Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth

Includes Letter from President Abraham Lincoln to his parents. Excerpt: On Monday, the twenty-ninth of April, 1861, fourteen days after President Lincoln's call for 75,000 troops, a regiment composed of 1,100 men, uniformed and equipped, marched the streets of New York en route to the national capital. Riding at the head of the column was the Colonel, a young man of twenty-four, small of stature, with flashing dark eyes and with a look of authority and power upon his handsome features. The crowds along the line of march cheered enthusiastically as the regiment passed-a magnificent body of men who at his call had rushed in the space of four days to the colors. It was Ellsworth's regiment of Zouaves, recruited from the firemen of New York City, and afterwards mustered into the service as the Eleventh New York Volunteer Infantry. But whence came this wonderful youth who, as if by magic, had called into being this stalwart array-bold and fearless men, resenting restraint, but submitting cheerfully now to his iron discipline? Not many years before, he had been but an obscure country boy of northern New York, remote from the places of advancement and culture, a son of worthy parents, unable, however, to contribute of their limited means to the furtherance of the ambitious desires of their offspring. In the brief space of a year he had achieved national prominence; having had up to the summer of 1860 but a local reputation, confined to Chicago and its vicinity, he became the popular idol of the entire northern country. At the head of his United States Zouave Cadets he had toured the leading eastern cities and won distinction for the extraordinary perfection of drill exhibited by his command. Shining through all this historic expedition appears preeminent the attractive personality of the young captain-knightly, magnetic, winning, lofty of character, able to control every one of his cadets under the imperious rule of his native authority and undeviating rectitude. On the morning of the twenty-fourth of May, less than a month from the departure of the Fire Zouaves from New York, Ellsworth was killed at Alexandria. Not in vain was his fall, for it caused the hesitating northern people to reach firmly at last for the rifle. "Ellsworth's Avengers," the Forty-fourth New York Volunteer Infantry, recruited from every county of the Empire State, with unusual physical requirements and moral standards, marched from their encampment at Albany for the front on October 21, 1861. Well did they fulfill the name they bore, for on many a battle field this somewhat Puritanical regiment, remarkable for the scholarship and worth of its rank and file, never forgot the assassination of Ellsworth as they carried their rent colors against the foe. Still another regiment of New York City firemen, the Second Fire Zouaves, or the Seventy-third New York Volunteer Infantry, was recruited under the inspiration of Ellsworth's name and was mustered into the service on July 10, 1861. Reenlisting in 1864, it had a continuous service to the close of the war and enjoys a magnificent history.