Union Civil War Officer. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he was the son of Quaker parents, Joseph and Sarah Crocker Gilbert who emigrated to America from Reading, England in 1799. The family arrived in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1826. Gilbert eventually settled in northwest area of Hamilton County and became an influential citizen of the community. He was a member of the Colerain Township Committee in 1840, studied law under Salmon P. Chase, and worked as a clerk at the Chase and Ball Law Firm while attending law school at the Cincinnati College. He graduated in 1844, was admitted to the bar in 1845, and practiced as an attorney at an office on Hopple's Row and East 3rd in Cincinnati. He published the first detailed sectional map of the city in 1846 and then embarked on a surveying excursion in Kentucky. Gilbert married Elizabeth Richards (daughter of Giles Richards) in 1848 and later lived with her at Elland, the Richards Family estate in Colerain Township, where they lived together from 1873 until their deaths. West was elected by City Council as City Surveyor in 1849 and was also on the Water Works Commission in the 1850's. He later became a member of the Cincinnati Home Guard while a resident of Mount Auburn. When the Civil War began, he was appointed by Governor William Dennison on July 24, 1861 as a Lieutenant Colonel of U.S. Volunteers. Gilbert was assigned to the 39th Ohio Volunteer Infantry as third in command behind Colonel John Groesbeck and Edward F. Noyes. They raised a regiment with a grant from J.A. Gurley and organized the regiment at Camp Colerain. The 39th was sent into Missouri and Mississippi and participated at the Battles of New Madrid, Iuka, and Corinth. Gilbert was promoted to Colonel in March of 1862 to replace Col. John Groesbeck who had assumed command of the brigade. Alfred was seriously injured at the Battle of Corinth on October 4, 1862 from a concussion when he was thrown from his horse due to a nearby exploding artillery shell. He then resigned his commission and returned to Cincinnati. A young, 14 year old slave, Rachel, accompanied him on his return voyage as his personal nurse. She was treated kindly, educated, and worked for the Gilberts for the rest of her life. Gilbert resumed his engineering profession after the war and was elected as the Chief Engineer of the Sewerage Department from 1870 until his health began to fail in 1873. He died when he was 84 years old at the home of his daughter in 1900.