| The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07. |
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| Ellsworth, Elmer Ephraim |
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| 1837–61, American Civil War hero, b. near Mechanicville, N.Y. Just before the Civil War he became famous for his Zouave company, which toured the North giving exhibition drills. A friend and law student of Lincoln, Ellsworth accompanied him to Washington in 1861. When war began, he recruited a regiment from the volunteer firemen in New York City. At Alexandria, Va., in May, 1861, he removed a Confederate flag from atop the Marshall House and was shot and killed by the proprietor. His sensational death was the first officer casualty on the Virginia front. | 1 | | See biography by R. P. Randall (1960). | 2 |
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| | | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright © 2007 Columbia University Press. |
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