Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On January 27, 1828, Brigadier General Samuel Allen Rice was born. Fatally wounded while serving in the American Civil War, Rice also served as the Attorney General of Iowa before taking up the cause of the Union.
Born in New York, Rice moved west with his family twice during childhood to eventually wind up in Ohio. After graduating from Union College, he moved to Oskaloosa, Iowa, in 1851 and maintained a private law practice until he was elected Mahaska County Attorney in 1853. Elected Iowa Attorney General in 1856 and 1858, Rice remained a Unionist partisan of Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood through the start of the Civil War.
Rice organized the 33rd Iowa Infantry in Oskaloosa during the summer of 1862 and received a commission as Colonel of the 33rd. When the army called the regiment to service in October of 1862, Rice participated in the Yazoo Pass Expedition and fought at the Battle of Helena before he won a promotion to Brigadier General on August 4, 1863.
Rice and the 33rd joined in the occupation of Little Rock, Arkansas, and eventually served in the Red River Campaign. At the Battle of Jenkins' Ferry, Arkansas, on April 30, 1864, Rice led a counterattack when a bullet struck his spur, driving fragments of it through his boot. Sent home to Oskaloosa, he died in surgery and was buried at Forest Cemetery in Oskaloosa. #IowaOTD #IowaHistoryDaily #IowaHistoryCalendar
