Profile - Franklin Pierce, Militiaman, Volunteer, President

An “amateur” soldier who rose to brigadier general in the Mexican War, during his presidency Franklin Pierce (1804-1869) presided over a major reorganization of the army..

Pierce came from a family long settled in New England.  On April 19, 1775, the president’s father, Benjamin Pierce, a 17-year old Massachusetts farm boy, having heard the news of Lexington and Concord, reportedly grabbed his “uncle’s fowling piece” and joined the army that gathered outside Boston.  He served several enlistments, fighting at Bunker Hill, in the relief of Fort Stanwick, and at Saratoga.  Benjamin Pierce endured the hard winter at Valley Forge and served with the Northern Army until the end of the war.  Having risen to lieutenant, he was with the Army when it entered newly liberated New York City on November 25, 1783, and was present at Washington’s famous “Farewell Address” to his officers in Fraunces’ Tavern a few days later.  In 1786, Benjamin Pierce joined the New Hampshire militia as a major.  He rose to brigadier general before retiring in 1807, having in the meantime turned down an appointment as a colonel in the regular army in 1798.  Benjamin’s older sons, Benjamin and John, the future president’s brothers, both served in the Northern Theater during the War of 1812, rising from enlisted men to officers.  Benjamin remained in the army after the war, serving until the Mexican War, while rising to lieutenant colonel.   

Despite being born in a log cabin, Franklin Pierce received a very good education, and in 1820 enrolled at Bowdoin College.  In 1823 he helped organize the “Bowdoin Cadets”, a campus militia company, and was elected captain.  One of the enlisted men in the company was Nathaniel Hawthorne, later the author of The Scarlet Letter and other notable works, who became the future president’s lifelong friend.  Graduating in 1824, Pierce enlisted in the New Hampshire militia, and eventually became an officer.  Meanwhile he read law, and was admitted to the bar in 1827.  He began to practice law and dabble in politics.  In 1831, by then a rising young politician, Pierce was appointed a colonel in the state militia and an aide-de-camp to the governor.  He served in that capacity for two years, as reviewing officer and inspector of militia.  Meanwhile he had a successful career in politics, including a term in the U.S. Senate, and was offered, but declined, the post of Attorney General by President James K. Polk.  On the outbreak of the Mexican War in May of 1846, Pierce enlisted as a private in a volunteer company raised at Concord, New Hampshire.  In February 1847 Secretary of War William L. Marcy offered Pierce a commission as a colonel in the Regular Army, with command of the new 9^th Infantry Regiment, which was to be raised in New England.  Pierce accepted and his commission was dated as of February 16th.  Little more than two weeks later, however, on March 3, 1847, Pierce was offered a brigadier generalcy in the volunteers, which he promptly accepted.

In late June 1847 Pierce landed at Vera Cruz with a brigade of some 2,500 men.  He was shortly in command of a column consisting of his own brigade, plus additional reinforcements, including siege artillery and a large supply train, with orders to march the 150 miles over the mountains to Puebla, where Winfield Scott was resting his army in anticipation of the final drive on Mexico City.  Setting out on July 16^th, Pierce brought the column safely to Puebla in 21 days, despite having to beat off six attacks by Mexican forces, and an outbreak of disease among the troops.  His brigade was soon incorporated in the 4,500-strong 3^rd Division, commanded by Maj. Gen. Gideon Pillow.  Pierce and his men took part in Winfield Scott’s final operations against Mexico City.  On August 19^th, Pillow, an inept commander with strong political connections to President Polk, undertook an unauthorized attack at Churubusco.  This led to a hard, difficult fight.  During the attack, some Mexican artillery rounds landed near Pierce, and his horse took fright.  Pierce was slammed against the pommel of his saddle, and then thrown to the ground.  The incident caused a severe injury to his groin, and badly injured his left knee, which caused him such pain that he passed out and had to be carried to the rear.  Although he soon regained consciousness and found a fresh horse, Pierce was unable to command his brigade effectively for the rest of the battle.  The fight dragged on into the morning of the 20^th.  Then one of Pierce’s subordinates conducted a diversionary attack that permitted two other brigades to work their way around the left of the 5,500 Mexican defenders.  Their attack drove the Mexicans from the field.

Later that day Pierce had recovered sufficiently to return to the saddle, though still unable to use his left leg.  Seeing him in this condition, General Scott told him to go the rear, but Pierce protested, saying “For God’s sake, general, this is the last great battle, and I must lead my brigade.”  Scott relented, and ordered Pierce to support his attack across the Churubusco River.  Pierce advanced at the head of his brigade, but soon found the ground too difficult for his horse to negotiate, it being swampy and cut by many little arroyoss and streams.  Dismounting, Pierce hobbled forward under fire, until his left leg collapsed beneath him.  Some of his men attempted to carry him to safety, but he ordered them to leave him where he was and continue the advance.

After the battle, General Scott appointed the still-injured Pierce one of the American negotiators to a parley that had been requested by the Mexican commander, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.  Nothing came of these negotiations, but Scott’s gesture demonstrated considerable confidence in Pierce’s abilities.

Pierce was under fire again at the Battle of Molino del Rey (September 8).  During preparations for the final attack on Mexico City, however, the bombardment and storming of Chapultepec Castle on September 11^th and 12^th, Pierce collapsed with a severe case of dysentery. 

After the war, Pierce returned to politics in New Hampshire, where he was highly popular, even being elected to serve as president of the 1850 state constitutional convention.  In 1852 a deadlocked Democratic National Convention ended up choosing Pierce as the party’s standard bearer, the first “dark horse” candidate to run.

Although Pierce had served honorably in Mexico, during his presidential campaign, his political enemies, among them amazingly inept Gideon Pillow, nicknamed him “the fainting general.”  This was, as U.S. Grant observed in his Memoirs, “exceedingly unjust and unfair . . . . [Pierce] was a gentleman and a man of courage.”  Despite the attacks on his courage and service, an early example of "Swift Boating," Pierce, a "doughface," or "Northern Man of Southern Principles," handily defeated brevet Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott, running as a Whig, and took office on March 4, 1853

Pierce appointed Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, a West Point graduate who had acquired an excellent record in Mexico, to serve as Secretary of War. 

Under Davis' aegis the organization, administration, and equipment of the army underwent extensive examination and revision.  Four new regiments were added, two each of cavalry and infantry, a party of officers – including Capt. George B. McClellan – was sent to observe British and French operations during the Crimean War, the famed Springfield M1855 rifle was adopted and experiments were conducted with breech loading weapons.  Acting on a proposal actually first made in 1851, Davis procured camels for the army, which operated experimentally out of Fort Bliss, Texas, for several years.  At the suggestion of Superintendent of West Point, Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee, Davis instituted a five year curriculum which lasted for several years.  In addition, army engineers surveyed possible routes for a transcontinental railroad, pay was increased, re-enlistment and longevity bonuses were introduced, and the Medical Corps was expanded to include Hospital Stewards.  In addition, Davis supported William J. Hardee’s efforts to write what became the army’s standard drill manual, known forever after as Hardee’s Tactics.

Pierce had not proven a popular president, and he was not re-nominated by his party in 1856.  Leaving the White House in declining health, Pierce lived quietly in retirement until the Civil War, when he became a severe critic of the Lincoln Administration.

The Pierces had several children, none of whom lived to adulthood.  The President’s elder sister married John McNeil, a career Army officer who served in the Northern Theater during the War of 1812, rising to lieutenant colonel of volunteers.  Her son, Scott McNeil, was killed in action during the Second Seminole War.