West Point, New York, United States
In 1832 Anderson entered West Point, graduated fourth in his class, and on July 1, 1836, was commissioned a second lieutenant of the 3rd Artillery.
West Point, New York, United States
In 1832 Anderson entered West Point, graduated fourth in his class, and on July 1, 1836, was commissioned a second lieutenant of the 3rd Artillery.
engineer Industrialist military politician
Joseph Reid Anderson was born on February 6, 1813, at his father's house, Walnut Hill, near Fincastle, Virginia, United States. He was the son of William Anderson, the son of Robert Anderson, a Scotch-Irishman who landed in Philadelphia in 1756. His mother was Anne Thomas Anderson, the daughter of a planter of Frederick County, Maryland.
On July 1, 1832, Anderson entered West Point, graduated fourth in his class, and on July 1, 1836, was commissioned a second lieutenant of the 3rd Artillery.
In 1837 Anderson was transferred to the Corps of Engineers, in which he acted as an assistant engineer in building Fort Pulaski, Georgia. He resigned from the army in September 1837.
Upon entering civil life he was for a short time assistant engineer of the State of Virginia. From 1838 to 1841 he was chief engineer of the Valley Turnpike Company. He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1852 to 1855.
Meanwhile, he was becoming more and more engaged in what was to prove the main activity of his life. As early as March 1841 he was the agent of the Tredegar Iron Company at Richmond. In November 1843 he leased the works, and in January 1848 became their owner.
Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, the removal of the Confederate capital to Richmond was largely dictated by the necessity of holding the Tredegar Works, and the same necessity largely governed Confederate military strategy throughout the war. Upon the election of Lincoln in November 1860, Anderson, who was a Secessionist, initiated agreements with several of the Southern states to supply them with cannon and ammunition. Anxious, however, for field service, he arranged also to enter the Confederate Army, with the understanding that if his personal supervision were needed, he would return to the Tredegar plant.
Commissioned brigadier general on September 3, 1861, he reported to Brigadier General Gatlin, commanding the Department of North Carolina, for duty in connection with coast-defense, and was assigned to command the district of Cape Fear, with headquarters at Wilmington. On March 15, 1862, he relieved Gatlin in the command of the Department, and nine days later was succeeded by Major General Holmes, who assigned him to command the 3rd brigade.
On April 22-23, 1862, as McClellan's Peninsular campaign developed, Anderson's brigade was transferred from North Carolina to Fredericksburg, to oppose McDowell. His line of communications threatened by the arrival on May 24, 1862, of McClellan's right at Mechanicsville, at the end of May he fell back to the Chickahominy under orders from General J. E. Johnston. As a part of Hill's division, Anderson's brigade crossed the Chickahominy and participated in the battle of Mechanicsville on June 26, and the battle of Gaines's Mill on June 27. The brigade recrossed the Chickahominy on June 29, and on June 30 participated in the battle of Frazier's Farm, being thrown into the action as a last reserve, about dark, and winning the approbation of General Hill. In this engagement, Anderson was wounded and was obliged to relinquish command of the brigade.
On July 15, 1862, in accordance with a previous agreement, he resigned his commission as brigadier-general and returned to the Tredegar Works, where he was more needed than in the field. It is here, rather than in his comparatively limited experience of military activity, that Anderson claims attention, because of the masterly way in which as a businessman and manufacturer he grappled with, and solved, the larger and more complicated problems connected with war industry.
The government repeatedly refused Anderson's request that it take over the Works because it saw that they were being run at the top of their efficiency. In solving the grave problems connected with labor, raw material, food, clothing, transportation, and finance, that had to be met in sustaining this activity, Anderson displayed imperturbable resourcefulness and in the face of all discouragements never suspended operations until April 1865. Confiscated by the Federal Government at the close of the war, the plant was soon released, and in 1867 the Tredegar company was reorganized with Anderson as president. From 1876 to 1878 the company was in the hands of a receiver, Anderson holding that office, after which he resumed his place at its head, retaining this position until his death.
Under Anderson's management, the Tredegar Works developed into one of the leading iron manufactories of the country, building over forty locomotives for various Southern railroads and supplying the United States Government with 1, 200 cannon as well as chain cable, shot, shell, boilers, and naval machinery. The Tredegar Works became nothing less than the mainstay of the Confederacy in the matter of munitions. From 1861 to 1863 the Tredegar Works constituted practically the sole source of heavy guns; they were the laboratory for Confederate experiments; they formed the nucleus from which sprang the government shops at Richmond and down the coast to Selma, Alabama. The activity in the production of guns was equaled by the activity in the production of projectiles, gun-carriages, plates for iron-clads, wheels and axles for railroad rolling-stock, furnace machinery for iron furnaces destroyed by Federal troops, and other products of the foundry and rolling-mill for Confederate munitions factories and navy-yards. Anderson also built the great highway between Staunton and Winchester.
In 1874 Anderson was elected president of the Chamber of Commerce of the city of Richmond and was reelected in 1875. He was a member of the Common Council of Richmond.
Anderson was successful and enterprising; his advice in state and municipal matters was sought and esteemed.
In 1837 Anderson married Sarah Elizabeth Archer, the daughter of a United States army surgeon; and on her death, Mary Evans Pegram, who, together with five children by his first wife, survived him.
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