| Rice | |
| Settlement Type: | Unincorporated community |
| Pushpin Map: | Virginia#USA |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location within the Commonwealth of Virginia |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | United States |
| Subdivision Type1: | State |
| Subdivision Name1: | Virginia |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name2: | Prince Edward |
| Unit Pref: | Imperial |
| Population As Of: | United States Census, 2010 |
| Population Total: | 2,256 |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Timezone: | Eastern (EST) |
| Utc Offset: | -5 |
| Timezone Dst: | EDT |
| Utc Offset Dst: | -4 |
| Coordinates: | 37.2753°N -78.2914°W |
| Postal Code Type: | ZIP codes |
| Postal Code: | 23966 |
| Blank Name: | FIPS code |
| Blank1 Name: | GNIS feature ID |
Rice is an unincorporated community in Prince Edward County, Virginia, United States. Rice has a U.S. Post Office with the ZIP code 23966. The nearest town to Rice is Farmville. During the Civil War era, it was known as Rice's Depot.
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.
This town was a stop on the Southside Railroad in the mid-nineteenth century. This became the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad in 1870 and then a line in the Norfolk and Western Railway.[1]
Site of the Battle of Rice's Station, a minor engagement in the Appomattox Campaign of the American Civil War that was the immediate prelude to the Battle of Sayler's Creek.[2] [3] 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." Nonetheless, Lee lost a fifth of his remaining army at the battle of Sailor's Creek.[4] The Army of Northern Virginia surrendered three days later, ending the Appomattox Campaign and removing one of the Confederacy's most prominent armies and commanders from the field.
Rice is on the High Bridge Trail State Park, on the former path of the Southside Railroad, and has a large parking lot for access to the Trail.
http://www.civilwartraveler.com/EAST/VA/va-southside/LR-RadioScripts.html#14