The Branch mortuary cannon is located on the southern end of Branch Avenue. See map >
Confederate Brigadier General Lawrence O'Brian Branch commanded a brigade of North Carolina regiments in A.P. Hill's Light Division. At the height of Hill's successful counterattck on Union General Ambrose Burnside's Ninth Corps at the end of the battle, he was struck in the head and killed while conferring with Hill and Brigadier General Gregg.
Branch was born in1820 in North Carolina. He graduated in 1838 from Princeton, and went on to a career in law and service in Congress from 1855 until the war.
At the start of the war he became a Quartermaster and Paymaster of North Carolina state troops with the rank of colonel, but resigned in September of 1861 for a fighting command, and became colonel of the 33rd North Carolina.
He was promoted to brigadier general in January of 1862 and led his men through the New Bern and Penninsula campaigns, Cedar Run and Second Manassas.
From the monument:
Brigadier General
L. O'B. Branch
C.S.A.
killed here
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