Elmer E. Ellsworth
Elmer E. Ellsworth was born on April 11, 1837. See ranking, bio blurb, and everyone else born that day.
About Elmer E. Ellsworth
Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth (April 11, 1837 – May 24, 1861) was a United States Army officer, close personal friend of the 16th President of the United States Abraham Lincoln, and law clerk who was the first conspicuous casualty and the first Union officer to die in the American Civil War. He was killed while removing a Confederate flag from the roof of the Marshall House in Alexandria, Virginia. He was later buried in his hometown of Mechanicville, New York on May 27, 1861 in Hudson View Cemetery in a family plot. Before the war, Ellsworth led a touring military drill team, the "Zouave Cadets of Chicago". He was a close personal friend of Abraham Lincoln. After his death, Lincoln ordered Ellsworth's body to lie in state in the East Room of the White House. The phrase "Remember Ellsworth" became a rallying cry and call to arms for the Union Army.