Charles Lawrence Peirson

Born in 1834 and dying in 1920, Charles Lawrence Peirson belonged to a long-established Massachusetts family whose papers are preserved in regional archives. Archival descriptions place him in the third generation of the Peirson family represented in those collections, alongside other Salem relatives.

He is most closely associated as an author with Ball's Bluff: An Episode and its Consequences to some of us, a work that has continued to circulate through library and public-domain editions. The title suggests the kind of writing he is remembered for today: personal, historical, and shaped by the lasting effects of the American Civil War.

Although detailed biographical information about his wider life is limited in the sources readily available online, the surviving record shows a 19th-century New England author whose name endures through family archives, memorial records, and the continued availability of his best-known book.