Pierce B. Dugan was born around 1837 in South Carolina. By 1860, he was working as a physician in Winston County, Mississippi, and he owned $1,200 of real estate.
He joined the Confederate army on April 30, 1861, receiving a commission as a 1st lieutenant in Company F of the 14th Mississippi Infantry. According to his military records, he was 5 feet, 8 ½ inches tall, with light hair and blue eyes. The regiment took part in the Battle of Fort Donelson, the siege of Vicksburg, the Atlanta campaign, and the Carolinas campaign. Union forces captured him at Fort Donelson on February 16, 1862, and imprisoned him on Johnson’s Island in Ohio. He was eventually exchanged, and he rejoined the regiment. He eventually earned a promotion to captain and then to major. He was wounded in the leg near Jackson, Mississippi, on July 13, 1863, and he was wounded again on May 2, 1864.
He settled in West Point, Mississippi, after the war, and he married a woman named Martha around 1870. He resumed his work as a physician, and by 1870, he owned $7,500 of real estate and $3,000 of personal property. By 1900, he was working as a banker. He died in West Point in early 1911.