Thus Ellsworth had, to his immediate, demonstrable credit, the mustering in of three regiments, which constituted, however, but a small proportion of the multitude whose patriotic devotion was evoked by his death and who followed
the flag into the service. Yet many believe him to have been but a rash and adventurous person, vain and superficial. My study of his life, however, convinces me of the error of such opinion and that he was a young man of extraordinary gifts, prudent thought, gentle, loving instincts, and one who had been baptized with a fervent spirit of patriotism. Abraham Lincoln recognized his wonderful abilities and admirable traits of character and loved him for them, had his stricken, cold body brought to the White House, and wept over his remains as he would have grieved over those of his own son. And John Hay, in two notable magazine articles, one written soon after Ellsworth’s fall, the other towards the close of Mr. Hay’s career, has nothing but eulogy for the noble youth whom he had intimately known and loved as a brother. Surely, young Ellsworth had in him the elements of greatness! Schooled in poverty, disciplined by hardship and disappointment, his life is yet a shining path of pure living, high purpose, devoted patriotism, and worthy fame.
The motorist who seeks the birthplace of Ellsworth leaves the city of Troy, crosses to the west side of the Hudson at the northern limits of the town, and follows the macadam road along the river northward fourteen miles to the city of Mechanicsville. Here he will leave the river and proceeding in a northwesterly direction over a fine state road will reach at a distance of nine miles the little village of Malta, Saratoga County, seven miles this side of the city of Saratoga Springs. At Malta, Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth was born on April 11, 1837. The hamlet is much like thousands of others scattered over our eastern states; it claims its four corners, church, schoolhouse, and general store, but, with its spacious square, shade trees, and pleasant dwellings, it is more attractive than the average small village. The house in which Ellsworth first saw the light is yet standing, a well preserved, small, story-and-a-half structure, looking cheerfully out on the great road where thousands pass, ignorant of the honor which
it possesses. It has been called “the low-browed cottage,” a characterization which is appropriate, for two small, oblong windows are suggestive of eyes peering out from under the eaves. Ephraim D. Ellsworth, Elmer’s father, a worthy citizen and a tailor by trade, in 1836 married Phoebe Denton who resided here, and employed himself at this place in the business of his calling. He was of English extraction, born in the town of Halfmoon, Saratoga County, New York, and a man of bright intellect. His grandfather, George Ellsworth, as a boy of fifteen joined the American army operating against Burgoyne, fought in the battle of Saratoga, and was present at the subsequent surrender of the British army. George Ellsworth was thus a yet-living influence to develop the patriotic and martial spirit of his great-grandson, and, added to the special interest he took in the exciting story of the boy-soldier’s adventures, was the realizing assistance afforded by the proximity of the battle field, nine miles away. Phoebe Denton could no more trace a distinguished ancestry than could her husband, and all that is available concerning her is that on her father’s side she had an English lineage, and on her mother’s, a “Scotch Presbyterian.”
BIRTHPLACE OF ELMER E. ELLSWORTH, MALTA, NEW YORK
The boyhood life of Elmer in Malta was isolated enough but was relieved somewhat by the nearness of Saratoga Springs, which in those times was a leading watering-place of the country, where the wealth and fashion of the land disported itself. Many costly equipages every season would pass through the village, bound to and from Saratoga, not a few of them belonging to the southern aristocracy and having ebony coachmen on the box. Only two miles east is the beautiful Saratoga Lake, with the charms of which he was familiar. He was a good student in the district school, but not at all precocious or remarkable as a scholar. He was cheerful, fond of and a leader in all games and sports, but his greatest enjoyment was in reading; he would become lost for hours
in a book, heedless of the lapse of time. His mother was a pious woman and from her and the services of the Presbyterian church he derived deep religious convictions which he maintained throughout his life. He became, also, at an early age, a pronounced temperance disciple and, having heard a lecturer say that the devil dwelt in a cider barrel, wanted to take a “gun and cussion cap” and shoot him. His mother has left on record many interesting instances of his philosophical character and original sayings, but there is not room here to give them place. I may, however, be permitted to mention his purchase of his brother Charlie, the one other child in the family. Charlie was three years younger than Elmer, and the older brother conceiving a great fondness for him while he was yet a babe, and desiring him for his own, bought him of his parents for six shillings. From that time forward Elmer assumed a sort of guardianship over him and maintained that sense of obligation up to the day of Charlie’s death. At an early age he began to evidence a proclivity for military studies and employments by exhibiting a preference for books dealing with war and battles; when but nine years of age he drew with wagon-paints on one side of a window shade a picture of General Washington and staff, and on the reverse side one of General Jackson and staff. A natural aptitude for sketching was further developed as he grew older and was of practical help to him in his military occupations. Many of his sketches are still preserved and cherished. After he had spent a year as a clerk in the employ of a Mr. DeGroff, who kept a general store at Malta, the family moved to Mechanicsville.
The ambition which Elmer had cherished of entering West Point Military Academy might have been realized had there been at Mechanicsville educational advantages whereby he could have gained the proper preparation, but the village, then a place of about 800 inhabitants, had nothing higher than district schools, and his father had not the means to send