THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 21, 1995 TAG: 9505190604
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GEORGE TUCKER
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Col. Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth, killed by an irate secessionist in Alexandria on May 24, 1861, was the North's first casualty in the Civil War.
Born in Malta, N.Y., in 1837, Ellsworth longed as a boy for an appointment to West Point, but had no opportunity to prepare for the required entrance examination.
Instead, he became a dry-goods clerk and later a solicitor of patents in New York City and Chicago. Meanwhile, he continued his martial interests by affiliating himself with civic military groups. In 1860, at age 23, he entered Abraham Lincoln's office in Springfield, Ill., as a law clerk. Old Abe became very attached to the personable young man and took him to Washington for his first term as president.
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Ellsworth went to New York City. There he organized and became colonel of the New York Fire Zouaves, a military group of Manhattan firefighters patterned after French colonial troops. Returning with them to Washington, Ellsworth put them through their paces in their colorful baggy pants, short jackets, gaiters and fezzes in a special review for Lincoln on May 7, 1861.
Seventeen days later, during the movement of the Union forces to the Virginia side of the Potomac, Ellsworth's Zouaves were assigned to sail down the river to Alexandria and capture the city in conjunction with the land forces. Since the Confederate occupation forces had taken to their heels, Alexandria fell with minimal resistance.
During the early hours of the occupation, Ellsworth noticed that a Confederate flag was still flying over a hotel known as the Marshall House Tavern. Entering the place, Ellsworth confronted the proprietor, James T. Jackson, and demanded to know why he was still flying the flag. Jackson, pretending to be a boarder, was evasive.
Ellsworth then climbed the hotel stairs to the roof, taking a Union private, Francis Edwin Brownell, along for protection. Hauling down the Confederate banner, Ellsworth, proceeded by Brownell, started down the stairs, rolling the flag in a bundle as he descended. According to Brownell's later testimony: ``As I reached the first landing and turned, with a half dozen steps between me and the floor, there stood a man (i.e., Jackson) with a double-barreled shotgun pointing at my breast.''
Jackson attempted to fire, but Brownell jumped at him, knocking aside the weapon with his musket. Deterred for only a minute, Jackson fired anyway, hitting Ellsworth in the chest and killing him immediately. Brownell then shot Jackson in the head and ran him through with his bayonet.
Ellsworth's death created a profound sensation in the North. Predictably, Jackson was hailed throughout the South as a martyr, where poems, songs and fire-eating articles in the press claimed he had ``perished amid a pack of wolves.''
Lincoln deeply mourned Ellsworth's death. Before his young friend's body was sent northward by a special train for burial, Lincoln ordered that the funeral be held in the East Room of the White House. Later, Lincoln wrote a letter of consolation to Ellsworth's parents containing this tribute: ``So much of promised usefulness to one's country, and of bright hope for one's self and friends, have rarely been so suddenly dashed, as in his fall.''
As for Brownell - in the wake of the national attention and grief that followed Ellsworth's untimely end, he was immediately commissioned a second lieutenant. Later, he was made a first lieutenant in the U.S. Volunteers. Once the national publicity faded, however, Brownell retired from the Army in 1863. Years later, he twice tried unsuccessfully to have himself nominated for the Medal of Honor. On a third attempt, with the aid of his congressman, he was decorated in 1877. He died in 1894. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
COURTESY OF KIRN MEMORIAL LIBRARY
Col. Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth
by CNB