Destined to be the first official casualty in the then just unfolding ‘War of the Rebellion’ (as the mostly Northern, pro-union side then called it), or else the ‘War Between the States’ (as was then held fashionable among Confederate Southerners)—such was the place of Colonel Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth in history. The famed son of New York state and the namesake of Ellsworth, Wisconsin once renamed from the original title of “Perry,” Colonel Ellsworth went to Washington, D. C. with his famed Zouaves in the spring of 1861, the unit’s name being based on a French fighting unit that he had studied previously.

Within two weeks of arriving in the nation’s capital he was dead, shot by a Confederate partisan named James W. Jackson in Alexandria, Virginia as Ellsworth attempted to capture a Confederate flag from the roof of a local hotel, called the Marshall House, and which Jackson then owned. Jackson was quickly dispatched by the Zouaves. Such is the common record of history. What then of Ellsworth’s home life and family before the war?

Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth was born to Ephraim Daniel and Phebe Ellsworth (née Denton) on April 11, 1837, in the town of Malta, Saratoga County, New York. His father was then 27 years of age and approaching 28, being born on May 22, 1809, in a place called Halfmoon of Saratoga county. Ellsworth’s mother Phebe was then just three months over the boundary line separating age 26 from 27, having been born herself in the same town as her son on January 5, 1810. Regarding the home life of the future colonel it is not easy to discern much at such a distance, though as indicated in his last letter reproduced below it might be suggested that the bond between son and parents was both strong and affectionate, and that they raised him with a certain religious sense, as well as trust.

Moving into the realm of textually verifiable facts, the 1840 U.S. Federal Census for Stillwater in Saratoga County, New York lists “Ephraim D. Ellsworth” as the head of the Ellsworth family, with three other checkmarks being present in the record. The first is for his wife, another for Elmer (then under five), and one for a male “15 and under 20.” Most online history resources list Elmer as the oldest child of Ephraim and Phebe, with a young brother Charles born in 1841, and it was not possible to ascertain this unknown person’s identity at press time.

From New York, Colonel Ellsworth would go on to Chicago and become engaged, spending a brief time within the law offices of future President Abraham Lincoln, who wrote a personal letter of condolence to the parents of his young friend and gave Ellsworth a state funeral complete with honor guard for his act of service to the Union and to universal freedom.

As to the Colonel Ellsworth’s person, records state that he voluntarily enlisted April 20, 1861, in New York City, with the grade of Colonel in the 11th New York Infantry, being posthumously commissioned on June 20 of that same year with his rank from May 7, having been “killed by assassination” in Alexandria, Virginia on May 24, 1861. His last letter written to his parents on May 23 the previous night and addressed from ‘Camp Lincoln,’ expresses a certain foreboding, but hope as well: “My dear Father and Mother,” it begins. “The Regiment has been ordered to move across the river tonight. We have no means of knowing what reception we are to meet with. I am inclined to this opinion: that our entrance to the City of Alexandria will be hotly contested, as I am just informed a large force have their today. Should this happen my dear parents, it may be my lot to be injured in some manner,” Ellsworth writes, then goes on. “Whatever may happen, cherish this consolation, that I was engaged in the performance of a sacred duty, and tonight, thinking over the probabilities of tomorrow, and the occurrences of the past, I am perfectly content to accept whatever my fortune may be, confident that He who noteth even the fall of a sparrow would have some purpose, even in the fate of one like me.” Having written these words, Colonel Ellsworth makes what would become his last farewell. “My darling and ever loved parents, good bye, God bless, protect and care for you.

Elmer” The next day Ellsworth would cross the Potomac, and enter into history as the first Union casualty of the Civil War as modern usage denotes the conflict of 1861-1865, even though many Southern states cited the preservation of slavery and the threat of abolition they perceived as coming from Lincoln’s election to be the reason for their attempted secession, put down by armed force.

Somewhat more positively, however, the father of Colonel Ellsworth would follow in his son’s example of defending the cause of freedom for all, with Ephraim Daniel Ellsworth enlisting in June of 1861 according to the roll of a charter granted August 12, 1887, to Post No. 619 of the Grand Army of the Republic veterans organization (itself a precursor to the American Legion and like organizations). The namesake of G.A.R. Post 619 was Colonel Ellsworth, with his father’s name at the top of the roll as a founding member. Ephraim Daniel Ellsworth survived the War of the Rebellion and was 77 years of age in 1887, dying two years later on November 6, 1889.

Among the occupations of the chapter’s founding members are listed those of painter, tinsmith, farmer, manufacturer, papermaker, machinist, carder, and schoolteacher—in short, a diverse grouping, with both native born Americans, but also Canadian, English, and Irish born members. G.A.R. Post 619 was thus constructed “e pluribus unum,” and made one from the sacrifices of many, mirrored by the motto of Wisconsin, founded in 1848 with the same motto. Shifting to the local end of things, Ellsworth, Wisconsin itself “was platted as a village in 1862 and incorporated under the laws of the state of Wisconsin” some twenty-five years later, per the village website down at https://www.villageofellsworth. org, being listed under the ‘History’ tab. At one time composed of two separate communities (Ellsworth and East Ellsworth) that later joined into one, “Ellsworth was renamed after Civil War Colonel, Elmer E. Ellsworth,” the website says. “His likeness symbolizes the strength of our striving community.”

Image captures made by Joseph Back.