1861 May 26 Boston, Massachusetts

"ELLSWORTH:"

ZOUAVE BATTLE CRY!

By B. B. FRENCH, of Washington City.

"Ellsworth," name henceforth of glory!
It shall nerve our legions on.
Shout it high in song and story;
write it every heart upon!

So good, so true, fearless and brave,
Our tears fall fast above his grave;
But for every tear that's shed,
We doom to fall a traitor's head!

He was our idol--our reliance--
We burned to follow where he went,
To meet the foe in bold defiance
Till the last heart's blood was sent.

So good, so true, fearless and brave, etc.

Swept from the world in youth's bright morning.
His star has left its earthly sphere:
It glows on high, Heaven's arch adorning--
Our guiding star to victory here.

So good, so true, fearless and brave, etc.

While our hearts bow down in sorrow
O'er our young heros's early doom;
New vigor from his death we'll borrow
To strike bold Treason to its tomb.

So good, so true, fearless and brave, etc.

"Ellsworth!"--henceforth in every battle
That word our rallyng cry shall be--
The cannon's roar--war's deadly rattle--
And Ellsworth's name, and "Victory,"
All mingled, shall go up to Heaven,
And traitor ranks be torn and riven
Like grain fields 'neath the sweeping hail!

Though he, so love, so fearless, brave,
Sleeps in a soldier's honored grave,
Hiss name shall live--our cry shall be
"ELLSWORTHH and BLOOD and VICTORY!

Written at Rainsford Island, Boston Harbor,
Sunday Morning, May 26, 1861.


Elmer E. Ellsworth, 1837-1861, who studied law under Abraham Lincoln and worked in his presidential campaign, is frequently named the first casualty of the Civil War. He was fatally shot after cutting down a large Confederate flag flying over the Marshall House in Alexandria shortly after Union troops entered the city May 25, 1861.

Benjamin Brown French, 1800-1870, a clerk in the U. S. House of Representatives, Commissioner of Public Buildings and some time poet is most noted for the journal he kept detailing over 40 years of life in Washington, D. C.

Broadside Barrett .F74 E55 1861