Meg Groeling
First Fallen: The Life of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth
Airdate: 12/09/2021 @ 3:30 pm CST
Show Info
This program is live on the book shop’s Facebook page. This book comes with a signed bookplate. Order the book or learn more about it below.
First Fallen: The Life of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, the North’s First Civil War Hero examines every facet of Ellsworth’s complex, fascinating life. It is the story of many young men who fought and died for the Union. Elmer, however, was the first and -according to those who remember him – perhaps the best.
Colonel Elmer Ellsworth was the first Union officer killed in the American Civil War. When it happened, on May 24, 1861, the entire North was aghast. Ellsworth was a celebrity and had just finished traveling with his famed and entertaining U. S. Zouave Cadets drill team. They had performed at West Point, in New York City, and for President Buchanan before returning home to Chicago. Ellsworth then joined his friend and law mentor Abraham Lincoln in his quest for the presidency. When Lincoln put out the call for troops after Fort Sumter was fired upon, Ellsworth responded. Within days he was able to organize over a thousand New York firefighters into a regiment of volunteers.
Hosts Daniel Weinberg and Bjorn Skaptason
Daniel R. Weinberg, is president of the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop, Inc. The shop has an international reputation as experts in the buying, selling, appraisal and authentication of historical, literary, artistic, and museum properties etc., since 1938. He is also the founder of the Author’s Voice®; interactive platforms designed to bring the experience of a book signing to any device in any place across the world. Daniel is co-author of Lincoln’s Assassins: Their Trial and Execution and he has lectured extensively on the subject. He has appeared on both C-Span and the History Channel.
Bjorn Skaptason holds a M.A. in history from Loyola University Chicago.
He has published essays on Ambrose Bierce at Shiloh for the Ambrose Bierce Project Journal, on the United States Colored Troops in the campaign and battle of Brice’s Crossroads for the West Tennessee Historical Society Papers, and in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society on The Chicago Light Artillery. A dealer in antiquarian books, Bjorn produces and guest hosts A House Divided for Author’s Voice®, a live book discussion program streamed from Abraham Lincoln Book Shop, Inc. in Chicago.
