In the summer of 1860, a magnetic young man was called by his friend, Abraham Lincoln, “the greatest little man I ever met.” As the most talked-about man in the country, mayors exalted him, soldiers honored him, mothers wrote him grateful letters, and school girls sighed over his handsome features.

The young man, scarcely more than a boy, was Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth, Colonel of the U.S. Zouave Cadets of Chicago. His buoyant popularity came on the heels of a triumphant tour of twenty Eastern cities. His forty-six man militia drill team with bright blue coats and baggy red trousers performed a gymnastic, Cirque-du-soliel-like exhibition that had never been seen before. Eastern newspapers quickly spread the news that these men were the best-drilled company in the country. Elmer had in August of 1860 achieved modern day “rock star” status.

Born in New York State in 1837 and martyred in Virginia in 1861 by a shotgun blast to the heart after taking down a menacing Rebel flag from atop the Marshall House hotel, Elmer became the first Union martyr and hero of the Civil War. At just twenty four years old, his noble sacrifice shocked and galvanized the North causing massive enlistments in answer to Lincoln’s call for volunteers. Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln mourned him like a son. Thomas, Willie, and Tad cried in the East Room, where Ellsworth was laid in state the day after his death. The New York Times later wrote, “His memory will be revered… and long after the Revolution shall have become history… his name will be enrolled upon the list of our country’s greatest patriots.”

(Book jacket excerpts from COLONEL ELMER Ellsworth, a biography of Lincoln’s friend and first hero of the Civil War by Ruth Painter Randall, Lincoln Family Scholar and Author, Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 1960)

A Tale of Two Authors

Shortly after the American Civil War, Elmer Ellsworth’s legacy began to quickly fade away!

As we know from newspaper accounts and primary source documents, just prior to the conflict, Ellsworth in August 1860 was by many accounts the most famous individual from coast to coast. His military drill exploits were demonstrated in twenty different cities where the U.S. ZOUAVE CADETS toured and accelerated interest in militia units in the North and South. His early and untimely death as the first Union Officer casualty secured enduring fame throughout the four years of the Civil War conflict, but then seemed to quickly disappear in the late nineteenth century.

Thanks to the timely biographies of two important authors revealed below, a resurgence of fame fell again on Ellsworth… but has now faded again. To be sure, a monument to Elmer will permanently establish a lasting fame for him in Chicago, described by poet Carl Sandburg as “City of the big shoulders” where young men through good character and hard work could experience the American dream, as Ellsworth did before his tragic early martyrdom.

CHARLES ANSON INGRAHAM (1852-1935)

Charles A. Ingraham was only nine years old when he learned of Elmer’s tragic death. No doubt the admiration he had for the twenty-four year old Colonel caused great sadness in Charles’ young life causing a deep rooted desire to dig more into Ellsworth’s personal life story perhaps as a hobby interest as a passionate “arm chair” historian.

After completing medical school, Dr. Ingraham continued his research on Ellsworth in his spare time and thus became perhaps the most knowledgeable Ellsworth historian in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. After retirement, his passion brought him to the Midwest where a treasure trove of historical documents and artifacts would bring the memory of the young Colonel to life in a different way. No doubt, it was his first hand research into the libraries and historical centers throughout Illinois and Wisconsin that lead to his first Ellsworth short biography entitled Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth: First Hero of the Civil War published by the Wisconsin Magazine of History, Volume 1, Number 4, June, 1918. This article printed at the height of World War I most likely rekindled the memory of Ellsworth’s sacrifice to a degree, and what is interesting is Ingraham’s promise as noted in the first notation on page one:

This article, which is intended to serve as an introduction to a biography of Colonel Ellsworth which I hope to bring out, comprises but a fraction of the data bearing upon his life and times which I have in my possession. To those who have afforded me assistance in the collection of this material I am deeply grateful…” (Ingraham follows with the names of staff members at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Chicago Historical Society (now Chicago History Museum), Illinois State Historical Society, the New York State Library and others.)

True to his promise in 1918, seven years later in December a complete biography entitled, Elmer E. Ellsworth and the Zouaves of ’61, was released to the general public. No doubt the staff at two noted scholarly Chicago institutions were pleased with Dr. Ingraham’s research and attention to historical detail.

Ingraham’s Biography was published for the CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY (NOW CHICAGO HISTORY MUSEUM) by THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS (underlined notations from the Author).

After Ingraham’s death in 1935 and with the passage of most Civil War veterans, the memory of Ellsworth started to slide into the shadows again until the Centennial of the Civil War commenced in April 1961. In anticipation of this great celebration, another stellar biography sprung forth from the pen of a noted Lincoln Family biographer…

RUTH PAINTER RANDALL
From her Book Jacket

“Ruth Painter Randall once wrote that she came from a family that was “hopelessly professorial”. At one time six members were listed in Who’s Who, all in connection with colleges and universities. In 1917 Mrs. Randall carried on the tradition by marrying James G. Randall , a professor at the University of Illinois and a famous Lincoln scholar. It was while assisting her husband with two chapters of his book Lincoln the President that Mrs. Randall became interested in Mary Todd Lincoln and was convinced that she had been unjustly treated by history. The result, Mary Lincoln: Biography of a Marriage, was lauded by Carl Sandburg: “It can stand as the first and most indispensable book to read by those seeking to know the knowable about the domestic and connubial affairs, private and public, of the Lincoln couple.” Other books, including Lincoln’s Sons and The Courtship of Mr. Lincoln, followed and received equal praise.

The study of the Lincoln family turned up constant references to the name of their intimate friend Colonel Elmer Ellsworth. John Hay wrote of Ellsworth: “No man ever possessed in a more eminent degree the power of personal fascination.” This praise, coupled with today’s general ignorance of the Civil War hero, inspired Mrs. Randall to right another of history’s wrongs in this delightful and fascinating biography, COLONEL ELMER Ellsworth…”

To be sure, Randall’s biography timed well with the four year bicentennial celebration. To enhance the groundwork of Dr. Ingraham, Randall writes in the Foreward:

“In this book I have wanted to recover Ellsworth’s intriguing personality… I have tried to give a full account of his remarkable life, so closely bound up with the history of his time and so intimately connected with Abraham Lincoln. There is too much of human interest and poignant history in Ellsworth’s story to allow it to remain forgotten…”

This brings us to the end of the tale of two authors… and their noble attempts to preserve the memory of Ellsworth for future generations…

TODAY INGRAHAM’S AND RANDALL’S GREAT BIOGRAPHIES OF ELMER Ellsworth HAVE BEEN DISCARDED BY MANY LOCAL AND STATE LIBRARIES ACROSS AMERICA!
AND UNFORTUNATELY… NEITHER BIOGRAPHY IS FOR SALE TO MAINSTREAM AMERICA… CHECK OUT AMAZON.COM!
BECAUSE OF THE FIRST TWO POINTS, THE REMAINING FIRST EDITION COPIES ARE STORED IN PROTECTED HISTORICAL RESEARCH LIBRARIES… AND THEREFORE CANNOT BE CHECKED OUT FOR HOME READING!