About Elmer E. Ellsworth
Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth 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. After the election, Mary Todd Lincoln's youngest half-sister, Catherine "Kittie" Todd (1841–1875), visited Springfield and became infatuated with Ellsworth and they had a brief flirtation. The phrase "Remember Ellsworth" became a rallying cry and call to arms for the Union Army. In 1857, Ellsworth became drillmaster of the "Rockford Greys", the local militia company.
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