A Young Hero.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 474, 24 May 1890, Page 3

A Young Hero.

It is in contemplating what the world loses in the deaths of brilliant young citizen soldiers that we appreciate most fully the waste of war and tho priceless value of the cause for which such lives were sacrificed. When a man like Henri Regnault—the most substantial hope and promise of art in our century—is seen at the siege of Paris lingering behind his retreating comrades, Ic temps de bruter unc derniere cartouche tho last words he uttered ; when a genius like Theodore Winthrop is extinguished in its ardent dawn on an obscure skirmish field ; when a patriot and poet like Koerner dies in battle with his work hardly begun, we feel how inadequate are all the millions of the treasury to rival such offerings. We shall have no correct idea what our country is worth to us if we forget all the singing voices that were hushed, all the noble hearts that stopped beating, all the fiery energies that were quenched, that we might be citizens of the great and indivisible Republic of the Western World. I believe that few men who fell in our civil conflict bore. with them out of the world possibilities of fame and usefulness so bright or so important as Colonel Ephraim Elmer Ellsworth, who was killed at Alexandria, Virginia, on the 24th May, 1861, the first conspicuous victim of war, The world can never compute, can hardly ever guess, what was lost in his untimely end. He was killed by the first gun he ever heard fired in strife, and his friends, who. believe him to have bad in him the making of a great soldier, have nothing to support their opinion but the impression made upon them by his manly character, 1113 winning and vigorous personality, and the extraordinary ardour and zest with which his powerful mind turned towards military affairs in the midst of circumstances of almost incredible difficulty and privation. Ho was one of the dearest of the friends of my youth. I cannot; hope to enable the readers of this paper bo see him as I saw him. No words can express the vivid brilliancy of his look and his speech, the swift and graceful energy of his bear-, ing. Ho was npt a scholar, yet his words were like martial music ; in staturo he was less than the medium size, yet his strength was extraordinary ; ho seemed made of tempered steel. His entire aspect breathed high ambition and daring. His jet black curls, his open candid brow, his dark eyes at once fiery and tender, hi 3 eagle profile, his mouth just shaded by the youthful growth that hid none of its powerful and delicate lines, fhe whole face, which seemed made for nothing less than the command of men, whether as general or as orator, comes before me as I write, with a look of indignant appeal to the future for the chance of fame which inexorable fate denied him. Tho appeal, of course, is in vain ; only a few men, now growing old, knew what he was and what he must have been if life had been spared him fora year or two. I will merely try to show in these few pages mainly from his own words, how great a heart was broken by the slugs of the assassin at the Marshal House.

He was born in the village of Mechainesville, Saratoga County, New York, on the 11th of April, 1837. His parents were plain people, without culture or means ; one cannot guess how this young eaglet came into so lowly a nest. He went out into the world at the first opportunity to seek his fortune; he turned. his hand, like other American boys, to anything he could find to do. He lived awhile in New York and finally drifted to Chicago, where we find him in the spring of 1859, a clerk and student in the law office of Mr J. E. Cone. From his earliest boyhood he had a passionate love of the army. He learned as a child the manual of arms ; he picked up instinctively a knowledge of the pistol and the rifle; he became, almost without instruction, a scientific fencer. But he was now of age and determined to be a lawyer, since to all appearance, there was no chance for him in the army. The way in which he pursued his legal studies he has set down in a diary which ho kept for a little while. He began it, on. his 22nd birthday. ‘ I do this,’ he said,. ‘ because it seems pleasant to be able to lopk back upon our past lives and note the gradual change in our senti- ; ments and views of life, and because my life has been, and bids fair to be, such a jumble of strange incidents that should 1 become anybody or anything this will be useful as means of showing how much suffering and temptation a man may undergo and still keep clear of despair and vice.’ He was neat, almost foppish, in his attire ; not strictly fashionable, for. he Hired brightcolours, flowing cravats, and hats that (suggested the hunter or ranger rather than the law clerk ; yet the pittance for which he worked was very small, and his poverty extreme. He therefore economised upon his food. He lived for months together upon dry biscuits and water. Here is a touching entry from his diary ‘ Had pn, opportunity to buy a desk to-day worth $45.00 for $14.00. It waajust such a one

as.il needed,: and. I .could sell at any time for..more than was asked for it. I bought it.at auction, I can npw indulge .my ideas -of order in the .arrangement of my papers -to their fullest extent. Paid $5.00 of my own money and borrowed SIO.OO of Jamos Clayt>urne;..promisejd to.return it next Tuesday. By the way, this was an instance in a small way of the importance of little things. Some two years since, when I was so poor, I went one day into an eating house on some errand. While there Clayburne and several friends came in.

‘ As I started to go out they stopped me and insisted upon my having an oyster stew. I refused, for I always made it a practice never to accept evert an apple from anyone because I could not return like courtesies. While they were clamouring about the matter and I trying to get from them the waiter brought on the oysters for the whole party, having taken it for granted that I was going to stay. So to escape making myself any more conspicuous by further refusal, I sat down. How gloriously every morsel tasted ; the first food I had touched in three day, and three nights. When I came to Chicago with a pocket full of money . 1 sought James out and told him I owed him half a dollar. Ho said no, but I insisted my memory wa3 better than bis and made him take it. Well, when I wanted SIO.OO I went to him and he gave it to me freely, and would tajee no security.. Have written four hours this evening ; two pounds crackers; sleep on office floor tonight.’ The diary relates many incidents like tills. He took a boyish pride in refusing offers of assistance, in resisting temptation to innocent indulgence, in passing most of his hours in study, earning only enough by bis copying to keep body and soul together. One entry is: ‘ Read 150 pages of Blackstone —slept on floor.’ Such a regimen was not long in having its effect even upon his rugged health. He writes :‘I tried to read, but could not. lam afraid my strength will not hold out. I have contracted a cold by sleeping on the floor, which has sebblod in my head, and nearly sets me crazy with catarrh. Then there is that gnawing, unsatisfied sensation which 1 begin to feel agaiD, which prevents any long-continued application.’ About this time he was urged to take command of a : company of cadets which through mismanagement had been reduced to a deplorable condition. He at first declined, but afterwards consented if the company would accept certain rigorous conditions of discipline and obedience. He was as firm as granite to his .company, and eheery and gay to the world, while in his private life ho was subjecting himself to tho cruel rigours described in his diary of April 21 : ‘I am convinced that the course of reading which I am pursuing is not sufficently thorough. Have commenced again at beginning of Blackstone. I now read a proposition or paragraph and reason upon it; try to get at the principle invo ved in my own language ; view it in every light till I think I understand it; then write it down in my com-mon-place book. My progress is in consequence very slow, as it • takes on an average half an hour to each page. Attended meeting of Cadob’s Committee on ways and means ; a'l my propositions acepted. I spent my last ton cents for crackers to-day. ‘Ten paces of Blackstone.’ The next day he writes : ‘My mind was so occupied with obtaining money due to-morrow that I could nob study. Five pages of Blackstone. Nothing whatever to eat. lam very tired and hungry to-night. Onward.’

In these circumstances of hunger and toil ha took charge of the company of cadets, which was falling to pieces from neglect. There was no sign in his bearing of the poverty and famine which were consuming him. He told them roundly that if they elected him their captain they did so with their eyes open, that he should enforce the strictest discipline, and make their company second to none in the United States. His laws were draconic in their severity. He forbade his cadets from entering a drinking or gambling saloon or any other disreputable place under penalty of expulsion, publication of the offendor’s name in the city papers, and forfeiture of uniform. He insitsed on prompt obedience and unremitting drill. The company, under his firm and inspiring command, rapidly pulled itself together, and attracted all ai once the notice and admiration of Chicago and Northern Illinois. The young captain did nob give up his law studies He wrote and affixed to his desk a card which contained his own daily orders. *So aim to spend your time that at night when looking back at the disposal of the day, you find no time misspent, no hour, no moment even, which has not resulted in some benefit, no action which had nob a purpose in it. Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays: Rise at 5 o’clock ; 5 to 10, study ; 10 to 1, copy ; 1 to 4, business ;4to 7, study; 7to 8, exercise ; 8 to 10, study. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays ! Rise at 6 ; 6 to 10, study ; 10 to 1, business ; Ito 7, study arid copy ; 7 to 11, drill.’ Working faithfully as hedid in the office, his whole heart was in his drill room. His fame as a fencor went abroad in the town, and he was challenged to a bout by the principal teacher of the art in Chicago. Ellsworth records the combat in his diary of May 24. 4 This evening the fencer of whom I have heard so much came up to the armoury to fence with me. He said to his pupils that if I held to the low guard he would disarm me every time I raised my foil. He is a great gymnast, and I fully expected to be beaten. The result was I disarmed him four time?,: hit him thirty times. He disarmed me once and hit me five times. At the touche-a-touche I touched him in two places at the same allonge, and threw his foil from him several feet. He was very angry, though he tried bo conceal it.’

Public interest constantly grew in the Zouaves and their young captain. Large crowdsattendedeverydrill. Thenewspapers began to report all their proceedings, and to comment on them with, more or less malevolence, for military companies were treated with scant respect in. Western towns before the war. Ellsworth at last determined to confront hostile opinion by giving a public exhibition of the proficiency of his company on the Fourth of July. He was not without trepidation. The night, before the Fourth he wrote : * To-morrow will be an eventful day to me ; to-morrow I have to appear in a conspicuous position before thousands of citizens—an immense number of whom, without knowing me except by sight, are prejudiced against me,. To-morrow will demonstrate the? truth or falsity of my assertion. that the citizens would encourage military companies if they, were worthy of. respect.’ The result was an overwhelming success, and the young soldier, after hi 9 feast of crackers, the next night, wrote in exultation : * Victory 1. And thank God.’. The ‘Chicago Tribune,’, which.r.hadpreviously been unfriendly ...to .the little Companies \yho were trying to make soldiers of themselves,’ gave a,, long and,.flattering account of "the performance,. and said: ‘We but express the opinion .of oil who. saw th 4 drill yesterday morning,, when we say this company cannot be surpassed this side of West Point.’

Encouraged by this public applauses he brought his company of Zouaves a, near to absolute perfection of drill as was possible, and then having tested them in as many competitive contests as were within reach, he challenged the Militia companies of the United States,.and set forth in the summer of 1860 on a tour of the country, which was one unbroken succession of triumph?. Ho defeated the crack companies in all the principal eastern cities, and went back to Chicago one of the most talked of men in the country. Hundreds of Zouave companies started up in his wake, and a very considerable awakening of interest in military matters was the substantial. result of his journey. On his return to Illinois, he made the acquaintance of Abraham Lincoln, and gained at once his friendship and esteem. Ho entered his office in Springfield ostensibly as a lawstadent ; but Mr Lincoln was then a candidate for the Presidency, and Ellsworth read very little law that autumn. He made some llepublican speeches in the country towns about Springfield, bright, witty, and good-natured. But his mind was full of a project which he hoped to accomplish by. the aid of Mr Lincoln—no.less than the establishment in the War Department of a Bureau of Militia, by which the entire. Militia system of the United States should be concentrated, systematised, and made efficient; an enormous undertaking for a boy of 23 ; but his plans were clear, dofinite, and comprehensive. After Mr Lincoln’s election Mr Ellsworth |. accompanied him to Washington. As a preliminary step to placing him in charge of a bureau of militia the President gave him a commission as a lieutenant in the army. Shortly afterwards he fell seriously ill with the measles, and before he was thoroughly convalescent the guns about Sumter opened the civil war. There had been much doubt in many minds as to the loyalty of the people in the case of actual war. Ellsworth never had doubted it. He said to mo as I sat by his bedside, ‘You know, I have a great work to do, to which my life is pledged ; I am the only earthly stay of my parents; there is a young woman whose happiness I regard as dearer than my own ; yet I could ask no better death than to fall nextweek before Sumter. I am not better than other men. You will find that patriotism is not dead, even if it sleeps.’ When the news came that South Carolina had begun the war, he did nob wait an instant. He threw up his commission in the regulars, took all the money he had, which was not much, and thus insufficiently equipped started for New York, and raised, with incredible celerity, the New York Zouaves, a regiment eleven hundred strong. This unique organisation filled so large a space in the public mind while Ellsworth commanded it that it seems hard to realise that its history with him is only a matter of a few weeks. He brought bis regiment down to Washington early in May, arriving thin as a greyhound, his voice hoarse with drilling, bub flushed and happy to know he was busy and useful at last. There was no limit to the hopes and the confidence of hie friends. We had grown to admire and respect him for his In'gh and honourable character, his thorough knowledge of his business, ardent zeal for tho flag he followed, and his extraordinary courage and energy. Wo fully expected, relying upon his splendid talents and the President’s affectionate regard, that his first battle would make him a brigadier-general, and that his second would give him a division. There was no limit to the giory and ussfulness we anticipated for him. How soon all these hopes were dust and ashes ! On tho evening of the 23rd of May ho received his orders tc lead his regiment on the extreme left of the Union lines in the advance Virginia. The part assigned him was the occupation of Alexandria. - He worked almost all night in his tent, arranging the business of his regiment, and then wrote a touching letter of farewell te his parents. Anticipating an engagement he said, 4 lt may be my lot to be injured in some manner. Whatever may happen cherish the consolation that I was engaged in the performance of a sacred duty, and to-night, thinking over the probabilities of the morrow and the occurrences of the past, 1 am perfectly content to accept whatever my fortune may be, confident that he who noteth even the fall of a sparrow will have some purpose even in the fato of one like me. My darling and ever-loved parents, good-bye. God bless, protect, and care for you.’ These loving and filial words were the last that came from his pen, The Zouaves were embarked before dawn the next morning. The celerity and order with which Ellsworth performed his work excited the admiration and surprise of Admiral Dahlgren, who commanded the Navy Yard. The town of Alexandria was occupied without resistance, and Ellsworth, with a squad of Zouaves, hurried off to take possession of the Telegraph Office. On his way he caught sight of a confederate flag floating from the summit of the Marshal House. Ho had often seen from tho window of the executive mansion in Washington this sel

same banner flaunting defiance, and the temptation to tear it down with his own hands was too much for his boyish patriotism. Accompanied by four soldiers only, and several civilians, he ran into the hotel, up the stairs to the roof, and tore down the flag ; but coming down, was met on the stairs by the hotelkeeper and shot dead. His assassin perished at the same moment, killed by Frank E. Brownell. Ellsworth was buried from the East room of the White House by the special order of the President, who mourned him as a son. Many brave and able officers were to perish in the four years that follewed that mournful day, but there was not one whose death was more sincerely lamented than that of this young- soldier who had never seen a battle; and it is the belief of his friends that he had nob his superior in natural capacity among all the most eminen t heroes of the war. But who will care to hear this said? If Napoleon Bonaparte had been killed at the siege of Toulon, who would have listened to some grief stricken comrade’s assertion that this subaltern was the greatest soldier since C;esar ? I have written these lines merely to show how simple, kindly and heroic a heart Colonel Ellsworth had—and nob to claim for him what can never be proved. John Hay.