Roger Atkinson Pryor

Roger Atkinson Pryor

Roger Atkinson Pryor (born July 19, 1828 in Petersburg , Virginia , † March 14, 1919 in Manhattan , New York City ) was an American politician ( Democratic Party ) and officer in the Confederate Army .

Early years and political advancement

Pryor graduated from Hampden-Sydney College in 1845 and then from the University of Virginia Legal Department in 1848 . He was admitted to the bar the following year, but did not practice due to poor health. He then went to journalism for a few years . During this time he was in the editorial staff of the Washington Union in 1852 and then in 1854 in the editorial staff of the Richmond Enquirer . He also turned to politics and was appointed special ambassador to Greece in 1854 . On his return to Virginia in 1857, he founded The South . He was a fervent and eloquent advocate of slavery , constitutional law, and secession .

In 1859 he was elected as a Democrat to the US House of Representatives to fill the vacancy created by the death of William O. Goode , who represented the fourth electoral district of Virginia. He stayed there from December 7, 1859 to March 3, 1861. During this time, Pryor developed a particular hostility to the MP Thaddeus Stevens , a republican abolitionist .

During his time in the US Congress , he got into a heated argument with John F. Potter , a MP from Wisconsin , and finally challenged him to a duel . Potter had a choice of weapons and chose the bowie knives . Pryor then evaded him on the grounds that Bowie knives were not civilized weapons. The incident was widely spread through the northern press, who viewed the denial as a coup for the north by humiliating a southern fire eater.

American Civil War

In early 1861, Pryor campaigned for an immediate secession from Virginia, but the state constitution did not provide for this. Frustrated, Pryor went to Charleston , South Carolina in April and urged an immediate attack on Fort Sumter . (Pryor claimed that this would split Virginia.) On April 12, he attended the last Confederate negotiation of the fort before the bombing , but stayed in the boat. He was then offered to fire the first shot while he was staying at Fort Johnson . Despite his earlier rhetoric , he declined, saying, "I couldn't fire the first shot of the war."

Pryor was re-elected to the US Congress in 1861, but of course he could not take the seat in the US Congress due to the secession of Virginia. (At that time, several states, including Virginia, elected US MPs in the spring of the odd years. This was possible because Congress almost always met late in the year.) Instead, he served first in the Provisional Confederate Congress of 1861 and later on May 1 Confederate Congress of 1862 under the Constitution of the Confederate States .

He joined the Confederate Army with the rank of Colonel in the 3rd Virginia Infantry . On April 16, 1862, he was promoted to brigadier general. His brigade consisted of regiments from Virginia, Alabama, and Florida who fought in the Peninsula Campaign and the Second Manassas . During the fighting that took place there, he was separated from his brigade, so that Stonewall Jackson was temporarily in command. At Antietam he took command of Anderson's division in Longstreets Corps on September 17, 1862 when Major General Anderson was wounded.

Due to a disagreement with Confederate President Jefferson Davis over his desire for permanent higher field command, Pryor resigned from command in 1863 and the brigade was disbanded. In August of the same year he then served as a private and scout in a Virginia cavalry regiment under General Fitzhugh Lee . He was captured on November 28, 1864 and imprisoned at Fort Lafayette as a suspected spy . On the orders of US President Lincoln , he was paroled and returned to Virginia.

Another résumé

After the war, he and his family moved to New York City in 1865 , where he started a profitable law firm with a partner. In 1876 he represented New York at the Democratic National Convention . He served as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas from 1890 to 1894 and of the New York Supreme Court from 1894 to 1899 . On April 10, 1912, he was appointed appraiser by the Appeals Department of the State Supreme Court and served in that position in New York City until his death. He died of pneumonia and was subsequently buried in Princeton Cemetery in Princeton , New Jersey .

family

Roger was the son of Rev. Theodorick Bland Pryor and Lucy (Atkinson) Pryor. On November 8, 1848, he married Sara Agnes Rice (1830-1912).

Publications

• The Mother of Washington and her Times (1903),
• Reminiscences of Peace and War (1904)
• The Birth of the Nation (1907) and
• My Day: Reminiscences of a Long Life (1909).

Web links

Commons : Roger Atkinson Pryor  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Roger Atkinson Pryor in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Roger Atkinson Pryor in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• The Political Graveyard (Engl.)
• Virginia State Highway Memorial Marker (Engl.)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Carl Schurz, Reminiscences , New York: McClure Publ. Co., 1907, Volume II, pp. 166-167.