Manuscript Database
Creator/Title
Pirtle, Alfred, 1837-1926. Journal, 1859-1862. 2 vols. A D.
Call No.
Mss. A P672
Content
Journal kept by Alfred Pirtle of Louisville, Ky., Jan. 1 - Feb. 11, 1859, April 20, 1861 - Sept. 1862, covering his residence at Gallatin, Tenn. in 1859 as an employee of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad; return to Louisville where he records the impact of the Civil War on Kentucky and Missouri; flag raisings; peace meetings; recruiting; drilling; blockades; his encampment with Citizen Guards, May 21-27, 1861; routine of camp duties; sojourn at Ohio White Sulphur Springs with mother and sister, July-Aug. 1861; volunteer service in the Crittenden Union Zouaves, Sept. -Nov. 1861; loss by brother, Dr. John R. Pirtle of his command as Major in the U.S.A. Kentucky Volunteers; Ohio River flood in 1862; defeat of Gen. Felix K. Zollicoffer at Mill Springs, Jan. 19, 1862; commission, February 1862, as 2nd Lieut., Co. H, 10th Ohio Vol. Inf.; service in Major-Gen. Ormsby Mitchells Division on the march from Fort Jefferson on Bacon Creek, Ky. to Bowling Green, Nashville, Murfreesboro, Shelbyville and Huntsville, Ala. where he was encamped during the summer; aide-de-camp to Gen. William H. Lytle; change in command of the 3rd Division, July 3, 1862, from Major-Gen. Mitchel to Brig.-Gen. W. S. Smith; and on July 13, 1862 from Smith to Gen Lovell H. Rousseau; evacuation of Huntsville, Aug. 31, 1862, and the return march to Bowling Green, Ky. in Sept. 1862; the column impeded by enslaved people seeking freedom.