T H E S A D T A L E
O F
C O L. E L L S W O R T H
photos from the National Archives
Elmer E. Ellsworth (or E. Elmer Ellsworth), born 1837
near Albany, New York, was the rather short but notably handsome organizer
of the First New York Zouaves (11th New York Volunteers), a regiment of
former New York City firemen. He was, supposedly, the first
officer to be killed in the Civil War. At the beginning of the war
in 1861, he arrived in Alexandria, Virginia and saw a Confederate flag
flying atop Marshall House Inn. Ellsworth ascended the stairs and
ripped it down, shouting to his troops, "Look boys, my trophy!"
Marshall House Inn, photographed by the Matthew Brady
studio
shortly after Ellsworth's death. The flagpole
is top center, just right of the chimney.
James Jackson, innkeeper of
Marshall House
|
The innkeeper, a very staunch Confederate named
James Jackson, had placed the flag there himself and was reported to have
exlclaimed that it would come down "over my dead body". Armed with
a double-barreled shotgun, Jackson met Ellsworth on the stairs, shouting,
"Look boys, my trophy!" and fatally shot Ellsworth. |
 
The makeshift "memorial" for Col. Ellsworth, including
his portrait, possessions,
and, probably, the coat he had been wearing at his
death. These photos,
originally meant for a stereo-viewer card set, were
taken by the
Matthew Brady Studio.
Harper's Weekly cover story for
was the Ellsworth shooting
|
After the incedent, a kind of shrine was erected
to the Colonel. Then the body of Elmer Ellsworth, former clerk in
Abraham Lincoln's Springfield law office and a personal friend to the President,
was taken back to Washington to lay in state at the White House.
He became the first Federal Civil War hero, and his name soon became a
rallying cry in the early days of the war. |
Some Union Army companies named themselves for him, the most
famous being the "Ellsworth
Avengers" 44th NY. In addition, many, many new babies
were named in his honor after his death, although Colonel Ellsworth left
no heirs legitimate or illegitimate. He is buried in Hudson View
Cemetery, Mechanicville, New York, beneath a gravestone bought by the State
of New York for his Mother, who had no money to purchase one at his death.
The eagle on top of it, recently stolen (by a fellow who killed himself
afterward) will be replaced in September, 1999.
|
|
