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

Nathaniel Dawson describes First Manassas Battlefield-- Part 3: "Fierce Looking Fellows. They Fought Well"

July 25

"I went over the field yesterday.  The scene was awful.  The dead Yankees were still lying unburied in many places.  I saw as many as one hundred in a space of an acre.

"They belong to Ellsworth's Zouaves who were reduced from 1,100 to 200 men.  God seems specially to have marked them for  vengeance.  They wore blue pants and red shirts and are fierce looking fellows.  They fought well."

--Old Secesh

Elmer Ellsworth-- Part 8: Raises a New York City Regiment, The Fire Zouaves

Continued from December 1.

Elmer Ellsworth went to New York City and raised what became the 11th New York Infantry.  Most of the men were firemen.  The men elected their captains, but Ellsworth appointed the lieutenants who were mostly men from his famous tour.  A popular name for them was the Fire Zouaves.

A REGIMENT OF MANY NAMES

According to Wikipedia, the 11th also was called many names:

Ellsworth Zouaves
First Fire Zouaves
First Regiment  New York Fire Zouaves
United States National Guard

By May, the regiment was in Washington, D.C., a very tense place with Virginia getting ready to secede as well as Maryland.  The city was surrounded.

--Old Secesh

Elmer Ellsworth-- Part 5: Proving National Championship

To prove that his United States Zouave Cadets were the national champions in drill, Elmer Ellsworth determined to go on a 20-city tour.  But, in order to do so, $7,000 needed to be raised.  They sold Zouave drill manuals to raise part of it.

Even though his men were already a well-trained outfit, to be extra sure, Ellsworth launched a vigorous training regime.  They trained from 7 to 11 every night except Sunday.

They went on the road, appearing in Adrian, Michigan first and then to Detroit.  Ellsworth had strict rules and breaking any of them would get the man sent home immediately.

More stops at Rochester, Syracuse, Albany in New York and his Zouaves were becoming quite the celebrities. with their pomp and showmanship during the drills.

--Old SecZouave

Elmer Ellsworth & the U.S. Zouave Cadets-- Part 4: National Champions!

Next, Elmer Ellsworth went to Chicago and took command of the National Guard Cadets in 1859.  This group was on the verge of bankruptcy and danger of disbanding.  Ellsworth changed their name to the United States Zouave Cadets and started training them the Zouave way.  They appeared on July 4, 1859, at the famed hotel, Tremont House, in Chicago.

The Cadets found their new commander and drillmaster really took his job very seriously.  They had to sign a pledge not to enter a saloon, house of ill repute or be caught playing billiards anywhere.  If they were, expulsion would follow.

The Cadets had an armory and gymnasium in Chicago at the corner of State and Roosevelt.

They then went on competition to get a stand of colors worth $500.  They won, but other militias claimed unfairly so.  This enabled the U.S. Zouave Cadets to claim the National Championship.

Ellsworth decided to go on a national tour to prove how good they were.

--Old

How To Pronounce Zouave

In case you're wondering how to pronounce Zouave:

ZOO-of

Now You Know.  --Old Secesh

Elmer Ellsworth and the U.S. Zouave Cadets-- Part 2

Elmer Ellsworth lived in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1853 to attend Kenosha High School.  He came to Chicago in 1854 at age 17 and became a businessman, something that he was not suited for and this venture bankrupted him.

While in the city,thought, he vigorously studied the two main military drill manuals of the day by William Hardee and Winfield Scott.  He also got a copy of the Zouave training manual.  The Zouaves had impressed the world with their action during the Crimean War.

In 1857, he became drill instructor of the Rockford Greys and in the summer of 1858 taught them the Zouave system of drill.  Many of these men later formed three companies in the 19th Illinois Infantry.

--Old Secesh

Elmer Ellsworth and the United States Zouave Cadets-- Part 1

Presentation given to the McHenry County Civil War Round Table November 14, 2017, by Doug Dammann of the Kenosha Civil War Museum (Wisconsin).

Elmer Ellsworth was one of the most influential people of the Civil War, even though he died as young as he did and as early in the war.  It was the influence he had on his officers and what they accomplished later on in the war.  Mr. Dammann then showed a picture of the Green Bay Packer coaching staff  in 1992, featuring head coach Mike Holmgren and his assistants.  A whole lot of them went on to head coaching position and success on other teams.  And, that was what Ellsworth's officers did.

And, of course, there was the whole Zouave military thing and training.

Besides his own regiment that he raised in New York, the 11th, or Fire Zouaves (raised from New York fire stations) his mark was also on the 19th Illinois and 44th New York.

His great grandfather, George Ellsworth, was a private in the Continental Army during the American revolution.  His greatest ambition was to attend West Point but he didn't have the political connections to get nominated and attend.  But, he studied the all things military religiously.

Real Military bearing.  --Old Secesh

MCCWRT Meeting November 14, 2017

The McHenry County Civil War Round Table's Christmas Party will be Sunday, December 3 at the Bernard Mill Restaurant in Ringwood, Illinois, from 11 to 2.  The restaurant is in an actual 19th century mill.

Cost is $30, with proceeds going to the scholarship program.  Food will be served family style and guest speaker will be portraying Clara Barton.

The new officers and board were elected.

Our speaker for the night,  Doug Dammann is with the Kenosha (Wisconsin) Civil War Museum where he has been for the past ten years.  The museum opened in 2008 and they have a Second Friday Lecture once a month as well as a Campaign Tour the second to last weekend in October.  They just got back from Sailors Creek, Virginia and the Appomattox Campaign.

He spoke on Elmer Ellsworth and the United States Zouave Cadets.  I, of course, knew who Elmer Ellsworth was but didn't know anything about his Zouave Cadets which was why I looked them up and wrote about them this past week.

Well, At Least I May Finally Learn for Sure How to Pronounce Zouave.  --Old Secesh

U.S. Zouave Cadets-- Part 2: Doing That Zouave Thing

There is a song sheet cover for a song dedicated to them called "The U.S. Zouave Quarter Step."

There were numerous Zouave units on both sides during the war, some wearing variations of the loose-fitting uniforms.Elmer Ellsworth received a Zouave drill manual and took over a drill company in Chicago that was about on its last legs.  he renamed it the Zouave Cadets and toured nationally one summer/fall before the war.

Ellsworth was a law clerk for Abraham Lincoln before he became president.

Ellsworth's monument and grave are in Hudson View Cemetery in Mechanicsville, New York.

--Old Secesh

U.S. Zouave Cadets and Elmer Ellsworth-- Part 1

From the Smithsonian.

This will be the topic of the McHenry County Civil War Round Table presentation tonight in Woodstock, Illinois.

Most know Elmer E. Ellsworth was the first Union officer killed in the war on May 24, 1861, when he took down the Confederate flag from the roof of the hotel in Alexandria, Virginia.  But not so many know about the group that brought him to military prominence, the Zouave Cadets.

The U.S. Zouave Cadets were organized by Ellsworth in Chicago 1859-1860.  They were noted for their precision drills and colorful uniforms.  They toured the United States in 1860, putting on shows and in August 1860 were invited to the White House to put on a performance for President James Buchanan and his popular niece, Harriet Lane.

--Old Secesh

The US Capitol Takes a Beating...By Union Troops-- Part 2

The Capitol Building had become sort of a half-way house for troops arriving in DC.

As one regiment would get its orders and move out, another would move in.

US Capitol Doorkeeper Isaac Bassett was extremely angered when he found the regiment of New York City's Fire Zouaves (recruited from the fire department) using their bayonets to destroy a desk in the Senate chamber that they believed to have been used by Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president.

They further rigged ropes from the cornices of the unfinished dome and passed time swinging back and forth over the Rotunda.

Troops quartered in both chambers spent time conducting mock debates and shout obscenities at each other from the galleries. Smoke from bakeries in the building got into the Library of Congress, located in the Capitol's west front and caused soot in the stacks.

Boys Will Be Boys. --Old B-Runner