© Copyright 2000 James David Pearce
PROLOGUE
Two Hertford County boys named Isaac Pierce, cousins and almost the same age, joined North Carolina state regiments attached to the Confederacy in the summer of 1861, shortly after the outbreak of the Civil War. Years later, their Confederate military service records would become entangled.
Isaac Thomas Pierce, 19, joined the 17th Infantry Regiment as a private in May 1861. He was captured at Fort Hatteras on Aug. 29, 1861, and confined at Fort Columbus, New York, and Fort Warren, Boston, until paroled Dec. 12, 1861, in a prisoner exchange. He rejoined his reorganized company and regiment on March 24, 1862.
He was wounded and captured again in a battle at Little Washington, N.C., in September 1862. He died Sept. 15, 1862, in a Union army hospital. His mother, Elizabeth, signed her name with an "X" when she claimed his last effects and pay in 1864.
Isaac (no initial) Pierce always emphatically claimed that he had "never had any other name." But he later named one of his sons "Isaac Thomas."
Isaac joined Co. G, 31st Infantry, and was sworn into state service at Raleigh on Sept. 12, 1861. He was listed on the Regimental Roll of Honor in 1862, and was on the company muster as having been paid through October 1863.
Isaac's oldest brother, Cincinnatus, called "Cit," volunteered for duty with the 4th N.C. Cavalry, Co. D, in June 1862, along with their stepfather, Adolphus Askew.
Another older brother, Job, was two years younger than Cincinnatus, but no record of military service for either side has been found for him.
Isaac's younger brother, James, was only 15 at the start of the war, too young to be drafted as a Confederate.
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