CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
EN/FR
Search
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Elmer E. Ellsworth

United States Army officer

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 12, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth was a United States Army officer, close personal friend of the 16th President of the United States Abraham Lincoln, and law clerk who was the first conspicuous casualty and the first Union officer to die in the American Civil War. He was killed while removing a Confederate flag from the roof of the Marshall House in Alexandria, Virginia. He was later buried in his hometown of Mechanicville, New York on May 27, 1861 in Hudson View Cemetery in a family plot.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Elmer E. Ellsworth” as united States Army officer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Elmer, Ellsworth and United.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1861—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Elmer, Ellsworth and United providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Elmer E. Ellsworth”, the useful work is to connect “united States Army officer” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 12, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1861.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Elmer E. Ellsworth”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Elmer E. Ellsworth primary sources, Elmer E. Ellsworth archive and Elmer research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Elmer E. Ellsworth”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Elmer E. Ellsworth” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.