While In Columbia, South Carolina....

One of the tourist stops in Columbia, SC, is the Zoo/Gardens complex that straddles the Saluda River.


In the 1860's that was the site of the Saluda Factory combined with CAMP SORGHUM, a prisoner of war camp. Great-great grandfather, James A. Rice, was a POW there.

[Photo is the entrance from the present day gardens to the Camp Sorghum / Saluda Factory ruins at a lower elevation near the Saluda river]


On his second tour of duty in the Civil War, Captain James A. Rice, of Co. K 73 Regiment, Illinois Infantry Volunteers, was " …wounded in Battle at Chickamauga, Tenn [GA] on the 20^th day of September 1863 while in battle and in the line of duty, that he was left on the field and captured by the enemy—that his wound was in the side – according to a handwritten document dated 26 June 1867 authored by D. B. VanWinkle. Daniel VanWinkle stated "...that he knows the facts above stated by having been with the Company at the time. That he has no interest in this claim. (Signed) D. B. VanWinkle….Perry Co., Illinois."

Prisoner of War Records (included in James A. Rice's Pension/Military records) stated the following:

Captured at Chickamauga Ga Sept 20/63

Photos were taken at the Chickamauga Battlefield; the field where Captain James A. Rice probably would have been captured (near the 73rd Illinois monument) and also a marker of Laiboldt's Brigade. [Click on photo(s) to enlarge]





















Confined at Rich Va Sept 30/63
Sent to Macon, Ga May 7/64

Confined at prison camp near Columbia S.C.; his name is borne on a list of sick and conval. at said Camp, remark wound in hand [Note: Wound In Hand Occurred At Fort Donelson, Feb. 13/14, 1862, when James A. Rice was a member of "B" 18 Ill Inf]

Paroled at Charleston, S.C., Dec 10/64
A New York Times article described the conditions at Camp Sorghum and the prisoners who arrived in Charleston, and included a list of prisoners, although James Rice was not named in the article.

Reported at Camp Parole Md Dec 15/64
Granted leave of absence Dec 19/64 for 30 days
Reported at Camp Chase, O

After the Civil War James A. Rice went home to Saline Co., Illinois, where he married Nancy J. Patillo on December 4, 1866. He "died at his residence in said Saline County, Illinois on the 17th day of May 1899 of result of a bullet or gun shot wound for which pensioned, said bullet being lodged near and in close proximity to the spine and there remaining until death. " [Per papers filed for a Widow's Pension by Nancy J. Rice]