may 23, 1861 - First killing after Fort Sumter
Description:
One day after "the voters of Virginia officially ratified their state's ordinance of secession", Colonel Elmer Ellsworth - a Unionist resident of Alexandria, Virginia and a good friend of the Lincoln family - decided to take action by removing a rebel flag from the top of the Marshall House hotel in Alexandria (Ward, Burns & Burns, 1990, p. 48). The Confederate flag was raised by the owner of the hotel and was visible from the White House, across the Potomac, therefore being a thorn in the eye of President Lincoln.
"Offering to retrieve the flag for the president, Ellsworth led his 11th New York across the Potomac River and into Alexandria. Ellsworth succeeded in removing the flag, but as he descended the stairs from the building's roof, the hotel's owner, James W. Jackson, shot and killed Ellsworth with a single shotgun blast to the chest." ("Elmer Ellsworth", 2015).
His death was the first notable death on the Union side. Ellsworth's body lay in the White House before being buried in his home state of New York. There, a new volunteer unit was formed: "Ellsworth's Avengers" (Ward, Burns & Burns, 1990, p. 49). To keep his memory alive, "Remember Ellsworth" became a rallying cry for supporters of the Union" ("Elmer Ellsworth", 2015).
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