Zouaves. Specifically Duryee's Zouaves. From the 5th New York volunteer infantry.
No, not that old fat lady on the left! The fancy dressed dude in the middle. HE'S the Zouave.
(Funny how on the inside I appear to still have dark hair left, but out in the sun it all looks so white!)
My goodness, I NEVER know where history will lead me! I've read about the Zouave's since I was a teenager and vaguely knew what they were about. But, as usual: surprise, surprise, surprise!
Seems America's Zouaves all began in Chicago. It's a great story! Ferocious shock troops, Zouave's originated with the French North African legions of Morocco and Algiers in the 1830's. They evolved from a fiercely independent Kabyli tribe living in the rocky hills of Algeria and Morocco.
Back in the day, the French Zouave were more famous than the French Foreign Legion. By the 1850's, Napoleon had four regiments of Zouave - one assigned to his Imperial Guard! They were all Frenchmen by then - no more Africans. In 1855, they won immortal renown for their efforts and sacrifice in taking the earthworks of the fortress city of Sebastopol, a port on the Crimean peninsula in the Ukraine. More than 500 Zouaves fell at Mamelon Vert taking the city by bayonet!
There was a young U.S. Army captain, George B. McClellan, who observed the colorful
and exotic fighters in 1855, praised the Zouaves as "The finest light
infantry that Europe can produce ... the beau-ideal of a soldier." Hmmm.
Zouaves of the Imperial Guard earned ten crosses of the Legion of Honor and fifty Military Medals in 1859 as France duked it out with Austria over control of northern Italy. There was even a woman who received a medal - the first ever in France.
In the 1860's France sent them over to Mexico. Seems America was a bit distracted by a certain Civil War, and France thought they just might make some inroads into Mexico...
In 1857, Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth, born in New York but now living in Chicago, happened to meet Charles Devilliers, a former member of the French Zouave. Ellsworth was beginning to make a name for himself in the Illinois state militia, and he began to ponder the advantages of putting together a Zouave unit of his own.
After a brief stint at studying law in a certain Springfield lawyers office (one Abraham Lincoln!) and establishing a life-long friendship with Lincoln, he began putting together his cadets. He hand-picked his men and, among other things, required them to be "morally upright," abstaining from alcohol and
tobacco, and then subjected them to a strict regimen of physical training. By 1860 his U.S. Zouave Cadets of Chicago were being hailed as the finest militia unit in the Midwest. He decided to put them to the test! He created a drill competition, set out on a six-week tour that took him to twenty cities, and, when all was said and done, his Cadets knocked their socks off!
Newspapers described Ellsworth as "the most talked-of man in the country." The New York Times noted "Their bronzed features, sharp outlines, light,
wiry forms, muscular developments and spirited, active movements, give
them an appearance of dashing ferocity." The Herald hailed the Zouaves'
"dashing confidence and elasticity, which we do not see in any of our
own companies... Every movement of the company was so splendidly
precise, that a new sensation indeed was experienced."
More importantly, Ellsworth and his men caused tons of imitators to set up their own Zouave units.
After riding with Lincoln on his inaugural train to Washington, D.C., Ellsworth went on to New York City and created a Zouave unit there. He had the bright idea of recruiting from New York fire departments, believing those men would already be in peak physical condition. Well, that was true, but they were a bit rough around the edges compared to Ellsworth's former cadets. Apparently it was like trying to herd cats - wild alley cats! Lincoln's Secretary, John Hay, described the Zouaves as "a jolly,
gay set of blackguards," who "were in a pretty complete state of don't
care a damn, modified by an affectionate and respectful deference to
their Colonel."
The 11th New York Infantry was formed, however, and through his friendship with Lincoln, they were included in the Union's first invasion of Virginia.
On the early morning of May 24, 1861, Ellsworth and his men were searching for the Alexandria Virginia telegraph office (I guess to take down their lines of communication) when he saw a huge
Secessionist banner fluttering atop a 30-foot pole on the roof of
the Marshall House hotel. He decided a game of Capture the Flag was in order, climbed to the roof, and hauled the flag down. As they were headed back down the stairs (I always told our sons that going up was the easy part...) the innkeeper blocked their path, and shot Ellsworth through the heart.
Ellsworth became the first Union martyr of the Civil War. Lincoln was crushed and ordered that Ellsworth's body lie in state at the White House. "Avenge Ellsworth!" became a battle-cry and even more Zouave units were created, one of the
finest being the 5th New York Volunteer Infantry, "Duryee's
Zouaves."
