George William Pearce

In 1860 he was a 23 year old day laborer living with his parents and siblings on the substantial family farm at Holt in Jasper County, MS. He enlisted on 27 April 1861 at Paulding, Jasper County, MS and mustered as a Private in Company F, 16th Mississippi Infantry on 31 May 1861 in Corinth.

He was wounded in the arm in action at Sharpsburg, MD on 17 September 1862.

He was in a Richmond, VA hospital by 30 September and was on furlough to at least February 1863. He transferred to Company A, 40th Mississippi Infantry on 8 April 1863, and was captured at the Big Black River Bridge, MS on 17 May 1863. He was at Fort Delaware by 9 June and paroled and/or exchanged there on 3 July 1863. He was listed as absent without leave after 23 August 1863, under arrest at Selma, AL in 1864, and as a deserter at Cedartown, GA as of 9 November 1864. There is no later military record.

By 1870 he was back with his parents, then farming at Pass Christian in Harrison County, MS. In 1900 he was a day laborer in Jones County, MS.

His service from his Compiled Military Service Records,1 online from fold3, also as George W. Pierce. His Sharpsburg wound also in a casualty list in the New Orleans Times-Picayune of 29 October 1862, as G.W. Prince. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860, 1870, and 1900. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Jasper physician Archibald Lovett's daughter Catherine Elizabeth Lovett (1842-1910) in August 1865 and they had 7 children. George was "an important witness in case of Pvt D. W. Mc Lovett" in June 1864, details not given. That man was probably Daniel McCall "Mac" Lovett (1843-1925), also in Company A, 40th Mississippi, and Catherine's younger brother.

06/27/1837; Perry County, MS

04/13/1906; Jasper County, MS; burial in Orange Cemetery, Clarke County, MS