Anderson, Joseph Reid, son of William and Anne Thomas Anderson, was born in Botetourt county, Virginia, February 6, 1813, and graduated from the United States Military Academy, 1836; appointed second lieutenant in the Third Artillery; served in engineer bureau at Washington; transferred to corps of engineers as brevetted second lieutenant; assisted in building Fort Pulaski, at entrance of Savannah river. He resigned September 30, 1837, to accept position as assistant engineer, state of Virginia; chief engineer of Valley Turnpike Company, 1838-41; subsequently head of firm of Joseph R. Anderson & Company, proprietors of Tredegar Iron Works, Richmond. He assisted with construction of the highway between Staunton and Winchester, Virginia. By 1841, he had acquired an interest in the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond which supplied iron products to railroads and the U.S. government, and he became owner of the company in 1848. When the South seceded, Anderson offered his services to the Confederate Government as an infantry officer and was commissioned a brigadier-general in September 1861, serving meritoriously in North Carolina and Virginia.

In the spring of 1862 ordered to Fredericksburg in command of brigade; later given command of a new division under A. P. Hill; participated in battles of Mechanicsville, Gaines' Mill and Frayser's Farm; seriously wounded in latter engagement, and resigned July 19, 1862 to return to Tredegar Iron Works where his talent was needed more than on the battlefield. The company operated throughout the war, but after the surrender of Richmond, the U.S. government confiscated Tredegar Iron Works. Upon Anderson's request to President Johnson for a pardon in the fall of 1865, the Works were returned to him. Anderson continued to head Tredegar Iron Works and remained active in state, city, and local affairs until his death in 1892. He died at Isle of Shoals, New Hampshire, September 7, 1892.

A letter is in the University of Southern Mississippi Archives. The letter is written on Tredegar Iron Works stationery by Joseph Anderson, president and owner of Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Virginia. It was sent to Messrs. Niel, Davidson & Co. in New York with a check for $65.45. Anderson asks for a receipt and return of the bill.