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SPRINGFIELD, ILL. -- The following is a press release from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency:

A special exhibit of original Civil War items will open Wednesday, August 11 at the Old State Capitol State Historic Site in downtown Springfield in connection with the Saturday, August 14 presentation of “Ellsworth Triumphant.”  The exhibit items pertain to Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, one of the first casualties of the Civil War, and will remain on display through mid September for free public viewing.  All of the items are from the collections of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library.

The items in the exhibit include:

-  Elmer Ellsworth’s 1861 Manual of Arms for training Zouave cadets.

-  An Ellsworth record book detailing the attendance and absences at drill practice of the U.S. Zouave Cadets, March 10-June 2, 1860.

-  An article from an August 1859 Chicago Gazette that describes an exhibition drill by the Zouave cadets.

-  A letter from Ellsworth to his fiancee Carrie Spafford, begun June 26, 1859, concerning his activities and their relationship.  Ellsworth wrote the letter over several weeks with numerous interruptions.

-  Another letter from Ellsworth to Spafford discussing his hectic schedule and their relationship.  As on many of his other letters, Ellsworth asked her to burn the message. Obviously Carrie did not do so.

-  A March 1861 letter from Ellsworth to Charles H. Spafford, his prospective father-in-law, where Ellsworth explains that he cannot answer Spafford’s letters because he is “very sick with the measles” which he caught from Willie and Tad Lincoln.

-  Photos of Carrie Spafford, Ellsworth’s fiancée; and several of Ellsworth in Zouave uniform and civilian clothing.

-  A drawing by Ellsworth of a Zouave cadet and a design he made for a Zouave cadet badge.

-  A letter written by Simon Bolivar Buckner, Inspector General and Major General Commanding the Kentucky State Guard, written to the Secretary of War on February 18, 1861 recommending Elmer Ellsworth for an appointment as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.  In September 1861 Buckner became a brigadier general in the Confederate Army.

-  A booklet, Life of James W. Jackson Who Killed Col. Ellsworth, a Confederate publication from 1862, glorifies James Jackson, and lambasts Elmer Ellsworth, Abraham Lincoln, and all Northerners.  It will be open to pages which criticize Lincoln’s tender reaction to Ellsworth’s death, as well as Ellsworth’s removal of the flag from the Marshall House hotel in the first place.

-  A lithograph showing the scene in the Marshall House in Alexandria, Virginia, early on the morning of May 24, 1861.  Col. Elmer Ellsworth, by then of the New York Fire Zouaves, and a small band of his men were descending the stairs after removing the Confederate flag which had been flying over the hotel, to the annoyance of many U.S. government officials who could see it from Washington, DC.  James W. Jackson, the proprietor of the hotel, surprised the party and shot Ellsworth dead as Ellsworth was folding the flag.  Corporal Francis E. Brownell, who preceded Ellsworth down the stairs, then shot and bayoneted Jackson. A number of artistic renderings of this scene were produced.

-  A letter from Francis E. Brownell to John Carroll Power (custodian of the Lincoln Tomb), of May 24, 1878, sending three scraps of the flag captured by Elmer Ellsworth.

A letter from John G. Nicolay (secretary to President Lincoln) to C. H. Spafford (Carrie’s father) of June 25, 1861, giving what information Nicolay knew about Ellsworth’s last hours, as well as Nicolay’s own reaction to Ellsworth’s death.

-  Photographs of those involved in the May 24, 1861 incident that resulted in Ellsworth’s death.

-  “Col. Ellsworth’s Funeral March” by Sep. Winner (dedicated to Francis E. Brownell) and its cover sheet; “A Requiem in Memory of Ellsworth” by George William Warren. Composers memorialized Elmer Ellsworth in at least sixteen funeral marches. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library owns six examples.

The 1:30 p.m. presentation of “Ellsworth Triumphant” on Saturday, August 14 will be made by Doug Dammann, Curator and Site Coordinator of the Civil War Museum of Kenosha, Wisconsin.  He will tell the story of the 1860 tour of the United States by the Zouave Cadets of Chicago.

In the summer of 1860, Colonel Elmer Ellsworth took a self-trained militia company of 50 men on an exhibition tour of the 20 principal northern cities in the United States.  By the time the tour ended, the group was famous and it leader became the “most talked about man in the country.”  The August 14 presentation will delve into the origins of this Chicago Company known as the United States Zouave Cadets, the highlights of their big tour, and examine their effect on a nation so close to Civil War.

Abraham Lincoln befriended Ellsworth, who later accompanied the President-elect to Washington in 1861.  Lincoln called Ellsworth "the greatest little man I ever met."  Lincoln was deeply saddened by his friend's death in May 1861 and ordered an honor guard to bring his friend's body to the White House, where it lay in state.  Ellsworth’s death moved thousands of Union supporters to enlist in the army.

The Old State Capitol State Historic Site, administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, was the seat of Illinois government from 1839 to 1876.  It is open daily for free public tours.