Early Life
He was born as Ephraim Elmer Ellsworth in Malta, New York on April 11, 1837. He changed his name to Elmer Ephraim to not be confused with his father. As a young child his family moved from Malta to Mechanicville. From a young age Ellsworth’s mind bent to dreams of military glory. He organized the children of Mechanicville into their own militia company called “The Black-Plumed Riflemen of Stillwater.” He was small for his age and for it he was picked on in school leading him to early on learn to defend himself with his fists. At the age of nine he went to work for a dry-goods merchant who also ran a bar. He refused to serve liquor or even to clean the liquor glasses. In an age where drunkenness was common even among children this stood out. Abstinence from alcohol seems to have been a promise he made to himself from a very early age.
He left home at a young age feeling that there was very little that Mechanicville could offer him. At the age of twelve he followed a merchant he met on the train to New York City where he went to work for him as a clerk in his store. It is at this point that the biographical record of Ellsworth becomes sketchy for a period of five years. Stories were told of people sharing a room with him in New York and even of him living among the Native Americans of Muskegon in Michigan. How much of this is true or fanciful stories told in the years after his death is unknown.
Illinois and the Rise to Fame
In 1854, he resurfaced in Rockford, Illinois, where he worked for a patent agency. In 1857, Ellsworth became drillmaster of the “Rockford Greys,” the local militia company. He studied military science in his spare time. After some success with the Greys, he helped train militia units in Milwaukee and Madison. In 1859, he became engaged to Carrie Spafford, the daughter of a local industrialist and city leader. He would remain engaged to her for the remainder of his life. Many of the letters he wrote to her throughout the years leading up to the war still exist today. When Carrie’s father demanded that he find more suitable employment, he moved to Chicago to study law and work as a law clerk. When he moved to Chicago, he quickly was elected Colonel of Chicago’s National Guard Cadets. This was a struggling unit but under Ellsworth’s tutelage their star began to rise.
In a Chicago gymnasium he met Charles DeVilliers a former French Zouave officer who had moved to Chicago after the Crimean War. Ellsworth quickly learned fencing and the elaborate Zouave drill. He then outfitted his men in Zouave-style uniforms and modeled their drill and training on the Zouaves. He changed their name to the U.S. Zouave Cadets. He made them all sign a strict pledge of temperance. They would drink no alcohol; visit no houses of ill-repute and he even banned them from billiard halls as he felt gambling led to a life a dissipation. In a time where those vices were rampant his cadets strangely thrived under his strict rules. He toured Illinois with his Cadets in 1859 including a trip to the capital of Springfield. It was during this time that he met Abraham Lincoln and struck up a relationship of mutual respect and friendship. During this time Abraham Lincoln made it clear he wanted Ellsworth to move to Springfield to work with him in his law firm. Before that would occur, Ellsworth would embark with his Cadets on a twenty-city whirlwind tour that would make him a true national celebrity.
The Summer of the Zouave Cadets
By the anticipated departure date, June 20, 1860, Ellsworth had raised thousands of dollars from Chicago citizens for the trip. The Zouave Cadets received a tremendous send-off when they left, accompanied by the 18-piece Light Guard Band. The Chicago Herald reported: Upwards of ten thousand persons, old and young, thronged the streets between the armory of the Zouaves and the depot of the Michigan Southern Railroad. They arrived at Adrian, Mich., on July 3 and the following day joined seven other companies in a Fourth of July display. The next day they moved on to Detroit, escorted by the Detroit Light Guard. After touring the city, they drilled on a cricket ground for 1½ hours, reportedly going through “thirty different evolutions amid the applause of the spectators, of whom there were about 5000 present.”
Crowds in Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, Utica, Troy, and Albany were captivated by the group’s precision and athleticism. Western New York militia companies that had protested their title of National Champions now celebrated their impressive performance. Cheering crowds lined up at train depots and along streets. A huge crowd greeted them on their return to Chicago. According to one account: “When the train came into sight, salutes were fired, cannons boomed, bands played, torches were waved by both the ‘Wide-Awakes’ and the ‘Ever-Readies,’ as in this event the party spirit of the great political campaign, then in progress, was laid aside. Everybody welcomed Our Boys.’” They proceeded to the Wigwam Building, packed with 10,000 fans. Mayor John Wentworth said:
You have given a fresh impetus to the volunteer militia system and touched a chord in the hearts of our citizen soldiers which will never cease to vibrate so long as freedom shrieks for volunteers and tyranny fortifies itself with regulars. You have demonstrated what a citizen soldiery can become, and that no large standing army is necessary to repel invasions or suppress in insurrections.
The last public appearance by the Zouave Cadets was a benefit for the Home of the Friendless in Chicago, on August 19, 1860. That October the group disbanded. As for Elmer Ellsworth, he went back to Springfield, Ill., in the fall of 1860 to campaign for Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln, of whom it was said had difficulty forming deep attachments seemed to have formed a very deep personal attachment to Ellsworth.
Springfield, Illinois: Campaign and Election
Ellsworth returned to Springfield to study law and aid Lincoln in the 1860 campaign and election. Ellsworth along with John Hay and John Nicolay (both of whom he struck up close friendships with) were instrumental in Lincoln’s campaign and eventual election to President. Ellsworth spent most of his time along with Hay and Nicolay traveling the state stumping for Lincoln. People always noticed and commented on how much the 6’6” lawyer seemed to seek out the opinion and advice of the 5’6” militia Colonel. It was during this time that Ellsworth had completed his study of Law and was admitted to the BAR as an attorney (his passing the BAR had been debated for years but, his signed pledge to uphold the law was found in a water damaged filing cabinet along with the same from one Barack Hussein Obama).
He also wrote and sponsored a bill in the Illinois legislature that would reform the way the Illinois State Militias were organized and operated. The bill passed the state house but failed in the senate due to the start of the secession crisis. However, many of the ideas in his bill were used by Lincoln and others to organize the federal state regiments and militias at the start of the war. When Lincoln left Springfield for his “Inaugural Express” tour Ellsworth went with him. In the multiple city tour Ellsworth never left Lincoln’s side. Along with the Pinkerton’s Ellsworth provided security for the President Elect on his journey to Washington for his inauguration. While Hay and Nicolay upon Lincoln’s inauguration took on advisory and diplomatic roles Ellsworth was after something in the military vein. Lincoln wanted to give Ellsworth a command but, politics being what they were he was only able to give him a commission as a Lieutenant and a position as a clerk in the war department. Ellsworth his failed bill still in his mind had other plans. He resigned his commission and left for New York City.
The Fire B’Hoys
Ellsworth had in mind a regiment of Zouaves that would fit his ideal of what the country on the brink of war needed from it’s citizen soldiers. But this time instead of shopkeepers and law clerks he wanted the New York Firemen. For help recruiting he had a letter of introduction from Abraham Lincoln, and he went to see Horace Greeley the most famous newsman of the day. He wrote a recruitment flyer which Greeley ran in the New York Tribune. The volunteer firemen came out in droves with the Number 14 Columbia Company volunteering to the man. They made Ellsworth an honorary member and gifted him with a badge that he wore on his uniform. They were sworn in by the State on April 20, 1861, as the First New York Fire Zouaves. They left the State April 29, 1861. They arrived in Washington on May 7th where they were sworn into service with the Federal government for a period of two years as the 11th New York Volunteer Infantry.
Alexandria
On May 24, 1861, the decision was made to cross the Potomac and seize the Confederate held city of Alexandria, Virginia. In the days leading up to the decision a large Confederate Flag could be observed from the Marshall House Inn. The inn’s proprietor, James W. Jackson, had raised the flag from the inn’s roof and President Lincoln and his Cabinet had observed it through field glasses from an elevated spot in Washington. Jackson had reportedly stated that the flag would only be taken down “over his dead body.” There has been conjecture that Mary Lincoln or even the President himself had asked Ellsworth to remove the flag when he took the city.
Upon crossing the river Ellsworth learned the Navy had arrived first and secured a cease-fire with the Confederates- they agreed to surrender the city in return for being able to withdraw. Ellsworth moved to cut the lines in the city’s telegraph office and secure the city. However, having seen the flag after landing in Alexandria, Ellsworth and seven other soldiers then entered the Marshall House Inn through an open door. Once inside, they encountered a man dressed in a shirt and trousers, of whom Ellsworth demanded what sort of a flag it was that hung upon the roof. The man, who seemed greatly alarmed, declared he knew nothing of it, and that he was only a boarder there. Without questioning him further, Ellsworth sprang up the stairs followed by his soldiers, climbed to the roof on a ladder and cut down the flag with a soldier’s knife. The soldiers turned to descend, with Private Francis E. Brownell leading the way and Ellsworth following with the flag.
As Brownell reached the first landing place, Jackson jumped from a dark passage, leveled a double-barreled shotgun at Ellsworth’s chest and discharged one barrel directly into Ellsworth’s chest, killing him instantly. Jackson then discharged the other barrel at Brownell but missed his target. Brownell’s gun simultaneously shot, hitting Jackson in the middle of his face. Before Jackson dropped, Brownell repeatedly thrust his bayonet through Jackson’s body, sending Jackson’s corpse down the stairs.
Funeral and Legacy
Ellsworth became the first Union officer to die in the Civil War and the first Civil War dead to be embalmed under the new scientific procedure. Visitors to his funeral remarked how as he lay in state he appeared to be “the very angel of the sacred Union.” Brownell, who retained a piece of the flag, was later awarded a Medal of Honor for his actions.
Lincoln was deeply saddened by his friend’s death and ordered an honor guard to bring his friend’s body to the White House, where he lay in state in the East Room. Upon hearing of his death, a senator and a senior Federal officer heard Lincoln proclaim “My boy, my poor boy. Was it necessary that such a sacrifice should occur.” Ellsworth’s body was then taken to the City Hall in New York City, where thousands of Union supporters came to see the first man to fall for the Union cause. Ellsworth was then buried in his hometown of Mechanicville, in the Hudson View Cemetery.
Thousands of Union supporters rallied around Ellsworth’s cause and enlisted. “Remember Ellsworth” became a patriotic slogan. The 44th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment called itself the “Ellsworth Avengers” as well as “The People’s Ellsworth Regiment.” Of the sixty men who were in his touring U.S. Zouave Cadets over 40 went on to become officers in the Union Army. Thus, the legacy of everything that he tried to accomplish and all he stood for lived on in those men. It was said of Ellsworth many times that he was the very “Beau Ideal” of an officer and a gentleman of the Union. His friend John Hay said of him nearly thirty years after his death that no one knows or could comprehend what was lost with his death.
David A. Maxwell
David Maxwell who portrays Colonel Ellsworth lives in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan with his wife and children. He has both a History Degree and an Engineering Degree. He began reenacting by joining a WWII reenacting group many years ago. He has since done the Revolutionary War, Seven Years War, and the Civil War portraying both enlisted men and officers. His inspiration to portray Colonel Ellsworth comes from a talk he heard on him in his youth as well as many trips to Lincoln’s Springfield where Ellsworth met and became friends with our 16th President. He feels that the relationship between the two men and the early days of the war are an underrepresented area of living history. He hopes to share his knowledge of this period and the relationship between Lincoln and the man he called “the greatest little man I ever met.”