George Ellsworth

Canadian George Ellsworth was fascinated by the telegraph and longed to become a telegraph operator. As a teenager he moved to Washington D.C. to train at Samuel Morse’s school and upon finishing his training he accepted an assignment in Louisville, Kentucky. There he met and befriended John Hunt Morgan.

After the Civil War broke out, Morgan became colonel of a Kentucky cavalry regiment. Realizing that his command could use a telegraph operator, he contacted his old friend George Ellsworth, who was living in Texas at the time, and convinced him to join the regiment. It was a relationship that would bring fame to both men.

Ellsworth accompanied Morgan on his raids, where he used the telegraph brilliantly to gather information and sow confusion in the enemy. Ellsworth was a master at tapping into cut lines to intercept Federal messages. He would learn the unique patterns of the operators, then imitate them while sending false and misleading information to Federal commanders about Morgan’s movements and the size of his force, sending them on wild goose chases or scurrying away in retreat. Ellsworth earned his famous nickname while sitting in a stream during a thunderstorm with a railroad tie across his lap while tapping out bogus telegraphs to the enemy. Morgan’s men dubbed him “Lightning” Ellsworth and that is how history remembers him.

Ellsworth and Morgan were notorious for taunting the befuddled Federals who were pursuing them. For example, they sent a telegraph to General Jeremiah Boyle in Louisville that read: “Good morning, Jerry. This telegraph is a great institution. You should destroy it as it keeps me posted too well. My friend Ellsworth has all your dispatches since July 10 on file. Do you wish copies?” After taking Somerset, Kentucky they telegraphed George Prentice, the pro-Union editor of the Louisville newspaper who had mocked Morgan in his paper: “Good morning, George. I am quietly watching the complete destruction of all of Uncle Sam’s property in this little burg. I expect in a short time to pay you a visit and wish to know if you will be at home. All well in Dixie.” After Morgan’s first raid, Ellsworth prepared an irreverent report detailing how he intercepted Federal communications and how he deceived them with spurious messages. The report was widely printed in newspapers in both the North and South as well as in Europe. The London Times declared Ellsworth’s activities to be the most striking and important innovation of the war.

Morgan was captured during the “Great Raid” of 1863 that took his troopers into Indiana and Ohio, but Ellsworth narrowly escaped. After Morgan escaped from prison and made his way back south, Ellsworth joined him again for another raid—the one that would cost Morgan his life. Ellsworth was captured during the raid but managed to escape from prison and make his way to Canada. There he worked for the Confederate Secret Service until the end of the war.

What happened to Ellsworth after the war is unknown. Thomas Edison claimed that Ellsworth worked for him in Ohio, before resigning in boredom and moving to Texas where he became a gunfighter. Others claim he lived quietly as a telegraph operator in St. Louis.

Regardless, George “Lightning” Ellsworth went down in history as an innovator in military intelligence and counterintelligence.