LINCOLN'S Ellsworth Letter 
 
 MAY 25th. 1861 
 
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 ABRAHAM UNCOLN 
 
 (Meserve No. 35)
 
 LINCOLN'S 
 
 Ellsworth Letter 
 
 AND ALSO THE LAST LETTER 
 FROM COLONEL ELLSWORTH 
 TO HIS FATHER AND MOTHER 
 
 Privately Printed 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 1916
 
 Foreword. 
 
 ON May 24th, 1861, 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 torn down 
 a confederate flag from the top of the building. 
 His body was taken to the White House and 
 lay in state in the ELast 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 
 
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 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 with 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 1 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. 
 
 Frederick Hill Meserve. 
 
 New York, Februaiy 15,1916.
 
 The Letter
 
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 Fac-simile of the original letter in 
 the Collection of Judd Stewart
 
 E. ELMER ELLSWORTH 
 
 Colonel 11 th N.Y. Infantry
 
 THE LETTER FROM COLONEL 
 ELLSWORTH TO HIS FATHER 
 AND MOTHER WRITTEN ON THE 
 NIGHT BEFORE HIS DEATH.
 
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 7. 
 
 Twenty-five copies aie printed containing 
 the facsimile of the Lincoln letter, and also 
 life photographs of Lincoln and Ellsworth, 
 and in addition a photographic copy of 
 the last letter of Ellsworth to his parents. 
 
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