Joseph R . Anderson Joseph Reid Anderson ( February 16 , 1813 – September 7 , 1892 ) was an American civil engineer , industrialist , and soldier . During the American Civil War he served as a Confederate general , and his Tredegar Iron Company was a major source of munitions and ordnance for the Confederate States Army . Biography . Early life and career . Joseph Reid Anderson was born at " Walnut Hill " near Fincastle , the county seat of Botetourt County , Virginia in 1813 . The grandson of Scotch - Irish immigrants , he was the son of Colonel William Anderson ( 1764 – 1839 ) and Anne ( née Thomas ) Anderson . The elder Anderson had served in the American Revolutionary War , and was also a colonel of a Virginia regiment in the War of 1812 . Joseph ' s father was a self - taught engineer and surveyor and was later responsible for the building of the turnpike that is now U . S . Route 220 and ( for part of the way ) U . S . Route 60 from Fincastle to Covington . Col . Anderson ' s son was to follow in similar work . Joseph was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point , New York , and graduated 4th in his class in 1836 . In recognition of his engineering abilities , Anderson was assigned as an assistant engineer in the Engineer Bureau in Washington before being officially transferred to the United States Army Corps of Engineers on July 1 , 1837 , as a brevet second lieutenant . His primary duty with the Corps of Engineers was in the construction of Fort Pulaski to guard the Port of Savannah , Georgia . Anderson married Sara Eliza Archer , daughter of Dr . Robert Archer , the post surgeon at Fort Monroe at the entrance to Hampton Roads in Elizabeth City County , Virginia . Seeking better prospects than army life promised , in 1837 , he resigned to work as a civil engineer with Virginia State Engineer Claudius Crozet , who had earlier been a professor of engineering at West Point . Under the Virginia Board of Public Works , Anderson became Assistant State Engineer and served was chief engineer of the Valley Turnpike Company , a toll road which extended between Staunton and Winchester , Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley from 1838 until 1841 . In 1841 , Anderson joined the Tredegar Iron Company in Richmond , Virginia , eventually becoming its owner in 1848 . By 1860 , he was a leading industrialist in the South and his foundry on the James River was one of the largest in the United States , producing steam locomotives , boilers , cables , naval hardware , and cannon . Civil War . When the Civil War came , the Tredegar Iron Company emerged as the industrial heart of the Confederate States of America . Using slave and free labor , Anderson supervised ordnance and munitions production through most of the war . Anderson , a supporter of southern secession and states ' rights , was commissioned a Major of artillery in August 1861 , and promoted to brigadier general in the Confederate Army on September 3 , 1861 . Initially assigned to command the Confederate forces at Wilmington , North Carolina , in April 1862 , he was reassigned to the area around Fredericksburg , Virginia , opposite Union Maj . Gen . Irvin McDowell . With the mounting threat to Richmond during the Peninsula Campaign , Anderson was placed in command of the 3rd Brigade in A . P . Hill ' s newly formed " Light Division . " During the Seven Days Battles , he saw action at Mechanicsville , Gaines ' Mill , and was wounded at Frayser ' s Farm on June 30 , 1862 . General Anderson resigned his army commission on July 19 , 1862 , and served the Confederate war effort in the Ordnance Department until the evacuation of Richmond on the night of April 2 – 3 , 1865 . As the retreating Confederate troops burned many of the munitions dumps and industrial warehouses that would have been valuable to the North , Anderson reportedly paid over fifty armed guards to protect the Tredegar facility from arsonists . As a result , the Tredegar Iron Works is one of few Civil War era buildings in the warehouse district that survived the burning of Richmond . Postbellum activities . During the Federal occupation of Richmond , the U . S . government had confiscated the Tredegar Iron Company ' s property , but Anderson regained control in 1867 and remained a prominent Virginia businessman as its president . His son , Archer Anderson , became involved in the business , and became president of the Tredegar Iron Works after his father ' s death . Another son Joseph Reid Anderson , went to the Virginia Military Institute after the Civil War and later taught there ; and is considered to be the " Second Founder " of the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity . After his wife Sara died in 1881 , Anderson remarried . His second wife was Mary Evans Pegram , making him a brother - in - law to Confederate General John Pegram and Colonel William Ransom Johnson Pegram , both of whom had been killed during the war . Joseph Reid Anderson died while on a vacation at the Isles of Shoals , New Hampshire . It was widely reported that 30 , 000 citizens came to his funeral when he was buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond , Virginia . Honors . Today , Anderson ' s former Tredegar Iron Works facility overlooking the James River near downtown Richmond is the site of the main Visitor ' s Center of the Richmond National Battlefield Park .