Pre-War Profession Graduated West Point 1836, engineering duty, resigned 1837, Superintendent of Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond.

War Service August 1861 Maj. of artillery, Brig. Gen. September 1861, commanded 3rd North Carolina Bde/A P Hill's Divn in Peninsula campaign, [This brigade consisted of the GA 14th, GA 35th, GA 45th, GA 49th, and LA 3rd Battalion]. Seven Days (w), resigned commission July 1862, Supervisor of Tredegar Iron Works

Post War Career President, Tredegar Iron Works

Brigadier-General Joseph Reid Anderson, of Virginia, was a graduate of the United States military academy, class of 1836. He was appointed to a lieutenancy in the Third artillery. He served for a time as assistant engineer in the engineer bureau at Washington, and on July 1, 1837, was transferred to the corps of engineers as brevet second lieutenant. In this line of duty be assisted in the building of Fort Pulaski, at the entrance of the Savannah river. He resigned his commission September 30, 1837, to accept the position of assistant engineer of the State of Virginia; was chief engineer of the Valley turnpike company, 1838-41, and subsequently, until the outbreak of war, was head of the firm of Joseph R. Anderson & Co., proprietors of the Tredegar iron works and cannon foundry at Richmond. Entering the Confederate army, he was commissioned brigadier-general in September, 1861, and was assigned to command of the Confederate forces at Wilmington, N. C. Early in the spring of 1862, he was called to Virginia, and on April 25, 1862, be was ordered with his brigade to the vicinity of Fredericksburg, where General Field was then stationed, and instructed by General Lee to assume command in that quarter, attack the enemy or confine his field of operations. Fredericksburg was occupied by McDowell's Federal troops, and Anderson commanded the Confederate force confronting him during the Peninsula operations under Johnston. He was then assigned to a new division formed under A. P. Hill, and in command of the Third brigade of Hill's light infantry, he participated in the battles of Mechanicsville, Gaines' Mill and Frayser's Farm. In the latter he was particularly distinguished in the gallant action of his Georgia brigade, and was seriously wounded. He resigned July 18, 1862. Subsequently he gave his attention to the management of the Tredegar iron works. His death occurred at the Isle of Shoals, N. H., September 7, 1892.

Confederate Military History, Vol. III, p. 575

Bibliography:

Dew, Charles B
Ironmaker to the Confederacy: Joseph R. Anderson and the Tredegar Iron Works
New Haven, Yale University Press 1966