- Anderson was assigned as an assistant engineer in the Engineer Bureau in Washington before being officially transferred to the United States Army 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.
- In 1841, he joined the Tredegar Iron Company and eventually became its owner in 1848.
- By 1860, he was a leading industrialist in the South, and his foundry was one of the largest in the United States. His foundry produced steam locomotives, boilers, cables, naval hardware, and cannon.
Joseph Anderson: Civil War and Postbellum Career
- At the onset of the Civil War, Anderson's foundry emerged as the industrial heart of the Confederacy.
- Anderson was commissioned a major of artillery in August 1861 and promoted to brigadier general in the CSA on September 3.
- He was reassigned to Fredericksburg, Virginia.
- During the Peninsula Campaign, Anderson was placed in command of the 3rd Brigade in A.P. Hill's division.
- He also served during the Seven Days Battles (where he received a concussion), the Battle of Beaver Dam Creek, the Battle of Gaines' Mill, and the Battle of Glendale.
- He resigned his commission in 1862 and continued his service to the CSA in the Ordnance Department until the end of the war.
- During the war, Anderson lost control of his foundry to the Union. He was able to regain that control in 1867.
- He served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1873 - 1879.
- His wife died in 1881, and he remarried Mary Evans Pegram. Mary was the sister to Confederate General John Pegram and Colonel William Ransom Johnson Pegram. Both had been killed during the war.
- Joseph Anderson died while vacationing at the Isles of Shoals, New Hampshire.
- He was buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.