Winter Hat of General Lawrence O'Bryan Branch

[Shotgun Steve]

General Lawrence O'Bryan Branch used this unusual cap as a winter hat. It may have been made using fabric cut from a pair of Union army trousers. A section of the hat folds down into a pair of earmuffs. O'Bryan was a prominent lawyer and politician before the war. He served briefly as the state quartermaster general early in the war and was later promoted to a brigadier general. As such, he commanded a brigade in A.P. Hill's Division in the Army of Northern Virginia. He was killed at Sharpsburg, Maryland by a sniper's bullet on September 17, 1862. Branch's body was brought back to Raleigh for burial in the Old City Cemetery.