Ellsworth, Elmer Ephraim (1837-1861) On the Death of Col. Ellsworth
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03617.09 Author/Creator: Ellsworth, Elmer Ephraim (1837-1861) Place Written: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Type: Sheet music Date: circa 1861 Pagination: 1 p. ; 19.8 x 13.3 cm. Order a Copy
Published by J. Magee at 316 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. Image at the top is same as image at GLC03617.07. Depicits Ellsworth falling backward as he was shot. He is grasping the Confederate flag while another soldier returns fire with a rifle over his shoulder. Colored with red and blue. Three stanza song. First stanza says: "The muffled drum beats low; / Our nation's flag droops here, / Drap'd in the dark weeds of wo; / A sword is on the bier. / A saddened nation weeps, / Where her dead soldier sleeps."
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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