Branch, son of long-time R-MC trustee Thomas Branch and brother of James Read Branch and William Addison Branch, attended the University of Virginia for a year after leaving R-MC. He was working in the banking firm of Thomas Branch and Sons in Petersburg, VA at the start of the war. Branch enlisted in Co. D of the 5th VA Cavalry on May 27, 1861. He was commissioned as 2nd lieutenant in his older brother James Read Branch's artillery unit sometime before July 1, 1862, and served much of his time on detached service as an enrolling officer in Petersburg, VA. He was promoted to major and became Acting Assistant Adjutant General to General Robert Ransom on June 16, 1863. He was captured May 16, 1864 at Drewry's Bluff, VA and sent via Fort Monroe to the prison camp at Point Lookout, MD on May 18, 1864. On June 23, 1864 he was sent to the prison camp at Fort Delaware, DE. He was transferred to Hilton Head, SC and on to Morris Island, SC and became one of the group of imprisoned officers known as the "Immortal Six Hundred," of whom only 300 would survive the war. Branch, one of the 300 survivors of the 600, was exchanged on December 3, 1864 at Fort Pulaski, GA. He returned to service on General Rosser's staff and surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.
After the war, he moved to Augusta, Georgia where he was involved in cotton, banking and railroads. Branch died on May 14, 1900 and is buried in Augusta's Magnolia Cemetery
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