ii Liacoln 
 
 LINCOLN'S Ellsworth Letter 
 
 E 
 
 457 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 (Meserve No. 35) 
 
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 LINCOLN'S 
 
 Ellsworth Letter 
 
 Privately Printed 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 1916 
 

 
Foreword. 
 
 ON May 24th, 1 861 , a month and a half 
 after Sumter surrendered and nearly two 
 months before the first battle of Bull Run, Pres- 
 ident Lincoln's friend. Colonel Ephraim Elmer 
 Ellsworth was shot in Alexandria, Virginia, by 
 Jackson, the proprietor of the Marshall House, 
 after the impetuous young man had tom down 
 a confederate flag from the top of the building. 
 His body was taken to the White House and 
 lay in state in the East Room. He was the first 
 officer killed in the War of the Rebellion. The 
 President on the following day wrote a letter of 
 sympathy to the sorrowing father and mother. 
 
 Ellsworth was a New York boy. At the 
 age of twenty-two he was Adjutant-General of 
 the State of Illinois. In 1859 he studied law 
 in Lincoln's office in Springfield. He organized 
 in Chicago the military company known as 
 Ellsworth's Zouaves, and in I 860 toured the 
 country holding competitive drills with various 
 military organizations. When Lincoln came to 
 Washington Ellsworth accompanied him, and 
 in April in New York he organized and, although 
 but twenty-four, became the Colonel of the I I th 
 
New York Infantry, known as the Fire Zouaves, 
 as the regiment was recruited principally from 
 the Fire Department of New York City. 
 
 This beautiful tribute is perhaps the most 
 touching of all the letters written by Lincoln. 
 He was writing of a man whom he knew and 
 loved. The letter does not reach the lofty tone 
 of that to Mrs. Bixby of Boston, or the Gettys- 
 burg address, but in the choice of fitting words 
 to stricken parents regarding a son and personal 
 friend, few letters have ever been written that 
 may compare v^th it. 
 
 By the courtesy of Mr. Judd Stewart, in 
 whose notable collection of Lincolniana is the 
 original letter, a fac-simile is shown here. 
 
 The photograph of Lincoln is printed di- 
 rectly from a negative, believed to be the origi- 
 nal, made by C. S. German, in Springfield, 
 Illinois, early in I 86 1 , just before the President- 
 elect went to Washington. That of Ellsworth 
 is printed directly from the original negative 
 made by M. B. Brady, probably during the time 
 when the Fire Zouaves were being organized. 
 
 F. H. M. 
 
 New York, February 15,1916. 
 
The Letter. 
 
7 
 
 
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E. ELMER ELLSWORTH 
 
 Col. llthN.Y. Infantry 
 
I 
 
THE QUILL CLUB 
 
 OF NEW YORK 
 
 1915-1916 
 
 President 
 CHARLES L. GOODELL 
 
 Vice-President 
 FREDERICK HILL MESERVE 
 
 Treasurer 
 EDWIN COLES DUSENBURY 
 
 Secretary 
 CHARLES PROSPERO FAGNANI 
 
 Assistant Secretary 
 THOMAS J. HARRIS 
 
 The Executive Committee 
 
 THE OFFICERS AND 
 
 RUFUS P. JOHNSTON 
 
 ALFRED R. KIMBALL 
 
 REUBEN LESLIE MAYNARD 
 
 CHARLES P. TINKER 
 
Two hundred and fifty copies are 
 printed for The Quill Club of New 
 York upon the occasion of its Lin- 
 coln Meeting^ February 15th, 1916. 
 
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