This class is a dramatization of a true story of good will among men and women. While battles between North and South raged over our area, three men’s lives became intertwined ending in actions that showed the best of humanity. In July 21, 1861, Private John L Rice with the 2nd New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, was wounded and left by his comrades for dead near Sudley Methodist Church hospital. As the Union troops retreated across Sudley Ford on The Bull Run. Mr. and Mrs. Amos Benson, Sudley Church members living across The Bull Run in Fairfax County, found the young Private Rice and nursed him back to health. The Benson-Rice Storytellers will retell their recollections during a time when our nation was horribly divided. The story is how a simple deed of human compassion brought together Col. John Rice, Corporal Amos Benson and Major General John Newton, and reconciled these former enemies, healing a community and the country. They will tell us the story in Sudley Methodist Church, where the events actually occurred.


LLI Coordinator: David Pace