Editing Roger A. Pryor

{{short description|American politician}}
{{for|the American film actor|Roger Pryor (actor)}}

{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Roger Atkinson Pryor
| image               = RogerAPryor.jpg
| imagesize           = 
| order               = 
| office3             = Member of the [[U.S. House of Representatives]] from Virginia's [[Virginia's 4th congressional district|4th]] District
| term_start3         = December 7, 1859
| term_end3           = March 3, 1861
| lieutenant          = 
| predecessor3        = [[William O. Goode]]
| successor3          = [[George W. Booker]]
| order2              = 
| office1             = Member of the [[Congress of the Confederate States|Confederate States House of Representatives]] from [[Virginia]]
| term_start1         = February 18, 1862
| term_end1           = April 5, 1862
| governor1           = 
| predecessor1        = ''Position established''
| successor1          = [[Charles Fenton Collier|Charles F. Collier]]
| office2             = Delegate from Virginia to the [[Provisional Confederate Congress]]
| term_start2         = July 20, 1861
| term_end2           = February 17, 1862
| predecessor2        = ''Position established''
| successor2          = ''Position abolished''
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1828|7|19}}
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1919|3|14|1828|7|19}}
| birth_place         = [[Petersburg, Virginia]], U.S.
| death_place         = [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|New York]], U.S.
| residence           = 
| spouse              = 
| children            = 
| profession          = [[journalist]], [[lawyer]], [[judge]]
| alma_mater          = [[Hampden–Sydney College]] <br/> [[University of Virginia]]
| party               = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
| religion            = 
| allegiance          = {{flagcountry|Confederate States of America|1863|size=23px}}
| branch              = {{army|Confederate States of America|name=Confederate States Army|size=23px}}
| rank                = [[File:Confederate States of America General.svg|25px]] [[Brigadier General (CSA)|Brigadier general]]
| commands            = [[3rd Virginia Infantry Regiment]]<br />Florida Brigade
| unit                = {{nowrap|[[3rd Virginia Cavalry Regiment]]}}
| battles             = [[American Civil War]]
*[[Peninsula Campaign]]
*[[Second Battle of Bull Run]]
*[[Battle of Antietam]]
| serviceyears        = 1862&ndash;1864
}}
'''Roger Atkinson Pryor''' (July 19, 1828 &ndash; March 14, 1919) was an American newspaper editor, lawyer, politician and judge. A journalist and U.S. Congressman from Virginia known as a Southern "fire eater" for his fiery oratory in favor of slavery and later secession from the United States and belligerence toward abolitionist colleagues, during the [[American Civil War]] Pryor served as a general in the Confederate Army as well as in the Confederate Congress. Following the conflict, Pryor moved to [[New York City]], and in 1868 his family joined him. He resumed his legal practice and is now considered among influential southerners in the North sometimes called "Confederate carpetbaggers."<ref name=obit/><ref>David W. Blight, ''Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory'', Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2001, p. 90</ref>

Pryor's law partner became Boston-based [[Benjamin Butler (politician)|Benjamin F. Butler]], hated in the South for his service as a Union general during the conflict. Their partnership was financially successful, and Pryor also became active in the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] in the North. In 1877 he was chosen to give a [[Memorial Day|Decoration Day]] address, in which, according to one interpretation, he vilified [[Reconstruction era (United States)|Reconstruction]] and promoted the [[Lost Cause]], while reconciling the noble soldiers as victims of politicians.<ref name="Blight 2001 pp. 90-91">Blight (2001), ''Race and Reunion'', pp. 90-91</ref><ref name="Sutherland249">In a less strident interpretation, in ''[[The Confederate Carpetbaggers]]'', Daniel E. Sutherland states: "Pryor responded with the best-reasoned, least passionate public statement on reconciliation given by a southerner in the North." Sutherland, Daniel E. ''The Confederate Carpetbaggers''. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988. {{ISBN|978-0-8071-1393-6}}. p. 249.</ref> In 1890 he joined the [[Sons of the American Revolution]], one of the new heritage societies that was created following celebration of the [[United States Centennial]].

Appointed as judge of the [[New York Court of Common Pleas]] from 1890 to 1894, and justice of the [[New York Supreme Court]] from 1894 to his retirement in 1899.<ref name="F"/>  On April 10, 1912, he was appointed official referee by the appellate division of the state Supreme Court, where he served until his death. Particularly after raising their children described below, his wife [[Sara Agnes Rice Pryor|Sara Agnes Rice]] published several histories, memoirs and novels, as well as helped found heritage societies and organize fundraising for historic preservation. Her memoirs have been important sources for historians doing research on southern society during and after the Civil War.

==Early and family life==
Pryor was born near [[Petersburg, Virginia]], at [[Montrose (McKenney, Virginia)|Montrose]], in [[Dinwiddie County, Virginia|Dinwiddie County]] as the second child of Lucy Epps Atkinson and Theodorick Bland Pryor, the minister at Petersburg's Washington Street Presbyterian Church (after the Tabb Street Church built in 1844 became overcrowded). He had an older sister Lucy, but his mother died when the boy was three years old. His father remarried and moved his family to "Old Place" near [[Crewe, Virginia|Crewe]] in [[Nottoway County, Virginia|Nottoway County]] about thirty miles away.<ref>https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=14769</ref><ref>https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/026-0031_Montrose_2004_Final_Nomination.pdf p.8 of 14</ref> Since the second marriage produced two daughters (Frances and Ann) and a son (Archibald), Pryor had half-siblings.

===Ancestry===
Pryor could trace his ancestry to the [[First Families of Virginia]]. His father was a grandson of [[Richard Bland|Richard Bland II]].<ref name=A>Scott pp. 585-590</ref> Other paternal ancestors included Burgesses [[Richard Bland (burgess)|Richard Bland I]], [[Theodorick Bland of Westover]], and Governor [[Richard Bennett (Governor)|Richard Bennett]].<!-- Richard Bennett's daughter, Anne Bennett, was married to Theodorick Bland of Westover. --><ref>{{cite book |last1=New York State Society |title=Sons of the American Revolution Yearbook |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KjISAAAAYAAJ |year=1894 |publisher=The Republic Press |page=198 |chapter=Roll of Members |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KjISAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA198 }}</ref> His mother was descended from Roger Pleasants Atkinson (1764-1829), whose English-born father was a wealthy Petersburg merchant during the Revolutionary War and whose brothers and cousins also attained distinction in learned professions.<ref>Peter V. Bergstrom, Roger Atkinson (1725-1800) in Dictionary of Virginia Biography vol.1 (1998), pp. 241-142</ref> Her mother was Agnes Poythress, whose father was patriot [[Peter Poythress]] (1715-1787) and whose ancestors had arrived in the earliest days of the Virginia colony.<ref>https://www.jstor.org/stable/1920064</ref>

===Education=== 
Pryor received a private education appropriate to his class. He graduated from [[Hampden–Sydney College]] in 1845 and from the law school of the [[University of Virginia]] in 1848.<ref name="A"/>

===Personal life===
{{main|Sara Agnes Rice Pryor}}

On November 8, 1848, Pryor married [[Sara Agnes Rice Pryor|Sara Agnes Rice]], daughter of Samuel Blair Rice and his second wife, Lucy Walton Leftwich, of [[Halifax County, Virginia]]. One of numerous children, she was effectively adopted by a childless aunt, Mary Blair Hargrave and her husband, Dr. Samuel Pleasants Hargrave, and lived with them in [[Hanover, Virginia]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=YvA_AAAAYAAJ&q=Sara+Agnes+Rice+Pryor Sara Agnes Rice Pryor, "Dedication to Mary Blair Hargrave", in ''The Colonel's Story''], New York, Macmillan, 1911</ref>  They were slaveholders.<ref name="Child">[http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/pryor/pryor.html#illustr9 Sara Agnes Rice Pryor, ''My Day: Reminiscences of a Long Life''], Macmillan Company, 1909, at ''Documenting the American South'', University of North Carolina, pp. 8-9</ref> When Sara was about eight, the Hargraves moved with her to [[Charlottesville, Virginia|Charlottesville]] where she completed her formal education.<ref name="Child"/> Sara Pryor shared her husband's struggles during their early years of poverty in Virginia (where they lived in various rented houses later demolished), and in New York. She sewed all the children's clothes, gained school scholarships, and helped her husband with his law studies.<ref name="Rice">[http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/pryor/pryor.html#illustr9 Pryor (1909), ''My Day''], pp. 336-339, accessed 23 April 2012</ref> Realizing that other women and children needed help, she raised money to found a home for them.<ref name="Rice"/>

Like her husband, Sarah Pryor helped found lineage and heritage organizations, including the Society for Preservation of the Virginia Antiquities (since 2009 named [[Preservation Virginia]]); the [[National Mary Washington Memorial Association]]; the [[Daughters of the American Revolution]] (DAR); and the [[National Society of the Colonial Dames of America]].<ref name="UNC">[http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/pryor/pryor.html Pryor (1909), ''My Day''], p. 420, accessed 13 April 2012.  Note: White Sulphur Springs was a traditional resort for the [[Planter (American South)|planter]] class of the South since the antebellum years.</ref>  She became a productive writer, after 1900 through the [[Macmillan Company]] publishing two histories on the colonial era, two memoirs and novels. Her ''Reminiscences of Peace and War'' (1904), was recommended by the [[United Daughters of the Confederacy]] to its membership for serious study.<ref name="Gardner">[https://books.google.com/books?id=-xG7Dfsxya8C&q=Sara+Pryor Sarah E. Gardner, ''Blood And Irony: Southern White Women's Narratives of the Civil War, 1861-1937''], University of North Carolina Press, 2006, pp. 128-130</ref>

Sara and Roger A. Pryor had seven children together:<ref name=Q>James pg. 103</ref> 
*Maria Gordon Pryor (called Gordon) (1850 - 1928), married Henry Crenshaw Rice (1842 - 1916) and had daughter Mary Blair Rice, who authored several books under the pen name of [[Blair Niles]].
*Theodorick Bland Pryor (1851 - 1871), died at the age of 20, likely a [[suicide]], as he had been suffering from [[depression (mood)|depression]].<ref name="Suplee"/> Admitted to [[Princeton College]] at an early age, he was its first mathematical fellow; he also studied at [[Cambridge University]], and had been studying law.<ref name="Suplee">[https://archive.org/details/lifeoftheodorick00suplrich Thomas Danly Suplee, ''The Life of Theodorick Bland Pryor: First Mathematical-Fellow of Princeton College''], Bacon, 1879</ref> 
*Roger Atkinson Pryor, became a lawyer in New York.<ref name="Pryors">
[http://www.tnpryors.com/southern_roots/roots_documents/PRYOR%20FAMILY%20Virginia.PDF "THE PRYOR FAMILY"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511235813/http://www.tnpryors.com/southern_roots/roots_documents/PRYOR%20FAMILY%20Virginia.PDF |date=2008-05-11 }}, ''Virginia Magazine of History and Biography'',
Volume 7, Number 1, July 1899, pp. 75-79, carried at Tennessee Pryors website, accessed 13 April 2012
</ref>
*Mary Blair Pryor, married Francis Thomas Walker<ref name="Pryors"/> and, as documented in *[https://www.maryblairdestiny.com "Mary Blair Destiny"].<ref>Richman, Erin ''Mary Blair Destiny'', Two Goddesses Publishing, page 41-42 {{ISBN|978-1-7330180-0-5}}.</ref> she had daughter Mary Blair Walker Zimmer <ref>Erin L. Richman, ''Mary Blair Destiny'', Two Goddesses Publishing, 2019.</ref> Buried in Princeton Cemetery.
*William Rice Pryor (b. c.1860 - 1900<ref>[http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/pryor/pryor.html#illustr9 Pryor (1909), ''My Day''], pp. 347-348, accessed 23 April 2012</ref>), became a physician and surgeon in New York and died young.<ref name="Pryors"/>
*Lucy Atkinson Pryor, married the architect [[A. Page Brown]]; in 1889 they moved to San Francisco, California.
*Francesca (Fanny) Theodora Bland Pryor (b. 31 December 1868), Petersburg, VA, married [[William de Leftwich Dodge]], a painter; they lived in Paris<ref name="Pryors"/> and New York.

Roger and Sara Pryor's great-great-great-granddaughter is Erin Richman, author of *[https://www.maryblairdestiny.com "Mary Blair Destiny"].

==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]].]]

==Postbellum activities==
In 1865, an impoverished Pryor moved to [[New York City]], invited by friends he had known before the war.<ref name="Cahners">[https://books.google.com/books?id=pZN2AAAAMAAJ Cahners Business Information review, ''Surviving the Confederacy''], 2002, accessed 12 April 2012</ref> He eventually established a law firm with the politician [[Benjamin Butler (politician)|Benjamin F. Butler]] of Boston.<ref name="A"/> Butler had been a Union general who was widely known and hated in the South.<ref name="B"/> Pryor became active in Democratic politics in New York.

Pryor brought his family from Virginia to New York in 1868, and they settled in [[Brooklyn Heights]]. They struggled with poverty for years but gradually began to get re-established.

Pryor learned to operate in New York Democratic Party politics, where he was prominent among influential southerners who became known as "Confederate carpetbaggers."<ref>David W. Blight, ''Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory,'' Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2001, p. 90</ref>   Eventually he gave speeches saying that he was glad that the nation had reunited and that the South had lost.<ref name="A"/><ref name="Cahners"/>  Pryor was elected as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1876, a year before the federal government pulled its last military forces out of the South and ended [[Reconstruction era (United States)|Reconstruction]].

Chosen by the Democratic Party for the important [[Memorial Day|Decoration Day]] address in 1877, after the national compromise that resulted in the federal government pulling its troops out of the South, Pryor vilified [[Reconstruction era (United States)|Reconstruction]] and promoted the [[Lost Cause]].  He referred to all the soldiers as noble victims of politicians, although he had been one who gave fiery speeches in favor of secession and war.<ref name="Blight 2001 pp. 90-91"/> Historian [[David W. Blight]] has written that Pryor was one of a number of influential politicians who shaped the story of the war as excluding the issue of slavery; in the following years, the increasing reconciliation between the North and South was based on excluding freedmen and the issues of race.<ref name="Blight 2001 pp. 90-91"/><ref name="Sutherland249"/><ref>Pryor stated that it was the principle of federal usurpation of the rights of States to restrict the extension of slavery, not slavery itself, for which the Southern states fought. He went on to say: "The Divinity that presided over the destinies of the Republic at its nativity graciously endowed it with every element of stability save one; and now that in the exuberance of its bounty the same propitious Providence is pleased to replace the weakness of slavery by the unconquerable strength of freedom, we may fondly hope that the existence of our blessed Union is limited only by the mortality that measures the duration of all human institutions." Pryor, Roger A. "Essays and Addresses". New York: Neale Pub. Co., 1912. {{OCLC|6060863}} p. 76.</ref>

In 1890, Pryor was appointed as judge of the [[New York Court of Common Pleas]], where he served until 1894.  He was next appointed as justice of the [[New York Supreme Court]], serving from 1894 to 1899, when he retired.<ref name="F"/>

In December 1890, Pryor joined the New York chapter of the new heritage/lineage organization, [[Sons of the American Revolution]] (SAR), for male descendants of participants in the war. When admitted, he and his documented ancestors were all entered under his membership number of 4043.<ref>[http://search.ancestry.com/browse/view.aspx?dbid=2204&iid=32596_242044-00113&pid=41415&ssrc=&fn=Roger+Atkinson&ln=Pryor&st=g "Record for Roger Atkinson Pryor"], ''U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970'', Ancestry.com, accessed 13 April 2012</ref>  Annoyed at being excluded from the men's club, Sara Agnes Rice Pryor and other women founded chapters of the [[Daughters of the American Revolution]], setting up their own lineage society to recognize women's contributions and organize for historic preservation and education.

In retirement, Pryor was appointed on April 10, 1912, as official referee by the appellate division of the [[New York State Supreme Court]].

==Death and legacy==
Pryor's judicial career ended with his death on March 14, 1919, in [[New York City]].<ref name=obit>{{cite news |title=Gen. Roger A. Pryor Dies In 91st Year. Ex-Justice of New York Supreme Court Was a Famous Confederate Soldier. Last Survivor of the Firing on Fort Sumter Was Long a Leader of the Bar Here. |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9805E6D91E39E13ABC4D52DFB5668382609EDE |quote=Roger Atkinson Pryor, former Justice of the New York State Supreme Court and famous as a soldier in the Confederate Army, died at his home, 3 West Sixty-ninth Street, last night at the age of 90 |newspaper=[[New York Times]] | date=15 March 1919 |access-date=2015-01-13 }}</ref><ref name="F"/> He was buried in [[Princeton Cemetery]], in [[Princeton, New Jersey]].,<ref name=F>Welsh pp. 177-178</ref> where his wife and their sons Theodorick and William had already been buried. His daughter, Mary Blair Pryor Walker, was also buried near him after her death.<ref name="Erin L. Richman 2019">Erin L. Richman (2019), ''Mary Blair Destiny'', Two Goddesses Publishing</ref>

A Virginia highway marker honors Pryor's birthplace near Petersburg, Virginia.<ref>https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=14769</ref>



{{ahnentafel
|collapsed=yes |align=center
|boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc;
|boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9;
|boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;
|boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;
|1= 1. '''Roger Atkinson Pryor'''
|2= 2. Theodorick Bland Pryor
|3= 3. Lucy Atkinson
|4= 4. Richard Pryor
|5= 5. Anne Bland
|6= 6. Roger Atkinson, Jr.
|7= 7. Agnes Poythress
|8= 8. John Pryor
|9= 9. Anne Bland
|10= 10. William Bland
|11= 11. Elizabeth Yates
|12= 12. Roger Atkinson, Sr.
|13= 
|14= 14. Peter Poythress
|15=  
}}

==See also==
{{portal|American Civil War|Biography}}
*[[List of American Civil War generals (Confederate)]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|30em}}

==References==
*Eicher, John H., and [[David J. Eicher]], ''Civil War High Commands.'' Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. {{ISBN|978-0-8047-3641-1}}.
*[[David J. Eicher|Eicher, David J.]] ''The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War.'' New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. {{ISBN|978-0-684-84944-7}}.
*James, Edward T., James, Janet Wilson, Boyer, Paul S.; ''Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary,'' Harvard University Press, (1971) {{ISBN|0-674-62734-2}}
{{CongBio|P000558}} Retrieved on 2008-02-13
*Pryor, Roger A. "Essays and Addresses". New York: Neale Pub. Co., 1912. {{OCLC|6060863}}.
*Richman, Erin L. "Mary Blair Destiny". Two Goddesses Publishing, 2019. {{ISBN|978-1-7330180-0-5}}.
*Scott, Henry Wilson, Ingalls, John James; ''Distinguished American Lawyers with Their Struggles and Triumphs in the Forum'' (1890)
*Sifakis, Stewart. ''Who Was Who in the Civil War.'' New York: Facts On File, 1988. {{ISBN|978-0-8160-1055-4}}.
*Sutherland, Daniel E. ''The Confederate Carpetbaggers''. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988. {{ISBN|978-0-8071-1393-6}}.
*[[Ezra J. Warner (historian)|Warner, Ezra J.]] ''Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders.'' Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. {{ISBN|978-0-8071-0823-9}}.
*Waugh, John C.; ''Surviving the Confederacy: Rebellion, Ruin, and Recovery : Roger and Sara Pryor during the Civil War'', Harcourt, (2002) {{ISBN|0-15-100389-0}}
*Welsh, Jack D.; ''Medical Histories of Confederate Generals,'' Kent State University Press, (1999) {{ISBN|0-87338-649-3}}
*Wilson, James Grant, Fiske, John; ''Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography,'' D. Appleton, (1900)

==Further reading==
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=-xG7Dfsxya8C&q=Sara+Pryor Sarah E. Gardner, ''Blood And Irony: Southern White Women's Narratives of the Civil War, 1861-1937''], University of North Carolina Press, 2006
*Holzman, Robert S. ''Adapt or Perish; The Life of General Roger A. Pryor, C.S.A.'', Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1976.
*[https://www.maryblairdestiny.com Richman, Erin L. "Mary Blair Destiny"], Two Goddesses Publishing, 2019.

==External links==
*[http://www.highwaymarker.org/signtext.cfm?sm=1730 Virginia State Highway Memorial Marker]
*[http://www.maryblairdestiny.com Mary Blair Destiny]

{{s-start}}
{{s-par|us-hs}}
{{US House succession box
| state=Virginia
| district=4
| before=[[William Goode (politician)|William Goode]]
| after=[[George Booker]]<sup>(1)</sup>
| years=1859–1861
}}
{{s-par|cs-hs}}
{{succession box
| title=Member of the [[Congress of the Confederate States|Confederate States House of Representatives]]<br/>from Virginia's 4th congressional district
| before=''Position established''
| after=[[Charles Fenton Collier|Charles F. Collier]]
| years=1862
}}
{{s-ref|Because of [[Virginia]]'s secession, the House seat was vacant for almost eleven years before Booker succeeded Pryor.}}

{{EB1911|wstitle=Pryor, Roger Atkinson|volume=22|page=533}}
{{VirginiaRepresentatives04}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pryor, Roger Atkinson}}
[[Category:1828 births]]
[[Category:1919 deaths]]
[[Category:Members of the Confederate House of Representatives from Virginia]]
[[Category:Confederate States Army brigadier generals]]
[[Category:19th-century American newspaper publishers (people)]]
[[Category:American Civil War prisoners of war]]
[[Category:Hampden–Sydney College alumni]]
[[Category:Burials at Princeton Cemetery]]
[[Category:University of Virginia School of Law alumni]]
[[Category:Bland family (Virginia)]]
[[Category:New York (state) Democrats]]
[[Category:Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia]]
[[Category:People from Dinwiddie County, Virginia]]
[[Category:People from Brooklyn Heights]]
[[Category:Fire-Eaters]]
[[Category:19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives]]