Evening star., 1937-01-24
Washington Woman Cheris1.es
Friendship With Robert E. Lee
Mrs. Pryor, sc, Recalls
Gentle Heroisn, of Great
Leader During War.
BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.


The Mrs Anne Bannister Pryor, 8o'
of 20l1 Kalorama road, this. the
natal month of Robert E. Lee. holds
many precious memories of her child
hood associations with this great
Southern military leader. DR.. Doug
las Freeman, author of the Pulitzer
prize winning Robert E. Lee" &C
knowledges his appreciation OF certain
of them.
They live again as Mrs. Pryor re-
calls them to you at the home OF her
daughter, Mrs. F. Gerald Pryor. She
re-creates a moving pageant Of tragedy
and tears, or of good times and gay
bravery that bent under the burden Of
misfortune, but never was entirely
broken by it.
She re-creates for you. as little Anne
Bannister. child of the old South,
having tender and wonderful friend
ship with Gen. Lee in Chelsea House,
century-old-ho of her fathers peo-
pie in Petersburg, Va, during the Civil
War. Nearby were his headquarters,
and from there the man in command
of the Southern cause often came to
the fatherless home which her mother
so bravely held together, and found
respite from the burden of a cause
fore ordained to be lost one:
We can visualize the grim horrors of
the Civil War with this snowy-haired.
blue-eyed, truly great lady, whose
cheeks still have the faint pink bloom
OF late roses in Southern gardens.
Unconsciously, she dramatically inter-
weaves them with recitals Of the
gracious hospitality of the residents
of Southern town under enemy fire,
sharing their home with the dis
tinguished guest in their midst.
Member of First Family"
As her maiden name Of Bannister
would indicate, Mrs. Pryor is entitled
TO membership and kinship with the
first families of Observation-Disclosures
as she is by that inherent, democratic
simplicity which ever marks the true
eristocrat. Because she is from
Virginia family which gave its man
power for its convictions, Mrs. Pryor
understands the depths of the sacri-
flee for himself and his family which
Lee made that night in the library
of Blair House here in Washington,
when he refused the command of the
United States forces because he could
not bring himself to lead an army Of
invasion against the Southland.
One of the satisfaction of her life,
Mrs. Pryor says, "is that the Stratford
Memorial Association is going ahead
with its campaign for the restoration
and maintenance Of Stratford House,
birthplace of Lee and of his dis
tingushed forbears."
Mrs Pryor's first recollections Of
Lee have to do with one day during
Grants siege of Petersburg. when, be-
cause of the constant shelling from
the Union guns they were unable to
bury her l6-year-old brother, Nor
borne, in the family plot at Bland
ford Cemetery. few faithful, re-
manning Negro servants had dug his
grave under the willow trees in their
garden. and they we're sorrowfully
burying him, while his family stood
by with a handful of old friends.
Looking up from the burial service
being read by DR.. Platt, rector of st.
Paul's Church, Mrs. Pryor remembers
seeing Gen. Lee on his horse, Trav-
eller, outside the white picket fence
around the garden, accompanied by
officers Of his staff. Heads reverently
barred, they silently withdrew at the
end of the rites.
The next afternoon Gen. Lee came
alone to the Bannister home. ITO
my mother" she said, Gen. Lee spoke
not so much of our beloved dead as
he did of the gallantry and bravery
of the two sons who were living"
One Of them, she recalled, Handsome"
Blair Bannister of Mahone's Brigade
AS he used to be called-came safely
through that terrible to-hand
fight in the Crater.
General Dined With Family.
Prom that time until the evacua-
tion OF Petersburg" Mrs. Pryor said,
General Lee came to dine with us
every Sunday afternoon that there
wasn't any fighting. What did we
have for dinner? Even with Gen. Lee
as our guest, the fare could not be
very different from what it was on
coffee made from sweet potatoes,
sweetened with sorgum, and one slice
Of bacon each.
Whenever he could, without my
mother objecting. Gen. Lee would save
his piece of bacon until last and slip
1t over onto my plate. No matter how
much I really meant to heed the ma
ternal warnings that we're admins
tered to me in advance, my childish
yearning for it invariably caused me
to eat the bacon Immediately, 30 as
to be ready to eat that extra piece.
You see," Mrs. Pryor continued,
my uncle, Robert Boiling, drove up
In wagon to our home in Petersburg
the afternoon after that first on
slaught upon the city by Kraut's
Union raiders. My fathers lifeless
body lay in it, shot through the head,
his gray hair dabbled with blood. He
had been one OF small company Of
about so old men who had pitifully
and inadequately tried to keep back a
force of nearly thousand. Our
neighbor, Gen. Archer of the Mexican
War, and his equally aged colored
body servant, had even somehow
dragged a small cannon from the pub
lie square to the water-works. Here
they kept up such cannon
ade that for a while the Union
Glasses now forming for new semester
SPANISH e,',' ta = ,tn@en.. sa.,sa