SWEEPING SORROW
Even as a young boy, Elmer Ellsworth had a high appreciation for American military history. Ellsworth spent hours studying the United States’ martial figures. He had drawn images of two of the most heroic generals, George Washington and Andrew Jackson, and wanted to transform them into a painting. Unfortunately for the enthusiastic nine-yearold, Ellsworth used his mother’s window shade material as the canvas for his latest masterpiece
After a hard life as a young man, Ellsworth’s job failures led him to where he belonged in the first place, a militia unit known as the “Chicago Cadets of the National Guard.” A chance meeting with Frenchman Dr. Charles A. DeVilliers helped guide Ellsworth to the unit. An expert swordsman, DeVilliers tutored Ellsworth in fencing and enthralled him with stories of his service during the Crimean War as an officer in a French Zouave regiment. Learning enough French to understand the complex Zouave drill manual, Ellsworth also replaced the shabby uniforms with the colorful attire of the French Algerian style. The young man eventually rose to lead the group. From this moment forward, Ellsworth “knew that God had made him a soldier.”
A confidant of President Abraham Lincoln, Ellsworth curried enough favor to become commander of the 11th New York Volunteers as the war began. Just a week after the First New York Fire Zouaves— as the 11th was popularly known—arrived in Washington, D.C., the former firemen were called to put out a massive blaze at the Willard Hotel. Across the state line in Alexandria, Va., a large Confederate flag was raised above the Marshall House after Virginia seceded from the Union. This was no small irritant to Lincoln, as he could see the standard via a spyglass from the White House. Sending a flag of truce to prepare the now-Confederate town for their impending visit to capture that place, Ellsworth informed his men that they were under intense scrutiny and that very little bloodshed was anticipated.
Ellsworth wrote his parents the night before leaving Washington extolling the “sacred duty” upon which he was embarking. The colonel was not planning to order his men to take down the large Confederate flag; he wanted to remove it himself and personally present it to Lincoln. Pistol in hand, Ellsworth climbed a ladder to access the hotel’s roof through a trap door. His task accomplished, Ellsworth made his way back down the ladder, dragging the huge standard. As they descended the stairs, they came upon the hotel’s owner, James Jackson,
