John B. Pirtle

    First Kentucky "Orphan" Brigade 


Capt. John Barbee Pirtle

Orphan Brigade Staff (initially 9th Kentucky Infantry)

Pirtle.jpg (66152 bytes)

pirtle2.jpg (5829 bytes)

John B. Pirtle, ca. 1880s
Thompson, "Orphan Brigade" (1898)

John B. Pirtle, ca. 1900
courtesy Ed O'Rear

 

From Ed Porter Thompson's "History of the Orphan Brigade," Louisville: Lewis N. Thompson, 1898, pp. 505-506

   Enlisting in Co. B, Ninth Kentucky Infantry, as a private soldier, he served in the ranks till after the battle of Shiloh.   Here, however, the gallant and meritorious conduct of the young soldier was so marked as to attract the attention of Col. Trabue, commanding the brigade, who shortly afterward had him detailed as clerk in his adjutant-general's office, and for some time during the next two months he was recognized as aide-de-camp on Trabue's staff.  At Vicksburg, in July, 1862, he was assigned, on application of Col. Orr, as adjutant of his regiment, the Thirty-first Mississippi Infantry, and recommended for appointment to the position.

   At Baton Rouge, he was acting lieutenant-colonel of the Thirty-first Mississippi, and was complimented, after the battle, for gallantry and skill.  He was then recommended by Col. Orr, Col. Trabue, and Gen. Breckinridge, for a commission in the Regular Army of the Confederate States. When the Kentucky Brigade started north, September, 1862, he gave up his position with Col. Orr, and went to Knoxville with Col. Trabue, as temporary aide.  He here obtained authority from Gen. Breckinridge, based upon an order from the War Office, to raise a company of infantry in Kentucky, and set out for that purpose in advance of the division, but returned with Bragg's army.  In March, 1863, he was commissioned by the president second lieutenant for "valor and skill," and assigned to Co. D, Fourth Kentucky, but was immediately thereafter made additional aide-de-camp and provost marshal for Gen. Helm, and served in this capacity till the death of that officer.

   When the army went into winter quarters at Dalton, he was assigned to duty with Col. Cofer as adjutant of the post; and when the spring campaign opened, he was chosen for staff duty with Gen. Bate, and was afterward promoted to be captain and A. A. G.  He served with Bate during the remainder of the war.  He took part in the various battles from Baton Rouge to Jonesboro', and those of the Nashville campaign, and was wounded at Resaca and Jonesboro'.

   At Chickamauga, he was with Gen. Helm when he fell, and after assisting in removing him to the field hospital and placing him in competent and careful hands, he returned to act as aide to Gen. Lewis, who complimented him in his report of the battle.  He and acting aide-de-camp Wallace Herr carried dispatches at one time during the day, without hesitation, through a veritable fiery tempest, where neither cover nor advantage of ground could be had, in a manner that won the admiration of all who beheld it.

   He was born in Louisville, May 17th, 1842, so that when he returned to private pursuits, at the close of that wonderful four years' struggle, with an honorable record and bearing the scars of battle, he was but twenty-three years of age.  In 1866 he was made State Agent for Kentucky of the Traveler's Insurance Company, his territory being afterward extended to cover the entire South, east of the Mississippi River, of which he had control for many years, though of late he has voluntarily given up much of this because the labor was exacting beyond his strength.  He was married, February 26th, 1874, to Miss Mary Belle Thomas, a daughter of John H. Thomas, who was for many years the leading wholesale hardware merchant in the city. They have two living children, a son and daughter.

   He was one of the men who in 1880 reorganized the People's Bank of Kentucky and was a director until 1895, when its affairs were wound up; is now a director in the Louisville Trust Company; vice-president of the National Building and Loan Association of Louisville; and president of the Ellander Coal and Iron Company.

   His father was a prominent physician of Louisville, and the family on both sides was of the old Revolutionary stock, coming to Kentucky from the valley of Virginia after that war.


John Barbee Pirtle died in Louisville in 1934, and is buried there in Cave Hill Cemetery (Section O, Lot 89).

Pirtlegrv.jpg (62475 bytes)

 

Lstone.gif (1289 bytes)      Back to Photo Gallery


URL: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~orphanhm/pirtle.htm

 

Comments to page authors:

Geoff Walden: enfield577 (at) live.com
Laura Cook
: lcook62 (at) hotmail.com

All contents copyright �1996-2014, Geoff Walden, Laura Cook. All rights reserved.   No text or photos may be reproduced without the permission of the owners.  We gratefully acknowledge the generous permission of the owners in allowing us to show their images and other information on this page.

Homepage:  https://sites.rootsweb.com/~orphanhm/index.htm