Fletcher Harris Archer was born on February 6, 1817, in Petersburg, Virginia, to Allen A. Archer and Prudence Whitworth. His father was a miller who owned $7,000 of real estate and $12,000 of personal property in 1860 and owned at least 29 enslaved laborers. Archer grew up in Petersburg, and he earned a law degree from the University of Virginia in 1841.

 

During the Mexican American War, he organized the Petersburg Mexican Volunteers, which mustered into service as Company E of the 1^st Virginia Infantry. He returned to Petersburg in 1848 and resumed his legal practice. He married Eliza Allen sometime in the 1840s, and they had one daughter. By 1850, he was working as a lawyer in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, and he owned $11,000 of real estate. Eliza died in April 1851. By 1860, he owned $3,000 of personal property.

 

When the Civil War erupted, Archer organized Company K of the 12^th Virginia Infantry, and the men elected him as their captain. Soon afterward, on May 5, 1861, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 3^rd Virginia Infantry. By late 1861, he was commanding the Confederate Naval Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia. He resigned from the army in May 1862 and returned to Petersburg.

 

On May 31, 1863, he married Martha Barksdale, a widow with several children from her previous marriage. He returned to Confederate service in May 1864, receiving a commission as major of the 3^rd Virginia Reserve Battalion. The unit, comprised largely of teenaged boys and middle-aged men, helped defend Petersburg from a Union attack on June 9, 1864. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel soon afterward and spent the next nine months defending the city. He was wounded in the arm in June 1864 and injured again in April 1865 during the Appomattox campaign.

 

Archer remained in Petersburg after the war. By 1870, he owned $11,500 of real estate and $500 of personal property, and he employed at least two Black servants. He became chairman of the local Conservative Party during Reconstruction, and he eventually won a seat on the Petersburg City Council. He became the city’s mayor on January 2, 1882, and he served until the following year. He joined the Democratic Party in the 1880s and served as a delegate to the Democratic State Convention in 1884. He died in Petersburg on August 21, 1902.

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