【5/6/2021】CAPA-NoVA Distinguished Chinese American Project
约瑟夫·皮尔斯（Joseph Pierce）（1842 – 1916）was a Chinese immigrant. He served during the Civil War and attained the rank of corporal and is thought to be the highest rank of any Chinese American in the Union Army.
Joseph was brought to the United States by his adoptive father, ship captain Amos Peck of Connecticut. He enlisted in the early 1860s and eventually became a member of the Second Brigade of the Third Division, Second Army Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Joseph is believed to have been the only Chinese soldier in the Army of the Potomac, which was the main Union Army in the Civil War’s eastern theater. Joseph fought in campaigns in Antietam and Gettysburg and remained with the Army through the end of the war.
Joseph settled in Meriden, Connecticut after the war and worked in the area until he retired in 1914. He married an American woman named Martha Morgan and had four children. Joseph passed away on Jan. 3, 1916 at the age of 73. His picture hangs in the Gettysburg Museum.
For additional reading:
English Article:
Joseph Pierce Chinese American Civil War Soldier (1860s)
Chinese Article:
https://share.america.gov/zh-hans/chinese-american-soldiers/
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