Charles Lawrence Peirson. who died at Boston, Jan. 23, 1920,
was born in Salem, Jan. 15, 1834, the son of Dr. Abel Lawrence Peirson and
Harriet (Lawrence) Peirson. He studied engineering at the Lawrence Scientific
School, and after receiving the degree of S.B. in 1853, practised in Minnesota
the calling of a farmer and the profession of a civil engineer. At the outbreak
of the Civil War, having returned to Boston, he volunteered for service and was
commissioned first lieutenant and adjutant of the Twentieth Regiment,
Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. In the first engagement of the regiment, Oct.
20,1861, at Ball's Bluff on the Potomac River, he was taken prisoner and sent
to Libby Prison, Richmond, where he was confined until late in the following January.
He shared in the distinguished record of his regiment, including the battles
from Yorktown to Malvern Hill, and served on the staff of General Dana and that
of General Sedgwick. In August, 1862, he became lieutenant colonel of the
Thirty-Ninth Massachusetts Volunteers, and in July, 1864, colonel of that
regiment, taking part in the operations of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania,
Petersburg and the Weldon Railroad, where he was severely wounded. In March,
1865, he was commissioned brevet brigadier general United States Volunteers.
After the close of the war he formed with General Robert H. Stevenson the firm
of Stevenson & Peirson, iron merchants, and continued a member of this firm
and of its successor, Charles L. Peirson & Co., until his retirement from
business, more than ten years ago. He was also for a period of years treasurer
of the Lowell Machine Shop. In 1898 he received the honorary degree of A.M.
from Harvard University. He married, in 1873, Emily Russell, daughter of George
R. Russell of Boston. Mrs. Peirson died in 1908. There are no children.
SOURCE: The Harvard
Graduates' Magazine, Volume 28: 1919-1920, No. 111, March 1920, p. 492-3
