Ellsworth, Elmer Ephraim (1837-1861) Ellsworth Avengers
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03617.02 Author/Creator: Ellsworth, Elmer Ephraim (1837-1861) Place Written: Philadelphia, Pennyslvania Type: Sheet music Date: circa 1861 Pagination: 1 p. ; 22.7 x 13.9 cm. Order a Copy
Published and printed by A.W. Auner at 45 North 9th Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The song was sung to the melody of "Annie Lisle." It is an 1857 ballad by Boston, Massachusetts songwriter H. S. Thompson. The song is about the death of a young maiden, by what some have speculated to be tuberculosis, an awful circumstance which mirrors the tragic death of the young Colonel Ellsworth in Alexandria, Virginia. Six stanza song, which includes the chorus: "Strike, freemen, for the Union! / Sheathe your swords no more, / While remains in arms a traitor / On Columbia's shore." Slightly different versions of same song at GLC03617.04 and .10.
Colonel Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth, a friend of Abraham Lincoln, was commander of the 11th New York Infantry, a unit of Zouaves from the New York City Fire Department. He was killed on 24 May 1861, attempting to remove a Confederate flag from the Marshall House, a hotel in Alexandria, Virginia.
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