Edward Lillie Pierce (born in Stoughton, Massachusetts, 29 March 1829; died in Paris, 6 September 1897) was an American biographer and politician. He wrote a noted biography of Charles Sumner.
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Biography
He graduated from Brown University and Harvard Law School, receiving the degree of LL.D. from Brown. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1860. At the beginning of the Civil War he enlisted as a private in the 3d Massachusetts Regiment, and served until July 1861, when he was detailed to collect the African Americans at Hampton, Va. and set them to work on the entrenchments of that town. This was the beginning of the employment of African Americans on U. S. military works. In December 1861, the United States Secretary of the Treasury dispatched Pierce to Port Royal, South Carolina to examine conditions for African Americans on the Sea Islands. In February 1862, he returned to Washington and reported to the government.
In March, he was given charge of the freedmen and plantations on those islands. He took with him nearly sixty teachers and superintendents, established schools, and suggested the formation of freedmen's aid societies. In June 1862, Pierce made his second report to the government setting forth what he had done. These reports were afterward reprinted in the Rebellion Record, and were favorably reviewed both in Europe and the United States. The care of the African Americans on the islands having been transferred to the United States Department of War, he was asked to continue in charge under its authority, but declined.