Collection Details:

Collection Name and Number: Joseph Dill Alison Diary (Z/0013).
Creator/Collector: Joseph Dill Alison.
Date(s): 1861-1863.
Size: 0.10 cubic feet.
Language(s): English.
Processed by: MDAH staff, 1957.
Provenance: Purchased from Bert Neville of Selma, AL, on April 3, 1957.
Repository: Archives & Records Services Division, Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

 

Rights and Access:

Access restrictions: Collection is open for research.

Publication rights: Copyright assigned to the MDAH. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to Reference Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the MDAH as the owner of the physical items and as the owner of the copyright in items created by the donor. Although the copyright was transferred by the donor, the respective creator may still hold copyright in some items in the collection. For further information, contact Reference Services.

Copyright notice: This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).

Preferred citation: Joseph Dill Alison Diary, (Z/0013), Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

 

Biography:

Joseph Dill Alison

Joseph Dill Alison was born on December 23, 1828, in Summerville, Dorchester County, South Carolina, the son of Mary Catherine Beekman (1795-1867) and Hugh Lee Alison (1796-1882). His parents had moved from South Carolina and settled in the area of Carlowville, in Dallas County, Alabama. Joseph received his college education at Spring Hill in Mobile, and graduated from medical school in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1850. He returned to Dallas County where he practiced medicine until the outbreak of the Civil War. He held the rank of major in the army of the Confederate States of America. After the war, he resumed his medical practice. He also was a justice of the peace between 1885 and 1895.

Joseph married Henrietta Catherine Reynolds Townsend (1833-1902) on March 11, 1852 at her father’s home on Panther Creek Plantation in Lowndes County, Alabama. The couple had eleven children: William Townsend Alison (1853-1929), Jacob Hyleman Alison (1857-1917), Joseph Dill Alison (1858–1923), Maggie Lee Alison (1861–1955), Etta Townsend Alison (1864–1942), Martha Seabrook Alison Gilbert (1866–1926), Samuel Beekman Alison (1867–1963), Benjamin Reynolds Alison (1869–1936), Beekman Lee Alison (1872–1940), Elizabeth Peake Alison (1874–1918), Harriet Sarah Alison Kyser (1878–1957).

Dr. Joseph Dill Alison died on June 3, 1905, in Carlowville, Dallas County, Alabama, and he is buried in the Saint Paul’s Episcopal Churchyard, in the same city.

 

Scope and Content Note:

This collection consists of one typed transcript of the diary of Dr. Joseph Dill Alison, who participated in the Confederate Army’s defense of Vicksburg, Warren County, Mississippi, during the Civil War.

 

Series Identification:

Series 1: Diary Typescript. 1861-1863.

One typed transcript of the diary of Dr. Joseph Dill Alison, who recorded his experiences participating in the Confederate Army’s defense of Vicksburg during the Civil War. The typescript is 17 pages.

Box 1, folder 1

 

Box List:

Box 1
Folder 1: Diary Typescript, 1861-1863.