Rice is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Prince Edward County,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, United States. Rice has a U.S. Post Office with the ZIP code 23966. The nearest town to Rice is

Farmville ''FarmVille'' is a series of agriculture-simulation social network game developed and published by Zynga in 2009. It is similar to ''Happy Farm'' and ''Farm Town''. Its gameplay involves various aspects of farmland management, such as plowing l ...

. During the Civil War era, it was known as Rice's Depot. The Mayor of Rice Virginia is Philip Garnett.

Demographics

As of 2010, Rice's population is 2,256 people. Since 2000, it has had a population growth of 9.51 percent. The median home cost in Rice is $164,640. Home appreciation the last year has been -4.00 percent. Compared to the rest of the country, Rice's cost of living is 4.90% Lower than the U.S. average. Prince Edward County has one elementary school, one middle-school and one high school all located in Farmville, and school buses are used throughout the county including in Rice. Prince Edward County's public schools spend $5,458 per student. The average school expenditure in the U.S. is $5,678. The unemployment rate in Rice is 8.10 percent (U.S. avg. is 10.20%). Recent job growth is negative. Rice jobs have decreased by 1.96 percent.

History

This town was a stop on the Southside Railroad in the mid-nineteenth century. This became the

Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad (AM&O) was formed in 1870 in Virginia from three east–west railroads which traversed across the southern portion of the state. Organized and led by former Confederate general William Mahone (1826-1895) ...

in 1870 and then a line in the

Norfolk and Western Railway The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisio ...

. Site of the

Battle of Rice's Station The Battle of Rice's Station was a minor engagement in Appomattox Campaign of the American Civil War that was fought at the same time as the Battle of Sailor's Creek on April 6, 1865. In the early morning of April 6, Confederate States Army, ...

, a minor engagement in the Appomattox Campaign of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

that was the immediate prelude to the

Battle of Sayler's Creek The Battle of Sailor's Creek was fought on April 6, 1865, near Farmville, Virginia, as part of the Appomattox Campaign, near the end of the American Civil War. It was the last major engagement between the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, c ...

. On the evening of April 6, 1865, General Robert E. Lee waited with General James Longstreet's Corps in Rice's Depot for the rest of the army to come up. Hearing heavy firing to the east, General Lee investigated the situation, taking General William Mahone's division with him. Lee rode about two miles back along the Rice-Deatonville Road to a high knoll above Big Sailor's Creek where he saw "teamsters without wagons, soldiers without rifles, and shattered regiments without officers" fleeing across the creek and up the hill. He was reported to have said, "My God has the army been dissolved?" One of the men answered, "No, General, here are troops ready to do their duty." In fact, Lee lost a fifth of his army at the battle of Sailor's Creek. Rice is on the

High Bridge Trail State Park High Bridge Trail State Park is a rail trail in Southside Virginia converted from a rail line last belonging to Norfolk Southern. The first section of the High Bridge Trail opened in 2008 and the final section was completed in 2012. With a leng ...

, on the former path of the Southside Railroad, and has a large parking lot for access to the Trail.

References

Unincorporated communities in Virginia Unincorporated communities in Prince Edward County, Virginia {{PrinceEdwardCountyVA-geo-stub