Letter from John W. Day to George F. Hollis

Letter includes an enclosed piece of paper reported by Day, Hollis' hometown friend and private in the 1st Massachusetts Infantry, to be dotted with the blood of the first officer to be killed in the Civil War, Col. Ephraim Elmer Ellsworth. Ellsworth was the 24-year-old personal friend of Abraham Lincoln who studied law in Lincoln's Illinois office and worked on Lincoln's political campaign. On May 24, 1861, the day after Virginia officially seceded, Col. Ellsworth became the first Union officer to die in the Civil War when he was shot by innkeeper James W. Jackson after Ellsworth cut down the large Confederate flag flying above Jackson's inn.

• 1861 July 5

• Day, John W.

• Hollis, George Fearing, b. 1838

Located in the Civil War series.

This digital image is a surrogate of an item from the George Fearing Hollis Papers.

• Ellsworth, E. E. (Elmer Ephraim), 1837-1861

• American Civil War (1861-1865)

• text

• English

Online finding aid

• George Fearing Hollis Papers

[Title, Date]. George Fearing Hollis Papers. MSS 471. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.

Public domain (US)

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Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego, La Jolla, 92093-0175 (https://lib.ucsd.edu/sca)

2020-10-28