A Presidential Pardon for De Villiers-- Part 1

From the 2015 PBS Antiques Roadshow

Ken Sanders of Ken Sanders Rare Books of Salt Lake City, Utah, gave this appraisal to a woman on the popular PBS appraisal show in Tucson, Arizona.  He estimated the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Pardon to Charles Villiers was worthy between $12,00 and $15,000.

It read:

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

To all  to whom these Presents shall come, Greeting:

Whereas, it appears that at the March Term, 1861, of the Criminal Court of the District of Columbia,  one Charles  de Villier was indicted and convicted for obtaining goods under false pretences [six], and it was by the said Court sentenced to be imprisoned in the Penitentiary for the period of eighteen months;

And whereas, the said Charles de Villier has now served out more than six months of his said term of imprisonment, and it appears from the certificate of the Deputy Warden of the Penitentiary that "he has been uniformly obedient and faithful to every duty" in the institution.

More.  --Old Secesh

How Elmer Ellsworth Met Charles de Villiers

From the blog Sept. 19, 2022, Discovering Lives "A Conversation with Meg Groeling, author of  "First Fallen: The Life of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, the North's First Civil War Hero."

Elmer Ellsworth was born in New York in 1837 and moved to Chicago in 1854 to seek his fortune. There, he met a former Zouave.  The Zouaves were a unit of the French Foreign Legion-type unit that had gained fame in the Crimean War.   That man was Charles de Villiers.

Ellsworth was apparently a very really coordinated both physically and athletically.  As a young boy he was fascinated with soldiers.  In Chicago he was working out at the Y and this Charles de Villiers became his fencing instructor.  De Villiers had served with the Zouaves in Crimea as a member of their medical corps.

Fencing was easily mastered by Ellsworth and they soon expanded to Zouave-type moves.  Together, the two developed something called the "Lightning Drill."

To see an example of Zouaves at drill go to You Tube and look up "American Legion Zouaves Jackson & Michigan Drill Team on the Ed Sullivan Show.

--Old Sercesh

Charles De Villiers Introduced Ellsworth to the Zouave Way

According to Wikipedia, Elmer Ellsworth was introduced to the zouave military ways by his fencing instructor,  Charles De Villiers, a French physician, immigrant and veteran of a zouave unit during the Crimean War.

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History New had an article "This Union soldier's death shocked the north and made Lincoln cry" by Meg Groeling.

A chance meeting  with Frenchman Charles A. De Villiers helped guide Ellsworth to a militia unit called the "Chicago Cadets of the National Guard."  De Villiers was an excellent swordsman and tutored Ellsworth in fencing and enthralled him with stories of his service during the Crimean War as an officer in a French Zouave unit.

--Old Secesh

Chales DeVilliers: Capture and Escape

As I wrote in the last post, he was taken prisoner on July 17, 1861 (the Battle of Bull Run was July 21) and sent to Richmond.  About the middle of September he escaped  in the guise of an aged, infirm and nearly blind mendicant Frenchman.  (Okay, I had to look up mendicant.  It means a beggar.)

He was able to get the prison commandants permission to go to  Fort Monroe (still under Union control) under a flag of truce that he might embark "for his dear old home in France,"

After a two week delay, the supposed Frenchman was assisted on board a transport in Norfolk and taken to a Union boat.  When safely under his own flag, he cast off his pack, green goggles and rags, thanked the officers for their politeness, shouted a loud huzza for the stars and stripes and gave them the pleasing information that they had just parted with Colonel De Villiers of the 11th Ohio.

He arrived safely in Washington, rejoined his regiment, and was brigadier general, 10 October 1861.

He had been military instructor for Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth.

His discharge from the Army on 23 April 1862, and returned to France.

--Old Secesh

Ellsworth & the U.S. Zouaves-- Part 15: Charles DeVilliers

CHARLES DeVILLIERS--  Colonel of the 11th Ohio Infantry.  Captured and sent to prison, but escaped.  Once back in the Union Army, he was court martialed on 13 counts of misconduct, including stealing from local citizens and selling to Army members.

Dismissed from service and returned to France.

This was from our speaker but I forgot his name.

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Looked up this man and found this on Virtual American Biographies.

CHARLES A. De VILLIERS

Soldier born in 1826.  He had been an officer in the French Army and afterward became colonel of the 11th Ohio Infantry.

At the beginning of the Civil War he was taken prisoner, 17 July 1861 and sent to Richmond.

Next...  His Escape.  --Old Secesh