In “What the Civil War Cost Princeton” (July/August issue), the author uses a sardonic reference extracted from an appendix to a dated volume to dishonor Confederate General Lawrence O’Bryan Branch, Class of 1838, stating that he “was lacking in ‘any native dignity or honesty.’”
Lawrence O’Bryan Branch was my great-great-grandfather.
Despite the unsupported aspersions of the article, Branch accomplished much in his 42 years: He was tutored by Salmon P. Chase; was named salutatorian of his Princeton class; became a successful businessman, railroad president, and moderate voice in three terms in Congress during the run-up to the war; and declined President Buchanan’s invitation to serve as his secretary of the treasury — all before his creditable service as a brigadier general during many pitched battles before he was struck down by a Union sharpshooter at Antietam.
Instead of the obscure quote that the author uses to impugn Branch’s integrity, a fairer assessment is the informed tribute from his commanding officer, Division General A.P Hill, that Branch “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.”
For all of the wrenching legacy of the Civil War, I take solace in the certain knowledge that my great-great-grandfather in fact lived with honor and dignity within the context of the society — so crushingly discredited by the war — in which he lived.
In “What the Civil War Cost Princeton” (July/August issue), the author uses a sardonic reference extracted from an appendix to a dated volume to dishonor Confederate General Lawrence O’Bryan Branch, Class of 1838, stating that he “was lacking in ‘any native dignity or honesty.’”
Despite the unsupported aspersions of the article, Branch accomplished much in his 42 years: He was tutored by Salmon P. Chase; was named salutatorian of his Princeton class; became a successful businessman, railroad president, and moderate voice in three terms in Congress during the run-up to the war; and declined President Buchanan’s invitation to serve as his secretary of the treasury — all before his creditable service as a brigadier general during many pitched battles before he was struck down by a Union sharpshooter at Antietam.
Instead of the obscure quote that the author uses to impugn Branch’s integrity, a fairer assessment is the informed tribute from his commanding officer, Division General A.P Hill, that Branch “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.”
For all of the wrenching legacy of the Civil War, I take solace in the certain knowledge that my great-great-grandfather in fact lived with honor and dignity within the context of the society — so crushingly discredited by the war — in which he lived.