George Ellsworth, born in Upper Canada, had…
July 1863 CE
As a teenager, he traveled to Washington, D.C., to study in Samuel Morse's telegraphy school, then began working in Lexington, Kentucky, where he became friends with John Hunt Morgan
Ellsworth had moved to Houston, Texas, in 1860, and when the Civil War began in the following year, Morgan had conceived the idea of using the telegraph to send disinformation to the enemy.
Realizing that Ellsworth was perfect for the job, he asked him to join him.
Ellsworth had accepted and enlisted in Morgan's 2nd Kentucky Cavalry Regiment at Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Ellsworth excels as a telegrapher.
Not only can he read extremely fast code messages, but he also can imitate the sending style of other telegraphers (each of whom is slightly different), and he quickly masters the "fist" of the Union Army's telegraphers in Kentucky and Tennessee.
He gains his nickname "Lightning" during Morgan's first Kentucky Raid, when he sits on a railroad cross tie in knee deep water near Horse Cave, Kentucky, calmly tapping away at his telegraph key during a thunderstorm.
Ellsworth accompanies Morgan on his unauthorized great raid into Indiana and Ohio in 1863, but he escapes capture by swimming across the Ohio River with his portable telegraph, hanging on to a mule, at the Battle of Buffington Island on July 19.
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