Lawrence O ' Bryan Branch Lawrence O ' Bryan Branch ( November 28 , 1820 – September 17 , 1862 ) was a North Carolina representative in the U . S . Congress and a Confederate brigadier general in the American Civil War , killed at the Battle of Antietam . Early life and career . Branch was born in Enfield , Halifax County , North Carolina to Major Joseph Branch and Susan Simpson O ' Bryan Branch . His family moved to Williamson County , Tennessee but his mother died when he was five and his father died in 1827 . His uncle , Secretary of the Navy John Branch ( then serving as Governor of North Carolina ) assumed his guardianship and took him back to North Carolina . Branch moved to Washington City with his uncle when the latter took the position as Secretary of the Navy and he was tutored by Salmon P . Chase . He pursued a preparatory course under a private teacher in Washington , D . C . , before going on to train at North Carolina ' s Bingham Military Academy . He also attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for a short time and , in 1838 , graduated first in his class from Princeton College before going to study law in Nashville , Tennessee , where he also owned and edited a newspaper . In 1840 , Branch moved to Tallahassee , Florida and was admitted to the bar to practice law by a special act of the legislature . Just one year later , he went to fight in the Seminole Wars . In 1844 , he married Nancy Haywood Blount and they had four children . In 1852 , he moved to Raleigh , North Carolina , where he continued to practice law and became president of the Raleigh & Gaston Railroad Co . He also served as an elector on the Franklin Pierce ticket in 1852 . Branch was elected as a Democrat to the 34th , 35th , and 36th Congresses ( March 4 , 1855 , to March 3 , 1861 ) but was not a candidate for renomination in 1860 . On December 2 , 1860 , he was appointed , ( but declined ) , the position of Secretary of the Treasury by President James Buchanan . Civil War . Branch entered the Confederate Army , in May 1861 , as a private in the Raleigh Rifles . Later that month he accepted the office of State quartermaster general , but resigned it for service in the field , and in September he was elected colonel ( United States ) of the 33rd North Carolina . He was appointed brigadier general in January 1862 . After the Battle of New Bern his brigade was attached to A . P . Hill ' s Division , Stonewall Jackson ' s Corps . He was the senior brigadier general in Hill ' s division . Branch ' s brigade fought at the Battle of Hanover Courthouse , the Seven Days Battles , Cedar Mountain , Second Manassas , the Chantilly , and Harper ' s Ferry Antietam . On September 17 , 1862 , he led his troops on a rapid march from Harpers Ferry to Sharpsburg , Maryland where the Battle of Antietam was raging . Branch arrived on the field around 2 : 30 PM , in time to help stop the Union advance , thus saving General Robert E . Lee ' s right flank from a crushing defeat . Soon after this victory , Branch stood talking with fellow brigadier generals Maxcy Gregg , Dorsey Pender , James J . Archer , along with Hill and General Lee when a Federal sharpshooter , seeing the group , fired a shot that hit him in the right cheek and exited behind his left ear , killing him instantly . He fell dead into the arms of a staff officer . Memorials . Branch had won the respect of his fellow officers and after his death Hill said of him , " He was my senior brigadier and one to whom I could have entrusted the command of the division with all confidence . No country has a better son or nobler champion , no principle a bolder defender than the noble and gallant soldier , General Lawrence O ' Bryan Branch . " A memorial cannon now stands at the location where Branch was killed . Five other memorial cannons are placed throughout the battlefield marking the locations other commanders lost their lives . Branch is buried at the Old City Cemetery , Raleigh , North Carolina .