SCV honors NGCSU founder Col. William Pierce Price

By Sharon Hall

Published: Thursday, November 12, 2009 10:48 AM EST

A project taking nearly two years concluded Saturday as Camp 1860 Sons of Confederate Veterans, Blue Ridge Rifles placed the Southern Cross of Honor on the grave of Col. William Pierce Price. One of the aims of the local SCV chapter, Camp Commander Tim Ragland told those gathered for the ceremony, is “to preserve Southern history.”

In August 2008, Camp 1860 took on the project of repairing and restoring the resting place of one of Lumpkin County's most prominent citizens, Civil War veteran and founder of what is now North Georgia College & State University, Col. Price. Ragland approached William Craig, Price's great-grandson, with the idea. Craig said he had been planning on doing something to restore the grave site, which also holds the remains of other Price and Craig family members, and was glad to give his permission.

Ragland next approached the university, which donated the funds for the restoration. Members of the SCV did the work.

Camp 1860 1st Lt. Commander Jeff Martin attended a workshop of the Georgia Cemetery Association to learn how to go about restoring the granite gravestone before tackling the job of cleaning off 100-plus years of lichen, mold and dirt without damaging the stone. A special non-acid solution must be used. “Even vinegar will damage the stone,” Martin said.

SCV volunteers also leveled the plot by filling in sunken areas after removing all the old gravel and replacing it with new stones. They repaired the coping, replaced the fence and installed a concrete pad at the gate to the plot. The final touch was the installation of the Southern Cross of Honor during Saturday's ceremony. It is a service Camp 1860 has performed numerous times at the graves of Confederate veterans in Lumpkin County, and plan to continue doing “until every grave of every Lumpkin County Confederate veteran is honored,” Ragland said.

The Southern Cross of Honor came into being long after the Civil War. In 1898, the Athens, Georgia Chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy came up with the idea for a way to honor members of the Army and Navy of the Confederate States of America in memory “of those men who represented all that was lofty in principle, pure in patriotism and dauntless in courage.”

Price certainly proved his courage and patriotism to the Confederacy. At the outbreak of the Civil War he spoke to a large audience at the Dahlonega Courthouse (now the Gold Museum), urging men to volunteer for the Southern cause. During the war he served as an orderly in Kershaw's Second South Carolina Regiment. Wounded at Lewisville, Va. in 1861 he returned to South Carolina, where he had been practicing law before joining the Confederate forces, and was elected to that state's House of Representatives, where he served from 1864 to 1866.

Price then returned to his hometown of Dahlonega and served in the Georgia House of Representatives before being elected to represent the state in the U.S. Congress. It was as a U.S. Congressman (1870-1873) that Price demonstrated his lofty principles-a belief in the importance of education. His position in Congress, Craig said during his address at the grave site of his ancestor, “allowed him to do something he always wanted to do-establish a college in north Georgia. I think he considered it to be the highest accomplishment of his career.”

Price convinced the federal government to give the state the property that once was the site of the federal mint for educational purposes. The result was the founding of what is now North Georgia College & State University. The college barely had its doors open when fire destroyed the old mint in 1878. Price took a prominent role in the design and reconstruction of the college. He also donated $4,200 to the school as an investment in Georgia eight-percent-bonds. Interest from these bonds paid faculty salaries in the school's early days.

Price served as president of the school's board of trustees until his death in 1908.

Price also served the South through a friendship he developed with President Ulysses S. Grant. Price became friends with Grant while in the Congress, Craig said, and Grant “leaned on him for advice on Reconstruction.”

He also became a close associate of President William McKinley and his family. When McKinley visited Atlanta in 1898, Price presented him with a Dahlonega gold nugget as a symbol of friendship and genuine Southern hospitality. On his assassination, Craig said, McKinley's wife, Ida, requested Price to be in charge of the Honor Guard at her husband's funeral. “I have a letter of thanks from Ida McKinley with a black border,” Craig told those attending Saturday's ceremony.

Price wrote much about the history of Dahlonega, including its militia districts, Confederate soldiers and mining history. He was active in the Baptist church, acting as chairman of its building fund and contributing $1,000 and helping to secure much of the $4,200 cost of construction. The baptistry was lined with copper made from old stills donated to the church by former moonshiners at his suggestion.

In the late 1890s Price took up the cause of public education in Lumpkin County, serving on the board of education.

In 1900 he became Dahlonega's first mayor. He laid out the city's first “subdivision,” Mechanicsville, so-named in honor of a Civil War battle in Mechanicsville, Virginia in 1862.

On the occasion of Price's death, both the college and public school closed and court was suspended for his memorial service. He was buried with Masonic honors at Mt. Hope Cemetery.

Saturday Price was once again honored for his contributions to the South and his home of Dahlonega. While Camp 1860 SCV Blue Ridge Rifles stood by the colors of the United States and the United Confederate States on one side of the grave site, members of the NGCSU Blue Ridge Rifles Drill Team stood at attention on the opposite side, and other team members fired off a 21-gun salute in honor of Col. William Pierce Price.

“It's been an honor and a privilege to have been able to preserve a part of Lumpkin County history for future generations, and honor Col. Price today,” Ragland said.

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