Lawrence O'Brian Branch enlisted as a private in the Raleigh rifles in April 1861. On May 20th he accepted the office of State quartermaster-general, but resigned it for service in the field, and in September following was elected colonel of the Thirty-third regiment North Carolina troops. On January I 7, 1862, he was promoted to brigadier-general in the provisional army of the Confederate States, his command including the Seventh, Eighteenth, Twenty-eighth, Thirty-third and Thirty-seventh regiments. At New Bern, March 14, 1862, he was in his first battle, commanding the forces which disputed the advance of Burnside. Retiring to Kinston, he was ordered to Virginia and his brigade was attached to A. P. Hill's famous light division. It was the first in the fight at Slash church (Hanover Court House), also the first to cross the Chickahominy and attack the Federals, beginning the Seven Days' battles, in which the brigade fought at Mechanicsville, Cold Harbor, Frayser's Farm, and Malvern Hill, winning imperishable fame, at a cost of five colonels and 1,250 men killed and wounded, out of a total strength of 3,000. General Branch bore himself throughout this bloody campaign with undaunted courage and the coolness of a veteran commander. Soon followed the battles of Cedar Run, Second Manassas, Fairfax Court House and Harper's Ferry. Hurrying from the latter victory On the monning of September 17th, he reached the field of Sharpsburg with his brigade about 2:30 in the afternoon, just in time to meet an advance of the enemy which had broken the line of Jones' division and captured a battery. "With a yell of defiance," A. P. Hill reported, "Archer charged them, retook McIntosh's guns, and drove them back pellmell. Branch and Gregg, with their old veterans, sternly held their ground, and pouring in destructive volleys, the tide of the enemy surged back, and breaking in confusion, passed out of sight The three brigades of my division actively engaged did not number over 2,000 men, and these, with the help of my splendid batteries, drove back Burnside's corps of 15,000 men." Soon after, as Hill and the three brigadiers were consulting, some sharpshooter sent a bullet into the group, which crashed through the brain of General Branch, and he fell, dying, into the arms of his staff-officer, Major Engelhard. In noticing this sad event, General Hill wrote: "The Confederacy has to mourn the loss of a gallant soldier and accomplished gentleman. He was my senior brigadier, and one to whom I could have intrusted the command of the division, with all confidence."