VOL. 5, NO. 8        ~        May 25, 2012

IN THIS ISSUE

Letter from the Editor     

Featured Photos: The Siege of Petersburg, Virginia

Memories of Sarah A. (Rice) Pryor (Part 6) 

Migrations: From Bangor, Maine to Stillwater, Minnesota 

Fun for Root Diggers & Branch Climbers

  The Joseph Rice Family of New Market, Alabama 

 Southern Family Trees: Rice Burials in Madison Co., Alabama     

Sara (Rice) Pryor

Sara Agnes (Rice) Pryor

 INTRODUCTION

Sara Agnes (Rice) Pryor (1830-1912) was the author of several books. One, titled My Day: Reminiscences of a Long Life, covers nearly her entire life and is the basis of our series about not only Sara, but also events which took place during her lifetime, many of which she witnessed first-hand. Sara and her husband were well-educated and became prominent Americans who enjoyed the company of some very famous people. "Reminiscences" is available online,

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The Richmond-Petersburg Campaign was a series of battles around Petersburg, Virginia, fought from June 9, 1864 to March 25, 1865, during the American Civil War. Although called the Siege of Petersburg, it was not a complete military siege, nor was it limited to actions against Petersburg.  Instead, it was nine months of trench warfare in which Union forces commanded by Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant assaulted Petersburg unsuccessfully, then constructed trench lines that eventually extended over 30 miles  from the edge of Richmond, Virginia, to around the eastern and southern outskirts of Petersburg.   

This 292-day siege was the longest military event of the War Between the States and Sara (Rice) Pryor was right in the middle of it.  There are parts of her first hand account that can't be found in history books.  

We left a humbled Sara living in a hovel on the outskirts of Petersburg.  After a few months there, she succeeded in locating a house in Petersburg, where life was better, but nor for long. Here is a report from Sara:

To persons unfamiliar with the infernal noise made by the screaming, ricocheting, and bursting of shells, it is impossible to convey an adequate idea of the terror and demoralization which ensued. Some families who could not leave the besieged city dug holes in the ground, five or six feet deep, covered with heavy timber banked over with earth, the entrance facing opposite the batteries from which the shells were fired. They made these bomb-proofs safe, at least, and thither the family repaired when heavy shelling commenced. General Lee seemed to recognize that no part of the city was safe, for he immediately ordered the removal of all the hospitals, under the care of Petersburg's esteemed physician, Dr. John Herbert Claiborne. There were three thousand sick and wounded, many of them too ill to be moved. Everything that could run on wheels, from a dray to a wheelbarrow, was pressed into service by the fleeing inhabitants of the town. A long, never ending line passed my door until there were no more to pass.

Although everywhere around her people were fleeing the city, Sara seemed naive about the danger surrounding her.  She let her children play outside, reporting that they were fascinated by all the activity. One day the children were out playing and a shell fell several yards from them.  A mounted officer stopped and asked whose children they were. When told they were Gen. Pryor's, he ordered them sent home.  The officer was Gen. Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate Army.  

GUNFIRE & FOOD SHORTAGES  

Sara had led a sheltered life. The reality of war dawned on her one episode at a time.  Here is when she began to be afraid:  

One night, after a long, hot day, we were so tired we slept soundly. I was awakened by Eliza Page, standing trembling beside me. She pulled me out of bed and hurriedly turned to throw blankets around the children. The furies were let loose! The house was shaking with the concussion from the heavy guns. We were in the street, on our way to a bomb-proof cellar, when a shell burst not more than twenty-five feet before us. Fire and fragments rose like a fountain in the air and fell in a shower around us. Not one of my little family was hurt and strange to say, the children were not terrified!

During Sara's protected life she had never suffered from lacking the basics--food, clothing and shelter.  She soon got another dose of reality:  

With all our starvation we never ate rats, mice, or mule meat. We managed to exist on peas, bread, and sorghum. We could buy a little milk, and we mixed it with a drink made from roasted and ground corn. The latter, in the grain, was scarce. Mr. Campbell's children picked up the grains wherever the army horses were fed (and) washed, dried, and pounded them for food.

In the fall of 1864, flour sold for $1500 a barrel, bacon $20 a pound, beef ditto, a chicken could be bought for $50, shad $5.50 a pair; the head of a bullock, horns and all, could be purchased, as a favor, from the commissary for $5.

Yet privilege still had its place.  Sara experienced some traces of her old life, but in contrasting style. Perhaps such experiences kept her from being depressed and gave her courage to carry on.    

Gen. Longstreet

Just at this juncture, when things were as bad as could be, my husband brought home to tea the Hon. Pierre Soulé,

Gen. Hill

General D. H. Hill, and General Longstreet. 

GEN. PRYOR BECOMES A SCOUT 

Sara regularly reports what her husband is doing:   

In the terrible fight at Port Walthall near Petersburg, my husband rendered essential service. Among the few papers I preserved in a secret

Gen. Johnson

drawer of the only trunk I saved, were two letters, one signed Bushrod Johnson, the other D. H. Hill. The latter says: "The victory at Walthall Junction was greatly due to General Roger A. Pryor. But for him it is probable we might have been surprised and defeated." The other from General Johnson runs at length: "At the most critical juncture General Roger A. Pryor rendered me most valuable service, displaying great zeal, energy and gallantry in reconnoitering the positions of the enemy, arranging my line of battle, and rendering successful the operations and movements of the conflict."

Sara had an opportunity to once again live outside Petersburg.  Without knowing how future battle lines would be drawn, she made a decision that turned out wrong.  She reports:

The time came when I felt that I could no longer endure the strain of being perpetually under fire and, to my great relief, my brother-in-law, Robert McIlwaine, removed his family to North Carolina, and placed Cottage Farm, three miles distant from the city, at my disposal. He had left a piano and some furniture in the house, and was glad to have me live in it.  I had been in this refuge only a few days, happy in the blessed respite from danger, when I learned that General Lee had established his headquarters a short distance from us.

Confederate headquarters and troops moved close to her, which could have sent signals, but didn't.  Her father-in-law moved with them and boasted that they would be there eight years.  Gen. Grant was building fortifications at the back of the farm. But how could Sara know what was to come?  And Roger, on his scouting expeditions--could he not see?

Things got worse.  In Sara's words: The wolf was no longer at the door! He had entered and had taken up his abode at the fireside.    

 NEXT: Sara's husband is captured by the enemy  

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Migrations

 From Bangor, Maine to Stillwater, Minnesota 

Franklin Jones Rice was born May 5, 1837, at Bangor, Maine.  As a young man, Franklin went to Stillwater, Minnesota, where  he married Elizabeth Anne Wells Oct. 19, 1860.  Elizabeth had been born Dec. 10, 1838 at Bangor, Maine, the daughter of Joseph Wells.  

Their children, all born at Stillwater, were:

1. Ada Rice, b. May 5, 1861; m. Ben Armbruster 
2. George Franklin Rice, b. Feb. 6, 1863; m. Emma Stadler
3. Lillian Anne Rice, b. April 9, 1866; m. Harry J. Northey
4. Maud Caroline Rice, b. Sept. 16, 1868; d. March 20, 1894; m. L. D. Brown, Sept. 14, 1892
5. William Rice, b. Sept. 3, 1872; d. Dec. 11, 1943; m. Olive Klauman
6. Harriet Elizabeth Rice, b. Dec. 31, 1878; d. May 29, 1954; m. Joseph LeRoy Shannon, July 5, 1900   

Franklin Rice died Jan. 19, 1881 at Stillwater. His wife died there Feb. 1, 1909.

Why did Franklin Rice migrate to Minnesota?  Some young men from the Bangor, Maine, area were in the lumbering business.  When much of the good and easily cut hardwoods were gone, some men went to Minnesota, which was a sparsely settled region where lumbering fortunes were just beginning to be made.   Later, some of their sons and grandsons followed the logging industry to Washington State.

SOUTHERN FAMILY TREES

RESOURCES