He served one term in the Wisconsin State Assembly, representing southern Milwaukee County, and was a Union Army officer in the American Civil War.
[1] The 24th Wisconsin Infantry left the state in September 1862 en route to Kentucky, for service in the western theater of the war.
[3]: 721 After the battle, the 24th Wisconsin Infantry, with Sheridan's division, were reorganized into the right wing of the Army of the Cumberland, under General Alexander McDowell McCook.
Their regiment supported a cannon battery on December 30, and remained lying in position overnight, without campfires, and suffered in the extreme cold.
Ellsworth fell ill shortly after the Battle of Stones River and was forced to resign due to disability in January 1863.
[1] Shortly after his return from the war, Ellsworth was accused of "breach of promise" by a woman named Margaret Gomber (or Gruber or Guniber).
After immigrating to the United States from Germany, she had gone to live and work as a servant at the Ellsworth family home in 1852, when she was sixteen years old.
[6] Ellsworth fled the state shortly after the complaint was filed, and a jury eventually awarded Gruber damages of $5,000 ($110,000 adjusted for inflation to 2021).