Who was ellsworth in Civil War?

Answer 1

Elmer Ellsworth was the first conspicuous casualty of the Civil War. Ellsworth had moved to Springfield, Illinois in 1860 and worked with Abraham Lincoln, studying law in Lincoln's law office. Ellsworth also worked on Lincoln's presidential campaign in 1860.

After Fort Sumter, when Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the Rebellion, Ellsworth returned to his native New York and raised a regiment of volunteers which became the 11th New York Volunteer Infantry, also known as the "Fire Zouaves", because its men were enlisted from the volunteer fire companies of New York City. There was no municipal fire department in New York City and the many volunteer fire companies were very important as social clubs and also as political groups, besides putting out fires. Zouaves were a type of French Colonial Light Infantry Troops, from Algeria in North Africa. Just before the war a troop of real Zouaves, from Algeria, had toured America and were a huge hit, a sensation with their precision acrobatic drill. Because of this favorable impression many of the new volunteer units raised for the Civil War wanted to be Zouaves, mostly in the north, but there were a few southern Zouave units too. Zouave units were unmistakable because of the outfits they wore - huge, baggy red pants, something like harem pants, with fancy button up boots, a tight-fitting, embroidered vest, and a red fez for a hat, which sort of looked like an upside-down flower pot. Pretty soon Zouave units figured out just how impractical these outfits were for troops trying to live in the forests and fields of North America, and started wearing the same type of uniform as everyone else. But in these early days the Zouaves were resplendent in their exotic costumes.

Ellsworth became the colonel of the Fire Zouaves though he was only twenty-four years old. Ellsworth and his new regiment went to Washington, DC. One of the first offensive moves made by the Union was to send Ellsworth and his troops across the Potomac River from Washington, to Alexandria, Virginia, on May 24, 1861. This was the day after the voters of Virginia had ratified secession, and Lincoln had looked out the window of the White House and seen a large Confederate flag flying over Alexandria. Ellsworth offered to retrieve the flag for Lincoln. The flag was on top of the Marshall House Inn, a hotel in Alexandria. Ellsworth and four men entered the hotel and went to the roof and cut down the flag. On the way back down, the owner of the hotel, James W. Jackson, who had vowed to kill any man who tried to remove the flag from his hotel roof, met the party on a stair landing. Jackson killed Ellsworth with a shotgun blast to the chest. Corporal Francis Brownell then immediately killed Jackson, for which he was later awarded a Medal of Honor.

Lincoln was very sad over Ellsworth's death and had his body placed in the East Room of the White House, where it lay in state. Then the body was taken to New York City and laid in state in City Hall, where thousands filed through to view the corpse of (almost) the first man to die for the Union.

"Remember Ellsworth!" was a Yankee rallying cry of the early months of the war. A new regiment, the 44th New York, called themselves "Ellsworth's Avengers". A Currier & Ives engraving of Ellsworth being killed was published and sold briskly in the north. Relics of Ellsworth were precious souvenirs. Parts of the Confederate flag, Ellsworth's uniform and cap, and other items are in museum collections today. Several towns are named in his honor.

Ellsworth's southern counterpart was Latane, who was among the first southerners killed and was similarly mourned as a martyr, as was the Marshall House owner, Jackson, who killed Ellsworth.

Answer 2

In the context of the Civil War, there were several individuals named Ellsworth who played significant roles. The most well-known is Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, who was a Union officer and the first official casualty of the war. He was killed while trying to remove a Confederate flag from a hotel in Alexandria, Virginia. Another notable figure is Ephraim Elmer Ellsworth, a close friend of Abraham Lincoln, who served as a Union officer and was killed in a similar incident in Alexandria.