Albert Henry Pierson was born around 1841 in Waterloo, New York, to Jedediah and Eliza Pierson. His father was a farmer who owned $17,420 of real estate and $6,000 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Waterloo, and by 1860, he was working as a farm laborer.
He enlisted in the Union army on August 10, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company I of the 126th New York Infantry on August 22. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 7 inches tall, with light hair and blue eyes. As he explained to his sister, he would not have "been satisfied if I had staid at home, for I thought it was my duty to go." Confederate forces captured him at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (present-day West Virginia) on September 15, 1862, but he was paroled three days later. He was wounded on July 3, 1863, in the Battle of Gettysburg. He spent the next year recovering, but he rejoined the regiment in December 1864. He was killed in action near Petersburg, Virginia, on March 31, 1865.