December 17, 2024

In the summer of 1860, Elmer Ellsworth and a civilian militia company of 50 men from Chicago, known as the United States Zouave Cadets, set out on a twenty-city tour to prove the value and perfection of their Zouave training. The tour, which took them to New York City, Boston, the United States Military Academy at West Point, Washington, D.C., and other prominent northern cities, was a success beyond their wildest expectations. When the Civil War started the following year and their training was needed on the battlefield rather than the parade ground, the men who accompanied Ellsworth found themselves in positions of great responsibility and leadership within the Union Army. Mr. Dammann’s program will explore Elmer Ellsworth’s widespread influence on the United States Army despite his death in an Alexandria, Virginia, hotel very early in the conflict.   

 Doug Dammann is the Curator and Site Coordinator at the Civil War Museum of Kenosha, Wisconsin, a position he has held since November 2007.  Doug has worked in the museum field for nearly 25 years, with previous employment at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Maryland. He holds a bachelor’s degree in History from Kalamazoo (MI) College and a masters degree in Historical Administration from Eastern Illinois University.  He and his wife Holly have two children, Andrew and Charlotte.