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Colonel Ellsworth and Mortuary Science

Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth has long been known as the first officer to be killed in the Civil War.  But did you know that he was probably the first person in the United States to be embalmed?

Born in Malta, New York, in 1837, and raised in Mechanicville, Ellsworth moved to Illinois, and worked in the law office of Abraham Lincoln.  He accompanied Lincoln to Washington in 1861.  When war broke later that year, Ellsworth recruited a New York regiment and dressed them in the flamboyant uniform of the French Zoaves. 

On May 24, 1861, at the occupation of Alexandria, Ellsworth tore down a Confederate flag flying over the Marshall House, and was then shot by the inn’s owner.  Ellsworth’s body lay in state in the White House, taken by train to Albany, and buried in Mechanicville.

But when Ellsworth’s body arrived in Mechanicville, it was in perfect condition – unusual in early summer after traveling a long distance.  Dr. Thomas Holmes – the “father of embalming in America”, had embalmed him. 

When war broke out in 1861, Dr. Holmes traveled to Washington, hoping to make his fortune embalming bodies for transport home.  His first job was certainly a plum one – the body of a young officer who laid in state at the White House, was a close friend of Lincoln, and who died very early in the war.  This description fits none other than Colonel Elmer Ellsworth. 

Of course, embalming was hardly a new concept – the ancient Egyptians embalmed their royalty, and various means of preserving the body was used to return the bodies of notable people home.  So why was embalming NOT common in America before the War? 

In short, most Americans viewed embalming as unnatural and against the laws of nature.  One writer claimed that embalming betrayed a lack of faith in God, and therefore formed no part of “our theological system.”  But as Americans became more mobile, their family and friends wished to pay their last respects to the body before burial.  Embalming allowed the body to be shipped home year-round in perfect condition.  The Civil War was the catalyst for such a movement.  In the late nineteenth century, embalming was still relatively rare, but by 1920 almost all dead bodies were embalmed. 

When embalming a body, the funeral director strove to produce a “natural” appearance, using theatrical cosmetics to produce that appearance, and dressing the corpse in clothing rather than a shroud.  It was advised that “one idea should always be kept in mind, and that is to lay out the body so that there will be as little suggestion of death as possible.”  One Boston undertaker allegedly advertised:           

 For composing the features, $1

 For giving the features a look of quiet resignation, $2

 For giving the features the appearance of Christian hope and contentment, $5

Similarly, as the appearance of the body became more important, so did the funeral itself.  Instead of the quick burial the pre-embalmed body required, the funeral became an elaborate affair of the heart, as mourners celebrated the life of the deceased by participating in the new rituals of the funeral – a ritual the flamboyant Colonel Ellsworth would have appreciated. 

Today, Colonel Ellsworth is buried at Hudson View Cemetery in Mechanicville, New York, where a monument dedicated to him was erected in 1873.

Sources consulted: 

Farrell, James J.  Inventing the American Way of Death, 1830-1920.

Iverson, Kenneth V.  Death to Dust:  What Happens to Dead Bodies?

Keegan, John III.  “Civil War figure Ellsworth was likely first embalmed American.”  The Sunday Gazette, August 23, 1998.