Joseph Pierce was born in Guangdong Province, China, in 1842, though the exact date of his birth is unclear.

[2][b] Amos Peck, an American ship captain from Berlin, Connecticut, brought Pierce to the United States in 1853.

[8] After he arrived in the US, Pierce lived together with the Peck family in Berlin, attended school and went to church.

[9] In a 2019 journal article, Angela He observed that Pierce was able to enlist in a white regiment because he enlisted along with "community members that he grew up with",[10] and concluded that he was racialized as white in terms of "greater social standing outside the war".

[11] According to historian R. L. McCunn, Pierce fought at the Battle of Antietam, fell over a fence, and injured his back.

[22] He died on January 3, 1916, due to a combination of "the grippe" (influenza), arteriosclerosis, and chronic bronchitis.