A. Lincoln.”
Importunate words throng me for expression, but they cannot be accommodated further; the rage and grief of the Fire Zouaves and their hardly-prevented purpose of burning the city of Alexandria; the universal sorrow and demonstrations of grief all along the funeral route from Washington to Mechanicsville. I would like to tell of my acquaintance with and reminiscences of Ellsworth’s parents, of how the government provided liberally for them, of how their son Elmer fulfilled in death the desire that he had been unable to accomplish in life: that his mother might “ride in a carriage.”
The fame of Ellsworth is destined to live on and to increase, for he individualized those elements of character which are loved and admired by the race universally. There was a deep well of patriotism in his romantic, generous nature, informed and directed by a keen and comprehensive intellect.
Though his life is almost like a fairy tale, it is steadied and rationalized by deep thoughtfulness, filial affection, and unaffected piety. The far generations will linger reverently over that final word of love to his parents and will shed a tear as they read of his last look at the portrait of the bride of his heart and of his going out to die. Ellsworth will yet come to his own and be appreciated and valued and loved for what he was: one of the noblest, purest, and ablest patriots who ever died for his country.
[128] This article, which is intended to serve as an introduction to a biography of Colonel Ellsworth which I hope to bring out, comprises but a fraction of the data bearing upon his life and times which I have in my possession. To those who have afforded me assistance in the collection of this material I am deeply grateful; in particular I desire to express my indebtedness to the following persons: Milo M. Quaife, superintendent, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison; Caroline M. McIlvaine, librarian, Chicago Historical Society; Eugenia S. Godfrey, Rockford, Illinois; Mrs. Jessie Palmer Weber, librarian, Illinois State Historical Society, Springfield; Isabella K. Rhodes, acting reference librarian, New York State Library, Albany; Jessie F. Wheeler, Reference Department, Troy Public Library; William A. Saxton, chief, Bureau of War Records, Albany, New York.
[129] Ellsworth’s diary has disappeared from view and there is a report which bears considerable evidence of being accurate that it was destroyed in later years by Ellsworth’s parents. However this may be, it was given, upon his death, to Corporal Brownell, who had killed Jackson, his assassin. John Hay seems to have had access to it at one time, for in an article by him in McClure’s Magazine, VI, 354, many citations from the diary are given. Prior to this, an unidentified writer in the Chicago Times of October 28, 1883, and in the National Tribune of October 15, 1885 cites so extensively from Ellsworth’s diary as to render it probable that he had possession of it either at that or at some prior time.
[130] The letter to Miss Spafford is owned by her sister, Mrs. Charles H. Godfrey, of Rockford. The letter to Ellsworth’s parents has been published in photographic reproduction in the Photographic History of the Civil War, edited by Francis T. Miller (New York, 1911, 10 vols.), I, 351.
[131] This letter is in the collection of Judd Stewart. It was privately printed in facsimile, with appropriate editing by Frederick H. Meserve, by the Quill Club of New York in 1916.