She received distinction after the Civil War for her efforts in historic preservation, history, memorialization, forestry, silkworm cultivation, and the promotion of Florida.

Her published report, which was written before the American Forestry Congress in 1888 and titled "Notes of Some of the Forest Features of Florida," is considered a seminal work in the field of fire ecology.

Concerned over his family's precarious situation, Richard Keith Call sent his two surviving daughters to Nashville, Tennessee, to live with his mother-in-law.

Ellen later inherited Orchard Pond and the people her father enslaved, which served as her main means of support through the end of the Civil War.

Her enthusiasm for the cause was guarded, however, as she refused to invest in Confederate bonds and remained bitterly opposed to secessionists, which became more pronounced as the war progressed.

[4] Although the end of the Civil War and the beginning of Reconstruction brought significant economic hardships to the Southern United States, this period marked a remarkable political turnaround for Ellen Call Long's family.

Ellen continued to rely on income from her Orchard Pond property, which now utilized sharecropper labor, many formerly enslaved by the Call family.

Founded by Ann Pamela Cunningham in 1853 to salvage George Washington's residence Mount Vernon, the MVLA was the first major national historic preservation organization in the United States.

Despite the difficulties faced in communication and travel at the time, Long and Catherine Murat established a local presence for the MVLA in every town and county in the state and raised several thousand dollars for the cause.

Due in part to the pioneering efforts of women such as Ellen Call Long, both Mount Vernon and The Hermitage remain open today as public museums.

Still, it soon expanded its mission to raise money for veterans, engage in public outreach, and petition for state recognition of Confederate Memorial Day.

In no invidious spirit do we come; the political storm that shook our country to its foundation... is passed; war with its carnage is over; and we are done with the cause; and though we scarce discover the silver lining of the dark clouds which have so long hung like a pall above us, we believe that it will yet show itself, and are willing to do all that women can do to stem the tide of bitterness, and assuage the angry feelings that naturally, at present, exist between the two sections of the country.

"[12] After the American Civil War, Ellen Call Long earned a reputation as a tireless promoter of Florida and took the lead in encouraging national reconciliation in the state.

[13] Faced with maintaining a large extended family and a high standard of living as resources were dwindling, Ellen turned to alternative methods of generating income.

She immersed herself in silkworm cultivation, studying for a period in the 1870s with the Women's Silk Culture Association in Philadelphia, which she joined and was an active member of.

She raised the silkworms and produced the silk on The Grove property itself, first utilizing the first floor of the main house before constructing a small cottage near the cemetery.

[14] Ellen Call Long was an early member of the Southern Forestry Congress, founded in DeFuniak Springs, Florida, at the annual Chautauqua Winter Conference in 1884.

At the American Forestry Congress meeting held in Atlanta in 1888, she presented a paper titled "Notes of Some of the Forest Features of Florida," which was later published in the Proceedings.

Although the published piece received little attention then, it would be widely cited by early advocates of fire ecology, such as Roland Harper and Herbert Stoddard, as a seminal work in the field.

Her work and research later went to her niece Caroline Mays Brevard, a noted historian and educator who wrote a history of Florida that was used for years as the official textbook for schoolchildren in the state.