Meg Groeling - First Fallen

The Life of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, the Norths First Civil War Hero

Meg Groeling

2021 by Meg Groeling

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Groeling, Meg, author.

Title: First Fallen: The life of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, the Norths First Civil War Hero / by Meg Groeling.

Other titles: Life of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, the Norths First Civil War Hero

Description: El Dorado Hills, CA : Savas Beatie LLC, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: Elmer Ellsworth was the first Union officer killed in the American Civil War. He is a perfect historical lens through which to examine the fresh face of America that responded to the Unions call. That he is not well-known today is a tragedy. His intriguing personality, his remarkable lifeso tightly bound to the history of his time and to President Lincolnand his contributions to the war efforts of the North make him too important to be forgottenProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021001212 | ISBN 9781611215373 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781611215380 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Ellsworth, E. E. (Elmer Ephraim), 1837-1861. | United States. Army. New York Infantry Regiment, 11th (1861-1862)Biography. | Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865Friends and associates. | United States. Army.OfficersBiography. | United StatesHistoryCivil War, 1861-1865Biography. | Alexandria (Va.)HistoryCivil War, 1861-1865.

Classification: LCC E523.5 111th .G76 2021 | DDC 973.70973 [B]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021001212

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For Bree Meerjans, who was there at the beginning, and Robert Groeling, who is here at the end

No comprehensive biography of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth has been published since Ruth Painter Randall wrote hers in 1960. I thought it was about time for another one. Ellsworth was one of those historical personages that never made it to the A list for some reason. Had he lived, he may have, but we will never know. Most people, including some Civil War historians, do not even know who he was. This book contains what we do know about him.

Elmer Ellsworth was the first Union officer killed in the American Civil War. Myths abound about him, but they are just thatmyths. Ellsworth came from a working-class background, not poverty. He could have attended West Point had he chosen to do so, but he decided instead to join the legions of young Yankee men who left the family homestead and moved westward to make their own futures. Young Ellsworth not only worked in Abraham Lincolns law office, he passed the Illinois bar exam before leaving Springfield for Washington. He neither smoked nor drank, and he expected the same of his companions. He was handsome and sophisticated enough to charm the men (and women) of the moneyed class, gathering around himself influential political figures who moved and shook the North in the time immediately before the Civil War.

It was the influence of his performance group, the United States Zouave Cadets, and their tour of the Northeast that paved the way for the militia movement, which exceeded the quota of 75,000 volunteers that Lincoln called for after Fort Sumter was fired upon in Charleston Harbor. One might go so far as to suggest that it was Ellsworths military efforts that readied the North for the eventuality of the war itself. Although rarely mentioned, it was Ellsworth who provided military-themed entertainment at the Republican Convention in Chicago in 1860. Ellsworth, John Hay, and Ward Hill Lamon worked together to create enough interference at the Wigwam to move support from William Seward and other contenders to Abraham Lincoln, who finally won the nomination on the third ballot of a brokered convention. The use of marching militia members influenced the growth of the Wide-Awakes, a group of young men that wore distinctive black capes and carried oil lanterns. At first, they escorted stumping politicians to and from the trains to the hustings, but later they held late-night parades supporting Republican candidates.

The self-made men of the North who had experienced 1850s politics saw the return to slave laws and Southern congressional control as a return to the past, erasing the progress of the Missouri Compromise. They saw themselves as wide awake, aware of the purposes of union and politics. Elmer Ellsworth is a perfect historical lens through which to examine this fresh face of America. He espoused discipline, self-reliance, and confidence, and he showed that there was indeed a chance for someone not born to wealth to exercise power at higher levels of politics and society. The example he set was followed by many, including those involved in numerous militia organizations.

During his short lifehe died when he was just twenty-fourElmer Ellsworth became the most talked-of man in the country, according to John Hay. Ellsworth was welcomed into the best houses in Illinois, including the Lincolns. Mary Todd Lincoln loved Elmer much like a son and was heartbroken at his death. President Lincoln trusted the young man so much that he was put in charge of crowd control during the Inaugural Express train trip to Washington. When Lincoln realized his life was threatened and chose to leave the train early, he asked Elmer to take care of Mary and their sons.

When Lincoln called for volunteers in April 1861, Elmer Ellsworth was one of the first to leave Washington and travel to New York City to recruit a regiment. Ellsworth wanted the New York firemen in particular; he felt that the strength and discipline of the job of fighting fires would give these men an advantage in any imminent battles against Southern volunteers. If Ellsworth had done nothing except bring his regiment to Washington, that would have been as much as many. But he did more. He uniformed his men, armed them, and immediately began to teach them his French Algerian-inspired Zouave drill. This drill had some significant differences from the one that was currently used by the army, which had not changed much from the Mexican War era. Had Ellsworth lived long enough to continue this training, his units might have become forerunners of the elite forces used by our current military. After his death, many of the 11th New York Fire Zouaves, as Ellsworths men were known, complained that this training had been abandoned.

Even Ellsworths death helped the Union war effort. He was seen as the quintessential Boy of 61, and newspapers in many Northern cities ran black-banded headlines when his killing was announced. Remember Ellsworth was a rallying cry throughout the war. It rang out in Irish brogues on the battlefield of First Bull Run. Francis Brownell, the private who shot the man who shot Colonel Ellsworth, became identified as Ellsworths Avenger. He was awarded the first Medal of Honor of the Civil War. Even the love story of Ellsworth and his young fianc, Carrie Spafford, furnished a captivating tale to the nation, one illustrated most sadly when I paged through Miss Spaffords scrapbook and found an assortment of funeral flowers pressed between its pages.