Person:Nicholas Pearce (1)

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Nicholas Bartlett Pearce (commonly known as N. Bart Pearce) (July 20, 1828 – March 8, 1894) was a brigadier general in the Arkansas State Troops during the American Civil War. He led a brigade of infantry in one of the war's earliest battles in the Trans-Mississippi Theater before serving as a commissary officer in the Confederate States Army for the rest of the war.

Nicholas was born in Princeton,Caldwell County, Kentucky . He lived with his family on a large mill and farm on Donelson Creek. He graduated from Cumberland College and then went on to be appointed to West Point where he graduated 26th in a class of 44. A letter sent to his Aunt Virginia Pearce on the death of her husband Solomon told of studying "Latin, Greek, and philosophy, and mathematics, in the lower branches, trigonometry, descriptive geometric surveying, shades and shadows, linear perspective and calculus and surveying, the French language and drawing and topography". He was commissioned a Brevet 2nd. Lt. in the infantry. He served in the Indian Territory which is now Oklahoma and in Northwest Arkansas. He met his bride Nannie Smith at Fort Smith. They were married at her families home. He did some scouting along the Red River in Texas but after his first daughter Deserie was born he came home, resigned his commission and worked with his father-in-law at the mill and general store on Little Osage Creek, Benton County, Arkansas.

When the Civil War began he was appointed Brig. Gen. by the Arkansas Legislature and was put in charge of the Northwestern Arkansas troops. He trained them and took them to Springfield, Missouri with Gen. Ben McCollough and was instrumental in the victory at the Battle of Wilson's Creek. His picture is displayed on the brochure at the battlefield museum today. After the battle he disbanded the troops and after a leave due to the death of his older brother James Madison Pearce at the Battle of Shiloh, was sent to Texas as a Major in the Commissary in Houston and San Antonio . He was on the military board for the state of Texas. H

is daughter Nannie May was born in San Antonio. After the war he returned to Arkansas, rebuilt his residence and store, which had been the bivouac of the Union Soldiers, and engaged in business. He was instrumental in starting the University of Arkansas and was the first professor of Math and Engineering there. In 1874 he severed his connections with the University and again returned to Osage Mills. He was in the employ of a wholesale house in Kansas City, Missouri and traveled in Texas 1879-84. He moved to Whitesboro, Texas because of his wife's health and was employed with Lombard Investment as a land examiner and manager of field men . His wife died in 1885 leaving him with young children. His last address in the Confederate Veteran Magazine was in Gainesville, Texas. He moved to his daughter May Pearce Choice's home in Dallas as his health started to fail and he died in 1894.

1.   PEARCE, BARTLETT, MATTHEWS, SMART AND ALLIED FAM PAREN: Y.
2.   Obituary, Dallas Morning News PAREN: Y.
3.   Nicholas Bartlett Pearce, in Wikipedia.