The Mathews journal. (Mathews C.H. [Court House]) 1903-1937, 1911-04-20
ONLY SURVIVOR OF
MEMORABLE BATTLE

Wednesdays New York World
prints the following:
Today. the fftieth anniversary OF
the firing on Fort Sumter, will have
meaning for Roger Atkinson Pryor.
or West Sixty ninth Street. that IL
can have for no other man alive. He,
is the sole survivor OF either force en-
gagged in that portentous affair.
Another distinction might have be-
ionged to General Pryor IL he would
have taken 1.-THE firing OF the shot
, itself Two days before the fatefuI
18th the eloquent young tribune OF
virginia.. as Horace Greedy called.
MIN at the time, made a fiery speech
from the balcony OF the Mills House
in Charleston. Virginia. his native
state. like the rest OF the border
sion.
Strike one blow and Virginia will
secede in an hour by Shrewsbury
clock." young Pryor told the cheering
crowds; and without delay General
Beauregard sent an ultimatum to Ma
1or Robert Anderson. Sumter's COM
mandant.
Major Anderson rejected the ulti-
lnatum and General Pryor was one OF
the men who carried that word back
10 Beauregard. The news was taken
10 Fort Johnson at the mouth OF
charleston Bay. Captain George s.
James was in command there. He Of
Tered TO Pryor the privilege OF firing
the Shot that was to them the only
possible answer. General Pryor de-
cined. because Virginia was still in
the Union, and Captain James opened
the engagement
His Prophecy Was Verified.
Three days later Lincoln issued his
eau Tor troops" General Pryor said
ed to Virginia, as il was to all other
states. but Virginia could not strike
against the South. She withdrew. as
south Carolina had the December be-
nd h..
against the North. That WAS what we
had been seeking all through the eN-
citing days OF that winter-somethinE
mat would swing the border States
INTO line. Ii needed only the striking
of one blow. and when that came at
sumter the result was precisely as
we had foreseen."
General Pryor is eighty-three years
OLD. lie has been a resident of New
York since 1865, and for twenty years
was one of the most distinguished
members OF the bar of this county.
lie was one Of Theodore Tilton's coun-
SCI In mis- suit against Henry Ward
Beecher. He went To London to Join
the defense Of the PheniX Park muir
derers. He carried the appeal of the
chicago anarchists to the United States
supreme Court, In 1890 he became
judge OF the Court Of Common Pleas
ana in 1894 justice OF the Supreme
Court. On January ISgq he -
tired.
DtSplle MS years. General PRYOR &
howing hair is barely tinged with gray.
He carries his slight figure erectlv-
and his five feet ten inches seem more
IN consequence. His blue eyes are stilI
keen and his mouth is wide and firm.
In his library, where he talked YES
terday, the walls are given over to his
books and TO trophies OF a pub
| lie life that began in 1919. and
that has included many years of
journalism; a mission TO Greece
under President Pierce; two terms
in the United States Congress.
and two in the Confederate: military
service that carried him to a briga-
dier's stars and then back to a pri-
Yates rank great distinction as a
| lawyer, and a remarkable record as
judge.
! Oldest Newspaper Man.
General Pryor is proud of the fact
that he is perhaps the oldest news
paper man in the United States. He
was editor of the South Side News. OF
Petersburg, Va. in lS49. In 1854 he
was an editorial writer on the Wash
| ington Union. In 1856 he became one
/ OF the owners Of the Richmond En-
quirer His first employment In New
/ Y ork after the war was as editor of
Ben Woods Daily News, which had
/ been a vigorous supporter OF the South
/ throughout the conflict.
One other thing General Pryor mod
estly calls attention TO. That is the
/ fact that even while he was in the
! ahnS nc was sun DTlSauler general
in the Confederate army. In 1864 he
! was superseded by the orders OF an un-
] friendly Secretary of War in the COM
mand of brigade in the Army of
Northern Virginia. He resigned his
commission and enlisted as a nrivate
| IN cavalry regiment under Fitzhugh
| Lee. Jefferson Davis refused 70 ac~s
cept his resignation, and early IN the
winter Of 1864. when the former gen
eral was still private. he was made
a prisoner. lie spent six months in
Fort Lafayette, New york. hut when
the war ended his commission as a
brigadier was still in effect
His Most Priced Trophy.
The trophy of the war that Cen
eral Pryor prizes most highly is the
message he sent his wife on November
p. 1864. telling her of his capture
1T was written in pencil on the inside
of an envelope, but before he had had
a chance to start il on it's way, through
the Daily News office in New York, il
was taken from him when he was
searched at the Capitol prison in
Washington.
In 1897 General Pryor was prepar-
ing charge to a jury in the Court
of Common Pleas, when Latin KEEL
logg, the attorney. of lis Broadway,
handed him an envelope with the re-
mark that he might be interested in
what was Inside it," General Pryor
put IL into his pocket. and IL was not
until he had reached home that even
ing that he discovered it's nature IT
was the message to his wife. II Is now
FRO M ~ nd In Mo %