Isaac E. Pearce

He bought a third share in the mercantile firm Bond, Riddick & Pearce in Gatesville, NC in 1858 and was in business to at least 1860. He enrolled in Gates County, NC on 30 May 1861 and mustered on 20 June as 2nd Lieutenant of Company B, 5th North Carolina Infantry. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on 17 August 1861 and to Captain on 4 September 1862, to rank from 5 May, but probably did not hear of it until after Sharpsburg.

He was mentioned as having "conducted [himself] with soldier-like gallantry" on the Maryland Campaign by General D.H. Hill, who also related:

[at about noon on 17 September at Sharpsburg] Colonel Iverson, Twentieth North Carolina; Colonel Christie, Twenty-third North Carolina; Captain Garrett, Fifth North Carolina; Adjutant Taylor and Lieutenant Pearce, of the same regiment, had gathered up about 200 men, and I sent them to the right to attack the Yankees' flank. They drove them back a short distance, but in turn were repulsed. These two attacks, however, had a most happy effect. The Yankees were completely deceived by their boldness, and induced to believe that there was a large force in our center. They made no further attempt to pierce our center, except on a small scale, hereafter to be mentioned.

He left his company, sick, on 17 October and died of smallpox at Guinea Station, VA on 18 January 1863.

His service from his Compiled Service Records,1 online from fold3. The D H Hill quotes are from the general's after-action report. Personal details from the US Census of 1860 and a bio sketch accompanying his letters (1857-62) now in the North Carolina State Archives [finding aid]; included in that collection are 2 letters addressing his experience in Maryland in September 1862.

His former partner and Gatesville housemate Roscoe Riddick (1833-after 1918) followed him as First Lieutenant and Captain of Company B.

1838 in NC

01/18/1863; Guinea Station, VA