[Illustration: HENRY H. MILLER, A MEMBER OF THE ORIGINAL COMPANY OF
ELLSWORTH ZOUAVES.
From a photograph loaned by Mr. Miller and taken in 1861 by Colonel
E.L. Brand, at that time commanding the company.]
It is in contemplating what the world loses in the deaths of brilliant
young citizen soldiers that we appreciate most fully the waste of
war and the priceless value of the cause for which such lives were
sacrificed. When a man like Henri Regnault--the most substantial
hope and promise of art in our century--is seen at the siege of Paris
lingering behind his retreating comrades, "_le temps de bruler une
dernière cartouche_" the last words he uttered; when a genius like
Theodore Winthrop is extinguished in its ardent dawn on an obscure
skirmish field; when a patriot and poet like Koerner dies in battle
with his work hardly begun--we feel how inadequate are all the
millions of the treasury to rival such offerings. We shall have no
correct idea what our country is worth to us if we forget all the
singing voices that were hushed, all the noble hearts that stopped
beating, all the fiery energies that were quenched, that we might be
citizens of the great and indivisible Republic of the Western world.
I believe that few men who fell in our civil conflict bore with them
out of the world possibilities of fame and usefulness so bright or
so important as Colonel Ephraim Elmer Ellsworth, who was killed at
Alexandria, Virginia, on May 24, 1861--the first conspicuous victim of
the war. The world can never compute, can hardly even guess, what was
lost in his untimely end. He was killed by the first gun he ever heard
fired in strife; and his friends, who believe him to have had in him
the making of a great soldier, have nothing to support their opinion
but the impression made upon them by his manly character, his winning
and vigorous personality, and the extraordinary ardor and zest with
which his powerful mind turned towards military affairs in the midst
of circumstances of almost incredible difficulty and privation. He was
one of the dearest of the friends of my youth. I cannot hope to
enable the readers of this paper to see him as I saw him. No words can
express the vivid brilliancy of his look and his speech, the swift and
graceful energy of his bearing. He was not a scholar, yet his words
were like martial music; in stature he was less than the medium size,
yet his strength was extraordinary; he seemed made of tempered steel.
His entire aspect breathed high ambition and daring. His jet-black
curls, his open candid brow, his dark eyes, at once fiery and tender,
his eagle profile, his mouth just shaded by the youthful growth that
hid none of its powerful and delicate lines--the whole face, which
seemed made for nothing less than the command of men, whether as
general or as orator, comes before me as I write, with a look of
indignant appeal to the future for the chance of fame which inexorable
fate denied him. The appeal, of course, is in vain. Only a few men,
now growing old, knew what he was and what he might have been if life
had been spared him for a year or two. I will merely try to show in
these few pages, mainly from his own words, how great a heart was
broken by the slugs of the assassin at the Marshall House.
He was born in the village of Mechanicsville, Saratoga County, New
York, on April 23, 1837. His parents were plain people, without
culture or means; one cannot guess how this eaglet came into so lowly
a nest. He went out into the world at the first opportunity, to seek
his fortune; he turned his hand, like other American boys, to anything
he could find to do. He lived a while in New York, and finally drifted
to Chicago, where we find him, in the spring of 1859, a clerk and
student in the law office of Mr. J.E. Cone. From his earliest boyhood
he had a passionate love of the army. He learned as a child the manual
of arms; he picked up instinctively a knowledge of the pistol and the
rifle; he became, almost without instruction, a scientific fencer.
But he was now of age, and determined to be a lawyer, since, to all
appearance, there was no chance for him in the army. The way in which
he pursued his legal studies he has set down in a diary which he kept
for a little while. He began it on his twenty-second birthday. "I do
this," he said, "because it seems pleasant to be able to look back
upon our past lives and note the gradual change in our sentiments and
views of life; and because my life has been, and bids fair to be,
such a jumble of strange incidents that, should I become anybody or
anything, this will be useful as a means of showing how much suffering
and temptation a man may undergo and still keep clear of despair and
vice."
[Illustration: ELLSWORTH IN THE SPRING OF 1861, WHEN HE WAS A
LIEUTENANT IN THE REGULAR ARMY AND JUST BEFORE HE RECRUITED THE
REGIMENT OF NEW YORK ZOUAVES.
From a photograph by Brady in the Civil War collection of Mr. Robert
Coster, by whose permission it is here reproduced.]
He was neat, almost foppish, in his attire; not strictly fashionable,
for he liked bright colors, flowing cravats, and hats that suggested
the hunter or ranger rather than the law clerk; yet the pittance for
which he worked was very small, and his poverty extreme. He therefore
economized upon his food. He lived for months together upon dry
biscuits and water. Here is a touching entry from his diary: "Had
an opportunity to buy a desk to-day worth forty-five dollars, for
fourteen dollars. It was just such a one as I needed, and I could sell
at any time for more than was asked for it. I bought it at auction. I
can now indulge my ideas of order in the arrangement of my papers to
their fullest extent. Paid five dollars of my own money and borrowed
ten dollars of James Clayburne; promised to return it next Tuesday.
By the way, this was an instance in a small way of the importance of
little things. Some two years since, when I was so poor, I went one
day into an eating-house on an errand. While there, Clayburne and
several friends came in.
"As I started to go out they stopped me and insisted upon my having
an oyster stew. I refused, for I always made it a practice never to
accept even an apple from any one, because I could not return like
courtesies. While they were clamoring about the matter and I trying to
get from them, the waiter brought on the oysters for the whole party,
having taken it for granted that I was going to stay. So to escape
making myself any more conspicuous by further refusal, I sat down. How
gloriously every morsel tasted--the first food I had touched for three
days and three nights. When I came to Chicago with a pocket full of
money I sought James out and told him I owed him half a dollar. He
said no, but I insisted my memory was better than his, and made him
take it. Well, when I wanted ten dollars, I went to him, and he gave
it to me freely, and would take no security. Have written four hours
this evening; two pounds of crackers; sleep on office floor to-night."
The diary relates many incidents like this. He took a boyish pride
in refusing offers of assistance, in resisting temptation to innocent
indulgence, in passing most of his hours in study, earning only enough
by his copying to keep body and soul together. One entry is, "Read one
hundred and fifty pages of Blackstone--slept on floor." Such a regimen
was not long in having its effect upon even his rugged health. He
writes: "I tried to read, but could not. I am afraid my strength will
not hold out. I have contracted a cold by sleeping on the floor, which
has settled in my head, and nearly sets me crazy with catarrh. Then
there is that gnawing, unsatisfied sensation which I begin to feel
again, which prevents any long-continued application." About this time
he was urged to take command of a company of cadets which, through
mismanagement, had been reduced to a deplorable condition. He at first
declined, but afterward consented if the company would accept certain
rigorous conditions of discipline and obedience. He was as firm as
granite to his company, and cheery and gay to the world, while in his
private life he was subjecting himself to the cruel rigors described
in his diary of April 21: "I am convinced that the course of reading
which I am pursuing is not sufficiently thorough. Have commenced again
at beginning of Blackstone. I now read a proposition or paragraph
and reason upon it; try to get at the principle involved, in my own
language; view it in every light till I think I understand it; then
write it down in my commonplace book. My progress is, in consequence,
very slow, as it takes on an average half an hour to each page.
Attended meeting of cadets' committee on ways and means; all my
propositions accepted. I spent my last ten cents for crackers to-day.
Ten pages of Blackstone."
The next day he writes: "My mind was so occupied with obtaining
money due to-morrow that I could not study. Five pages of Blackstone.
Nothing whatever to eat. I am very tired and hungry to-night. Onward."
[Illustration: ELLSWORTH IN 1860, WHEN HE WAS CAPTAIN OF THE CHICAGO
COMPANY.
From a photograph loaned by Mr. H.H. Miller of Chicago, a member of
the Chicago company, and taken July 2, 1860, by Colonel E.L. Brand of
Chicago, a member of Ellsworth's Chicago company, and afterwards
in command of it. In the State House at Springfield, Illinois, is
a portrait group of the members of the Ellsworth company, with a
reproduction of this portrait of Ellsworth in the centre.]
In these circumstances of hunger and toil, he took charge of the
company of cadets, which was falling to pieces from neglect. There was
no sign in his bearing of the poverty and famine which were consuming
him. He told them roundly that if they elected him their captain they
did so with their eyes open; that he should enforce the strictest
discipline, and make their company second to none in the United
States. His laws were Draconic in their severity. He forbade his
cadets from entering a drinking or gambling saloon or any other
disreputable place under penalty of expulsion, publication of the
offender's name in the city papers, and forfeiture of uniform. He
insisted on prompt obedience and unremitting drill. The company under
his firm and inspiring command rapidly pulled itself together,
and attracted all at once the notice and admiration of Chicago and
northern Illinois. The young captain did not give up his law studies.
He wrote and affixed to his desk a card which contained his own daily
orders: "So aim to spend your time that at night, when looking back at
the disposal of the day, you find no time misspent, no hour, no moment
even, which has not resulted in some benefit, no action which had not
a purpose in it. Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays: Rise at 5 o'clock;
5 to 10, study; 10 to 1, copy; 1 to 4, business; 4 to 7, study; 7 to
8, exercise; 8 to 10, study. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays: Rise
at 6; 6 to 10, study; 10 to 1, business; 1 to 7, study and copy; 7 to
11, drill."
Working faithfully as he did in the office, his whole heart was in his
drill room. His fame as a fencer went abroad in the town, and he was
challenged to a bout by the principal teacher of the art in Chicago.
Ellsworth records the combat in his diary of May 24th: "This evening
the fencer of whom I have heard so much came up to the armory to fence
with me. He said to his pupils and several others that if I held to
the low guard he would disarm me every time I raised my foil. He is
a great gymnast, and I fully expected to be beaten. The result was: I
disarmed him four times, hit him thirty times. He disarmed me once
and hit me five times. At the _touche-à-touche_ I touched him in two
places at the same allonge, and threw his foil from him several feet.
He was very angry, though he tried to conceal it."
[Illustration: FRANK E. BROWNELL, WHO KILLED THE ASSASSIN OF COLONEL
ELLSWORTH.
From a photograph in the Civil War collection of Mr. Robert Coster, by
whose permission it is here reproduced.]
Public interest constantly grew in the Zouaves and their young
captain. Large crowds attended every drill. The newspapers began to
report all their proceedings, and to comment upon them with more
or less malevolence; for military companies were treated with scant
respect in Western towns before the war. Ellsworth at last determined
to confront hostile opinion by giving a public exhibition of the
proficiency of his company on the Fourth of July. He was not without
trepidation. The night before the Fourth he wrote: "To-morrow will
be an eventful day to me; to-morrow I have to appear in a conspicuous
position before thousands of citizens--an immense number of whom,
without knowing me except by sight, are prejudiced against me.
To-morrow will demonstrate the truth or falsity of my assertion that
the citizens would encourage military companies if they were worthy
of respect." The result was an overwhelming success; and the young
soldier, after his feast of crackers the next night, wrote in
exultation: "Victory! And thank God!"
The Chicago "Tribune," which had previously been unfriendly to the
little company who were trying to make soldiers of themselves, gave
a long and flattering account of the performance, and said: "We but
express the opinion of all who saw the drill yesterday morning, when
we say this company cannot be surpassed this side of West Point."
Encouraged by this public applause, he brought his company of Zouaves
as near to absolute perfection of drill as was possible; and then,
having tested them in as many competitive contests as were within
reach, he challenged the militia companies of the United States, and
set forth in the summer of 1860 on a tour of the country which was one
unbroken succession of triumphs. He defeated the crack companies in
all the principal Eastern cities, and went back to Chicago one of
the most talked-of men in the country. Hundreds of Zouave companies
started up in his wake, and a very considerable awakening of interest
in military matters was the substantial result of his journey.
[Illustration: THE DEATH OF COLONEL ELLSWORTH.]
On his return to Illinois he made the acquaintance of Abraham Lincoln,
and gained at once his friendship and esteem. He entered his office
in Springfield ostensibly as a law student; but Mr. Lincoln was then a
candidate for the Presidency, and Ellsworth read very little law that
autumn. He made some Republican speeches in the country towns about
Springfield, bright, witty, and good-natured. But his mind was full of
a project which he hoped to accomplish by the aid of Mr. Lincoln--no
less than the establishment in the War Department of a bureau of
militia, by which the entire militia system of the United States
should be concentrated, systematized, and made efficient: an enormous
undertaking for a boy of twenty-three; but his plans were clear,
definite, and comprehensive.
[Illustration: THE MARSHALL HOUSE, ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA, IN WHICH
COLONEL ELLSWORTH WAS KILLED.
From a photograph owned by Bryan, Taylor & Co., publishers, New York,
and reproduced here by their permission.]
After Mr. Lincoln's election Ellsworth accompanied him to Washington.
As a preliminary step towards placing him in charge of a bureau of
militia, the President gave him a commission as a lieutenant in the
army. Shortly afterward he fell seriously ill with the measles; and
before he was thoroughly convalescent, the guns about Sumter opened
the Civil War. There had been much doubt in many minds as to the
loyalty of the people in case of actual war. Ellsworth never had
doubted it. He said to me as I sat by his bedside: "You know I have a
great work to do, to which my life is pledged; I am the only earthly
stay of my parents; there is a young woman whose happiness I regard as
dearer than my own; yet I could ask no better death than to fall next
week before Sumter. I am not better than other men. You will find that
patriotism is not dead, even if it sleeps." When the news came that
South Carolina had begun the war, he did not wait an instant. He threw
up his commission in the regulars, took all the money we both had,
which was not much, and thus insufficiently equipped, started for New
York, and raised, with incredible celerity, the New York Zouaves, a
regiment eleven hundred strong.
This unique organization filled so large a space in the public mind
while Ellsworth commanded it that it seems hard to realize that its
history with him is only a matter of a few weeks. He brought
his regiment down to Washington early in May, arriving thin as a
greyhound, his voice hoarse with drilling; but flushed and happy to
know he was busy and useful at last.
There was no limit to the hopes and the confidence of his friends.
We had grown to admire and respect him for his high and honorable
character, his thorough knowledge of his business, ardent zeal for the
flag he followed, and his extraordinary courage and energy. We fully
expected, relying upon his splendid talents and the President's
affectionate regard, that his first battle would make him a
brigadier-general, and that his second would give him a division.
There was no limit to the glory and usefulness we anticipated for him.
How soon all these hopes were dust and ashes!
[Illustration: COLONEL ELLSWORTH AND A GROUP OF MILITIA OFFICERS.
From a photograph taken by Colonel E.L. Brand, a member of Ellsworth's
Chicago company, and reproduced by the courtesy of Mr. H.H. Miller,
also a member of the company. The photograph was taken in New York
City, July, 1860, on the occasion of an exhibition drill given
there by Ellsworth's company. The persons shown in the picture are,
beginning on the left, the Lieutenant-Colonel of the Sixth Regiment,
New York Militia; E.E. Ellsworth, Captain of the United States Zouave
Cadets (Ellsworth's Chicago company); Joseph C. Pinckney, Colonel
of the Sixth Regiment, New York Militia; the Adjutant of the Sixth
Regiment, New York Militia; H. Dwight Laflin, Second Lieutenant of the
United States Zouave Cadets, and J.R. Scott, First Lieutenant of the
United States Zouave Cadets. The colors shown in the picture were
won by Ellsworth's company in a drill competition at the National
Agricultural Fair, Chicago, September, 15, 1859, and were, by it,
never lost. They are to-day in the custody of the company's color
sergeant, B.B. Botteford, Chicago.]
On the evening of May 23d he received his orders to lead his regiment
on the extreme left of the Union lines in the advance into Virginia.
The part assigned him was the occupation of Alexandria. He worked
almost all night in his tent, arranging the business of his regiment,
and then wrote a touching letter of farewell to his parents.
Anticipating an engagement, he said: "It may be my lot to be injured
in some manner. Whatever may happen, cherish the consolation that
I was engaged in the performance of a sacred duty; and to-night,
thinking over the probabilities of the morrow 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 will have some
purpose even in the fate of one like me. My darling and ever-loved
parents, good-by. God bless, protect, and care for you." These loving
and filial words were the last that came from his pen.
The Zouaves were embarked before dawn the next morning. The celerity
and order with which Ellsworth performed his work excited the
admiration and surprise of Admiral Dahlgren, who commanded the navy
yard.
The town of Alexandria was occupied without resistance; and Ellsworth,
with a squad of Zouaves, hurried off to take possession of the
telegraph office. On his way he caught sight of a Confederate flag
floating from the summit of the Marshall House. He had often seen,
from the window of the Executive Mansion in Washington, this self-same
banner flaunting defiance; and the temptation to tear it down with his
own hands was too much for his boyish patriotism. Accompanied by four
soldiers only and several civilians, he ran into the hotel, up the
stairs to the roof, and tore down the flag; but coming down was met on
the stairs by the hotel-keeper and shot dead. His assassin perished at
the same moment, killed by Frank E. Brownell.
Ellsworth was buried from the East Room of the White House by the
special order of the President, who mourned him as a son. Many brave
and able officers were to perish in the four years that followed that
mournful day; but there was not one whose death was more sincerely
lamented than that of this young soldier who had never seen a battle;
and it is the belief of his friends that he had not his superior in
natural capacity among all the most eminent heroes of the war. But who
will care to hear this said? If Napoleon Bonaparte had been killed at
the siege of Toulon, who would have listened to some grief-stricken
comrade's assertion that this young Corsican was the greatest soldier
since Cæsar? I have written these lines merely to show how simple,
kindly, and heroic a heart Colonel Ellsworth had--and not to claim for
him what can never be proved.