The Most Talked of Man in the Country

On May 24, 1861, as the country was rushing into the Civil War, President Lincoln was discovered in tears by two visitors to his office.  After composing himself, Lincoln said “I will make no apologies for my weakness; but I knew poor Ellsworth well, and held him in great regard.”  The man Lincoln mourned, Elmer Ellsworth, was born in Malta, New York in humble circumstances but his untimely death earned the designation from Lincoln’s Secretary John Hay “The Most Talked of Man in the Country.”  The story of how he accomplished this will be told by Paul Perreault, Town of Malta Historian and former member of the Board of Trustees of the Friends of Grant Cottage.