First Fallen

A “well-written, superbly researched” biography of the man who answered the call of his mentor, Abraham Lincoln, and became the first Union officer to die ( Civil War News ).   On May 24, 1861, Col. Elmer Ellsworth became the first Union officer killed in the Civil War. The entire North was aghast. This is the first modern biography of this nineteenth-century celebrity and mostly forgotten national hero.   Ellsworth and his entertaining U.S. Zouave Cadets drill team had performed at We