George Ellsworth

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George "Lightning" Ellsworth was a Canadian telegrapher who served the Confederate army, specifically under Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan. His use of the telegraph to spread disinformation to Union forces was declared by the London Times as the greatest innovation to come out of the American Civil War. He was described as having droopy eyelids, a high forehead, an aquiline nose with a bridge bump, and a "disdainful, cynical, devil-may-care" eye expression.^[1]

He was enamored of the telegraph soon after it was invented, and travelled from his native Canada to Washington, D.C. in order to study in Samuel Morse's school. Before the war, he had taken a job in Lexington, Kentucky, where he first met Morgan. In 1860 he had moved to Houston, Texas. When the war started, Morgan had the idea of using the telegraph to send disinformation, and he knew he wanted Ellsworth for the job, so Morgan sent for him. Ellsworth joined Morgan and his 2nd Kentucky Cavalry at Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Among his talents were:

resourcefulness
running speed
could read extremely quick Morse Codes
imitate other telegraphers (telegraphers tend to have a distinctive style)
knew the sending style of several Union telegraphers based in Kentucky and Tennessee
had humor described as astringent.^[2]

He gained the name "Lightning" for climbing up a telegraph pole during a thunderstorm to send an important message.

Ellsworth was with Morgan on his great raid, and was able to escape by swimming across the Ohio River with his portable telegraph, aided by an army mule, during the Battle of Buffington Island. He was with Morgan on Morgan's last Kentucky Raid in 1864, and was later captured in Cynthiana, Kentucky in June 1864, and promptly escaped. Thomas Hines later found him in either Windsor or Toronto, Canada, and had Ellsworth help him on an attempt to free Confederate POWs. After the War, Ellsworth served under Thomas Edison in Cincinnati, Ohio, but reportedly found a telegraph office too quiet for his liking. According to Edison, Ellsworth died in the panhandle of Texas, after becoming a "bad'"gun man'".^[3]