Pierce, William, 1753-1789

William Pierce (1753 – December 10, 1789) was an American artist, merchant, planter, and politician from Georgia. He served as an army officer during the American Revolutionary War and a member of the United States Constitutional Congress and United States Continental Convention of 1787.

Born in York County in the Colony of Virginia, as a young man, he studied art under Charles Willson Peale in Maryland and returned to Williamsburg, Virginia to accept commissions in the Summer of 1775. As tensions with Great Britain turned into armed conflict, Pierce participated in the fighting at Hampton, Virginia, in September 1775. Pierce was commissioned a Captain in the 1st Continental Regiment of Artillery the following year as the new country organized its forces for war. After months of guarding against British incursions in the Hampton Roads, the First Regiment of Continental Artillery was ordered to join the Main Army at Valley Forge in the Spring of 1778. After his regiment arrived in camp, William Pierce's battery was then detached to Major General John Sullivan's command in Rhode Island. Suffering from poor health, Pierce voluntarily suspended his company command and accepted a position as an aide-de-camp to General Sullivan in early 1779. He attended his commander in the punitive expedition in Upstate New York to subdue the British-aligned Iroquois during the summer.

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