Lt. Knox Carries on His Friend’s Legacy

Waves of sorrow and indignation rippled across the Northern states in the wake of the fatal shooting of Elmer Ellsworth, a charismatic young colonel who had built a national following in the early days of the war only to be shot dead by an Alexandria, Va., innkeeper on May 24. But few felt the loss as keenly as his trusted lieutenant and friend Edward Knox.

Library of CongressThis Currier and Ives print, ca. 1861, depicts the death of Col. Elmer Ellsworth. CLICK TO ENLARGE

Soon after federal troops crossed the Potomac River from Washington to Alexandria, Ellsworth had rushed into the Marshall House hotel to tear down a Confederate flag flying from a pole on its rooftop. As he came down the stairs James Jackson shot him in the chest with a shotgun, killing him instantly.

Minutes before he died, Ellsworth had dispatched a sergeant with an urgent request for Knox and his men to report to him without a moment’s delay.

Meanwhile, Knox was standing near the head of his unit only blocks away from the bloody scene inside the hotel. He didn’t hear the shotgun blast, nor a second shot, fired moments later, by one of the colonel’s guards into Jackson’s head.

Knox and his men marched to the hotel and waited in the street while their captain went inside to ascertain why they had been summoned. Knox recalled that his captain “shortly returned, and in a low tone, inaudible to the men, told me what had happened.” The captain, knowing how close Knox was to Ellsworth, suggested that he go inside. “I ascended the stairs,” Knox recalled:

Stepping over the body of Jackson, who still lay where he had fallen, I entered the room where all that was mortal of my beloved friend and commander lay silent in death. I will not attempt to describe my emotions while gazing upon that sad scene. I could scarcely credit my own senses. There lay one whom I had seen only a few minutes before full of life and the vigor of early manhood, cut down without a moment’s warning by the hand of the assassin. His face wore a very natural expression, and, excepting its pallor, his countenance looked the same as in life.

Ellsworth and Knox were born in the Northeast within a year of each other; Ellsworth, the elder of the two, hailed from New York, and Knox from Maine. In the 1850s, both moved to Illinois to pursue fame and fortune in the booming West. Neither man found fortune, but both achieved a degree of distinction in the militias that were forming in the area. Knox joined a Chicago unit, the National Guard Cadets. Small in stature and bursting with enthusiasm and compassion, he quickly earned the respect and esteem of the officers and men, who affectionately called him the “Little Corporal.”

In 1859, Ellsworth took charge of the company and reorganized it as a drill team. In the summer of 1860, he led the outfit, renamed the Zouave Cadets, on a tour of the East. Knox and his comrades, dressed in flamboyant French Algerian-inspired military uniforms, wowed audiences with precise parade-ground maneuvers. They also drew attention for their strict code of ethics that prohibited gambling, drinking and carousing in saloons and brothels on pain of instant expulsion.

Collection of the authorEdward Burgin Knox, left, pictured as lieutenant and adjutant of the 44th New York Infantry. He stands next to fellow officer Alexander McRoberts. Carte de visite photograph by unidentified photographer, circa 1861-1862. Click on the photo to see a detailed view of Knox.

After the war began, Ellsworth raised volunteers in New York City for an infantry regiment. According to Knox, the unit “was recruited wholly, or nearly so, from the fire department of that city. Nearly every fire company was represented. The captains were selected by their comrades, who seemed to consider the only qualifications necessary for the office were the ability to do considerable ‘heavy swearing’ and to put out fires. The Colonel was allowed to appoint the first lieutenants, which he did from his old company of Chicago Zouaves.” Ellsworth selected Knox as first lieutenant of Company A.

Popularly known as the First Fire Zouaves, the regiment mustered for duty as the 11th New York Infantry. The officers and men reported to Washington in early May 1861. As Knox recalled, “At the time we were all novices in the art of war. It seemed to be the popular idea that fighting the Secessionists meant generally a hand-to-hand conflict (many of the troops, in addition to the musket, were armed with revolvers and bowie-knives), and that the colonels should go in front of their regiments in the thickest of the fight and lead them on.”

Colonel Ellsworth, Lieutenant Knox, and the 11th entered Alexandria on May 24, the day after Virginia voters ratified the commonwealth’s ordinance of secession that took them out of the Union. A few hours later, Ellsworth was dead. “I will not undertake to say what thoughts were passing through his mind when he left the regiment and ascended the hotel roof to tear down the Rebel flag,” stated Knox years later in response to critics who accused Ellsworth of being rash. “Our war experience has taught us that this act was foolhardy and unmilitary. But supposing he had returned to the regiment uninjured, displaying the captured flag, who can doubt its good effect upon the men, and the confidence it would have inspired in them for their commander?”

Ellsworth’s death made news across the country. Teenage girls wept; young men vowed revenge. He quickly became the perfect martyr for the Union: a passionate man cut down so young, and so dramatically, in defense of so just a cause. Knox added that Ellsworth “was impetuous and headstrong, uneasy under restraint; yet, with a few months’ service under the guidance of older and cooler heads, and his indomitable will and determination to succeed in anything he attempted, there seems good reason to believe that had his life been spared he would have achieved a brilliant career.”

Knox did his best to carry on his friend’s legacy. Two months later and 25 miles away along the banks of Bull Run near Manassas, the 11th charged the enemy, noted Knox, “with a wild, wild yell, three cheers and a loud, fierce cry of ‘Remember Ellsworth.’”

Two weeks after the battle he left the 11th to join the “People’s Ellsworth Regiment,” a new organization formed by an association of Empire State citizens to honor the memory of the martyred colonel. It mustered into service as the 44th New York Infantry. Knox brought the soldierly qualities instilled in him by Ellsworth to his new command, and the men responded enthusiastically. He was perhaps at his best on the battlefield, receiving three brevets, or honorary ranks, including one for gallant conduct at the Battle of Gettysburg, where the 44th played a key role in the defense of Little Round Top.

Knox remained a soldier for the rest of his life. He ended his volunteer service as a major in October 1864, when the 44th mustered out of the Army after its three-year term of enlistment expired. He immediately joined the regular Army and remained in uniform until wartime wounds forced his retirement in 1870. He returned to Chicago, joined the Illinois National Guard, and advanced to colonel. One day in late 1889, as Knox walked door-to-door in a Chicago neighborhood raising money for his guardsmen, he suffered a stroke and collapsed. He died at age 52 on April 9, 1890 — the 25th anniversary of the surrender at Appomattox. A daughter survived him. His wife, whom he had married during the war, had passed away years earlier.

Knox’s funeral was held in the drill room of his regiment’s armory in Chicago. Mourners filled a thousand chairs, and a capacity crowd jammed balconies draped in black crape. Knox lay in a martial blue casket, a salute to his loyalty, devotion and military service to the Union. Tasteful flower arrangements sent by guardsmen and their families covered the casket. Above the head of the casket stood an immense floral star placed by the survivors of Ellsworth’s Zouaves, a fitting tribute to the memory of the “Little Corporal.”

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Sources: “Military Essays and Recollections: Papers Read Before the Commandery of the State of Illinois, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States,” Vol. II; 1850 Federal Census, National Archives and Records Service; “Memorials of Deceased Companions of the Commandery of the State Illinois, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States”; Alfred T. Andreas, “History of Chicago, From the Earliest Period to the Present Time,” Vol. 2; Edward B. Knox military service record, National Archives and Records Service; Wisconsin Patriot, Aug. 3, 1861; Eugene A. Nash, “A History of the Forty-Fourth Regiment New York Volunteer Infantry”; The Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago, Ill.); April 14, 1890.

Ronald S. Coddington is the author of “Faces of the Civil War” and “Faces of the Confederacy.” His forthcoming book profiles the lives of men of color who participated in the Civil War. He writes “Faces of War,” a column for the Civil War News.