Editing Roger A. Pryor (section)

==Career==
[[File:Roger Atkinson Pryor 1.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Pryor in his younger years.]]

In 1849, Pryor was admitted to the [[bar (law)|bar]], but ill health caused him to (temporarily) abandon his private legal practice. He started working as a [[journalism|journalist]], serving on the editorial staffs of the ''Washington Union'' in 1852 and the ''Daily Richmond Enquirer'' in 1854.<ref name="A"/> The latter was one of the leading papers in the South for 50 years.

President [[Franklin Pierce]] appointed Pryor, who had become involved in Virginia politics, as a diplomat to [[Greece]] in 1854.<ref name="A"/> Upon returning to Virginia, in 1857 Pryor established ''The South,'' a daily newspaper in Richmond. He became known as a fiery and eloquent advocate of [[slavery]], southern [[states' rights]], and [[secession]]; although he and his wife did not personally own slaves, they came from the slaveholding class.<ref name="Cahners"/> His advocacy of the institution was an example of how, in a "slave society" like Virginia, slavery both powered the economy and underlay the entire social framework.<ref>Ira Berlin, ''Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America,'' Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1998, pp. 7-13</ref>

In 1859, Pryor was elected as a [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] to the [[U.S. House of Representatives]]; he filled the vacancy in Virginia's 4th District caused by the death of [[William Goode (politician)|William O. Goode]]. He served from December 7, 1859, and was re-elected, serving to March 3, 1861, when the state seceded.<ref name="A"/> In the House, Pryor became a particular enemy of Representative [[Thaddeus Stevens]], a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] from Pennsylvania in favor of [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionism]].<ref name=E>Waugh pg. 55</ref>

During his term, Pryor got into a fierce argument with [[John F. Potter]], a representative from Wisconsin, and challenged him to a duel.<ref name=D>Wilson pg. 131</ref> Having the choice of weapons according to duel protocol, Potter chose [[bowie knives]]. Pryor backed out, saying that the knife was not a "civilized weapon."<ref name="D"/> The incident was widely publicized in the Northern press, which portrayed Pryor's refusal to duel as a coup for the North &mdash; and as a cowardly humiliation of a Southern "fire eater".<ref>Carl Schurz, ''Reminiscences,'' New York: McClure Publ. Co., 1907, Volume II, pp. 166-167.</ref>

During an anti-slavery speech by Illinois Republican (and cousin{{clarify|cousin of whom?|date=June 2018}}) [[Owen Lovejoy]] on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on April 5, 1860, Lovejoy condemned the Democrats for their racist views and support of slavery. As Lovejoy gave his speech, Pryor and several other Democrats in the audience, grew irate and incensed over Lovejoy's remarks and threatened him with physical harm, with several Republicans rushing to Lovejoy's defense.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qMEv8DNXVbIC&q=%22The+principle+of+enslaving+human+beings+because+they+are+inferior%22&pg=PA193|title=His Brother's Blood: Speeches and Writings, 1838&ndash;64|first1=Owen|last1=Lovejoy|author-link1=Owen Lovejoy|first2=William Frederick|last2=Moore|first3=Jane Ann|last3=Moore|first4=Paul|last4=Simon|publisher=University of Illinois Press|location=Illinois|chapter=Debate on Slavery, Conducted under Hostile Conditions in Congress, April 5, 1860|pages=191&ndash;200|isbn=0-252-02919-4|date=2004|access-date=March 18, 2016}}</ref>

===American Civil War===
In early 1861, Pryor agitated for immediate [[secession]] in Virginia, but the [[Virginia Secession Convention of 1861|state convention]] did not act. He went to [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]] in April, to urge an immediate attack on [[Fort Sumter]].<ref name="A"/> (Pryor asserted this would cause Virginia to secede.) On April 12, he and Sara accompanied the last Confederate party to the fort before the bombardment (but stayed in the boat).<ref name="C"/> Afterward, while waiting at [[Fort Johnson]], he was offered the opportunity to fire the first shot. But he declined, saying, "I could not fire the first gun of the war."<ref name=C>Waugh pg. 88</ref> Pryor almost became the first casualty of the Civil War - while visiting Fort Sumter as an emissary, he assumed a bottle of potassium iodide in the hospital was medicinal whiskey and drank it; his mistake was realized in time for Union doctors to pump his stomach and save his life.<ref>Foote, Shelley. The Civil War: A Narrative: Volume 1: Fort Sumter to Perryville. Page 50</ref>

In 1861, Pryor was re-elected to his Congressional seat, but, Virginia declaring secession meant he never took his seat.<ref name="A"/> (In this period, several states including Virginia elected U.S. Representatives in the early part of odd years. In that period, Congress generally met late in the year.) He served in the provisional [[Confederate Congress]] in 1861, and also in the [[First Confederate Congress|first regular Congress]] (1862) under the [[Confederate Constitution]].<ref name="A"/>

He entered the [[Confederate States Army|Confederate army]] as [[Colonel (United States)|colonel]] of the [[3rd Virginia Infantry Regiment]].<ref name="A"/> He was promoted to [[History of Confederate States Army Generals#Brigadier general|brigadier general]] on April 16, 1862. His brigade fought in the [[Peninsula Campaign]] and at [[Second Battle of Bull Run|Second Manassas]], where it became detached in the swirling fighting and temporarily operated under [[Stonewall Jackson]]. Pryor's command initially consisted of the [[2nd Florida Infantry|2nd Florida]], 14th Alabama, 3rd Virginia, and 14th Louisiana. During the [[Seven Days Battles]], the 1st ([[Georges Augustus Gaston De Coppens|Coppens']]) Louisiana Zouave Battalion was temporarily attached to it. Afterwards, the Louisianans departed and Pryor received two brand-new regiments; the [[5th Florida Infantry|5th]] and [[8th Florida Infantry]]. As a consequence, it became known as "The Florida Brigade". At [[Battle of Antietam|Antietam]] on September 17, 1862, he assumed command of Anderson's Division in [[James Longstreet|Longstreet]]'s Corps when [[Major General|Maj. Gen.]] [[Richard H. Anderson (general)|Richard H. Anderson]] was wounded.<ref name="B"/> Pryor proved inept as a division commander, and Union troops flanked his position, causing them to fall back in disorder.<ref name="Cahners"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Henderson|first=William D.|title=12th Virginia Infantry, The Virginia Regimental History Series|year=1984|publisher=H. E. Howard Inc.|location=Petersburg, VA}} pp. 38-39</ref>

As a result, he did not gain a permanent higher field command from the Confederate president. Following his adequate performance at the [[Battle of Deserted House]], later in 1863 Pryor resigned his commission and his brigade was broken up, its regiments being reassigned to other commands.<ref name="A"/> In August of that year, he enlisted as a private and scout in the [[3rd Virginia Cavalry Regiment]] under General [[Fitzhugh Lee]]. Pryor was captured on November 28, 1864, and confined in [[Fort Lafayette]] in New York as a suspected spy.<ref name="B"/> After several months, he was released on parole by order of [[President of the United States|President]] [[Abraham Lincoln|Lincoln]] and returned to Virginia.<ref name=B>Eicher 30-31</ref> CSA War Clerk and diarist, John B. Jones, mentioned Pryor in his April 9, 1865, entry from Richmond, VA, "Roger A. Pryor is said to have remained voluntarily in Petersburg, and announces his abandonment of the Confederate States cause."<ref>The American Civil War Blog, citing "A Rebel War Clerk's Diary," Nabu Press (April 3, 2010)</ref>

In the early days of the war, Sara Rice Pryor accompanied her husband and worked as a nurse for the troops.<ref name="Henderson">[http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/pryor/summary.html Harris Henderson, "Summary", at Sara Agnes Rice Pryor, ''My Day: Reminiscences of a Long Life''], Macmillan (1909), at ''Documenting the American South'', University of North Carolina, accessed 24 April 2012</ref>  In 1863 after he resigned his commission, she stayed in Petersburg and struggled to hold their family together,<ref name="Henderson"/> likely with the help of relatives.  She later wrote about the war years in her two memoirs published in the early 1900s.<ref name="Cahners"/>

[[File:Pryor-Lincoln portrait.jpg|thumb|right|290px|Pryor looking at a portrait of [[Abraham Lincoln]].]]