History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Elliott W. Rice
ELLIOTT W. RICE, a brother of General Samuel A. Rice, was born on the 16th of November, 1835, at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. He was a graduate of Franklin College, Ohio, and took the law course at the Albany Law School. In 1855 he came to Iowa and entered into partnership with his brother in the practice of law at Oskaloosa. At the beginning of the Civil War he enlisted as a private in the Seventh Iowa Volunteers and rose rapidly through successive promotions to the rank of colonel and upon the promotion of Lauman to Brigadier-General, Rice succeeded him in command of the Seventh Regiment. At the Battle of Belmont the command of the regiment devolved upon Rice at the most critical period of the conflict and his superb gallantry won him his promotion. He was in the battles of Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Iuka and Corinth. Colonel Rice commanded a brigade in Sherman's march to the sea and on the 20th of June, 1864, he was promoted to Brigadier-General.