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E.C. Pierce
(1836 - 1896)
Home State: Maine
Branch of Service: Infantry
Before Antietam
In 1860 he was a 23 year old ornamenter (painter) living with his parents and siblings in Augusta, ME. On 31 May 1861, giving his residence as Springfield, MA, he enlisted as a Corporal in Company F, 10th Massachusetts Infantry. He was discharged on 5 September to accept the commission as 2nd Lieutenant, Company B, 3rd Maine Infantry. He was detailed as an Acting Signal Officer, USA in December 1861 and was promoted to First Lieutenant on 6 April 1862. He was with General Banks in the Valley of Virginia in the Spring of 1862 and at Culpeper, VA with General Pope in the August Campaign.
On the Campaign
He was with Captain Fisher on the march in Maryland by 10 September 1862. On the 15th he manned a station on South Mountain and at the battle of Antietam on 17 September was on the west bank of the Antietam Creek near the battlefield with General Slocum's Division (First of the Sixth Corps). He was at the station on Elk Ridge in view of the Antietam battlefield by 20 September 1862.
The rest of the War
He was Chief Signal Officer to General Franklin at Fredericksburg, VA in December and was promoted to Captain on 22 December 1862. He was with General Sedgwick at Chancellorsville, VA in May and at Gettysburg in July. He applied for a direct US Army commission in the Signal Corps, but was declined. He mustered out on 28 June 1864.
After the War
In 1880 he was an "ornamental decorator" in Springfield, MA.
References & notes
His basic service from Soldiers, Sailors and Marines1 and Maine.2 Maryland Campaign events from Captain B.F. Fisher's Report. Details from Brown.3 Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860 and 1880. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a photograph sold by The Horse Soldier, Gettysburg.
He married Mary Coggin Sayward (1842-1903) in December 1867 and they had 3 children.
Birth
01/30/1836; Nashua, NH
Death
05/23/1896; Roxbury, MA; burial in Holyhood Cemetery, Brookline, MA
1 Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Adjutant General, Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the Civil War, 8 Vols, Norwood (MA): Norwood Press, 1931-35, Vol. 1, pg. 713 [AotW citation 28667]
2 State of Maine, Adjutant General's Office, and John L. Hodsdon, AG, Annual Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Maine for the Year ending December 31, 1862, Augusta: Stevens and Sayward, Printers to the State, 1863, pg. 43 [AotW citation 28668]
3 Brown, J. Willard, The Signal Corps, U.S.A. in the War of the Rebellion, Boston: U.S. Veteran Signal Corps Association, 1896, pp. 229, 239, 325, 850, etc [AotW citation 28669]