Price, Samuel Woodson, 1828-1918

Soldier, painter.

Price was born in Nicholasville, Ky. He studied painting and portraiture under Oliver Frazer. During much of the Civil War, Price served as a colonel in the Union Army, commanding the 21st Regiment, Kentucky Volunteers. He was wounded in the battle of Kennesaw Mountain in 1864, and in 1865 was promoted to brevet brigadier general. After the war he achieved prominence as a portrait painter.

Biographical note: Samuel Woodson Price was born in Nicholasville, Kentucky in 1828. He received early training from noted Lexington painter, Oliver Frazer and in the decade preceding the Civil War gained some renown as a portraitist.

During the Civil War Price served as a colonel in the Twenty-First Kentucky Infantry. After being severely wounded at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain (1864), he was reassigned to duty in Lexington.

In 1869 he was appointed postmaster of Lexington and continued to paint. In 1876 Price was removed as postmaster by President Ulysses S. Grant, and two years later moved to Louisville to continued his career as a portraitist. Price's career ended in the early 1880s when he lost his sight. In his later years he wrote a history of the Twenty-First Kentucky Infantry, and OLD MASTERS OF THE BLUEGRASS, a history of early Kentucky artists. He died in St. Louis in 1918.