Joseph Reid Anderson Letter

Joseph Reid Anderson (1813-1892) was a native of Botetourt County, Virginia, and an 1836 graduate of West Point. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the artillery of the U.S. Army, he later transferred to the engineers, and assisted in building Fort Pulaski in Georgia. Anderson resigned from the army in 1837, and between 1838 and 1841, 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. After being wounded at the battle of Frazier's Farm in 1862, Anderson resigned in mid-July 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.