When the Civil War began, Elmer E. Ellsworth, the man who had thrilled audiences throughout the North with his champion drill team of Zouave cadets from Chicago, went to New York City to raise a regiment for the Union. He found his volunteers among the city's fire-fighters; thus they were called the New York Fire Zouaves, or officially, the 11th New York Infantry. With Ellsworth as its colonel, the regiment was mustered into service on May 7, 1861 for a two-year stint.

As a close friend of President Lincoln, Ellsworth pulled political strings so that his men would be among the first to invade Virginia. On May 24, the New York Fire Zouaves went by boat from Washington D.C. to Alexandria, Virginia, and secured the railroad and telegraph stations. They met little resistance except for a hotel owner who killed the beloved Ellsworth for cutting down the Confederate flag from the hotel's roof. Northerners everywhere mourned the loss of the regiment's well-known leader.

Battle of Bull Run

At the first battle of Bull Run on July 20, the New York Fire Zouaves fought as part of General Samuel P. Heintzelman's division to support the Union artillery on Henry House Hill. The troops in their scarlet trousers and blue coats came under heavy fire from Stonewall Jackson's Virginians.

"We literally mowed them down," said one Confederate soldier of their first volley of gunfire. While some of the Fire Zouaves bravely stood their ground and fired back, many others of the regiment ran in retreat. The Fire Zouaves who remained on the battlefield were then subjected to an attack by two sabre-wielding cavalry companies led by General J.E.B. Stuart. That day, the Fire Zouaves lost 177 men.

The Fire Zouaves served in New York City in September and October of 1861, and then at Newport News (where they took part in the Monitor-Merrimac duel) until May 1862.

Spending their entire term of service in and around Washington, the unit gained a reputation for rowdiness, but the soldiers showed their skills and value when a fire seriously threatened the capital and they were able to extinguish it. The regiment was mustered out in June 1862, although the men still had almost one year left of their original term of service. An unsuccessful attempt was made in the summer of 1863 to reorganize them.

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