My wife's g-grandfather, was one Harry N. B. Pearce Murdoch, born in Mobile, Alabama in 1859/60. His father, though born in Ohio (as best we can tell) may have been in Missouri prior to 1860 for some unknown period of time.

Here is my question. Was Nicholas Bartlett Pearce, of Arkansas Civil War fame, well known enough by 1859 to have had a child named after him? Was there another earlier well known "N. B. Pearce"? Or last of all, which I doubt anyone could know, might the father of my Harry N. B. Pearce Murdoch have been a friend or acquaintance of the general prior to the war in Arkansas, Missouri, Alabama or somewhere else?

This has always been a mystery to me so any input would be of interest.

Jim