Sources
Basic Sources
The best account of Ellis' wartime activities remains his Thrilling Adventures of Daniel Ellis...
Editions:
- New York: Harper & Brothers, 1867
- Lexington: Lost Cause Press, 1968 (microcard)
- Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1971 (Black Heritage Library Collection)
- Johnson City, TN: Don & Mignon, 1974 (edition limited to 500 copies)
- Johnson City, TN: Overmountain Press, 1989 (includes Biographical Sketch [pp. 430a-430b] and Index [pp. 431-438])
- Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, Inc., 2000 (paperback).
1867 edition
1971 edition
1974 edition
1989 edition
2000 edition
A more succinct version appeared as:
___. "Capt. Dan Ellis's Story: The Adventurous Career of a Loyal East Tennessean." The National Tribune 12, no. 14 (3 November 1892): 2, through 12, no. 43 (25 May 1893): 8.
Also of use:
U.S. Congress. Senate. Petition of Captain Daniel Ellis, Praying Compensation for Services Rendered in Recruiting for the Union Army in East Tennessee During the Rebellion. S. Misc. Doc. 6. 40th Cong., 1st sess., 1867.
A view of Ellis by friendly contemporaries is found in
Scott, Samuel W., and Samuel P. Angel. History of the Thirteenth Regiment, Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry, U.S.A. Philadelphia: P.W. Ziegler, 1904 (and numerous reprints): 423-446, and others.
Accounts of trips through the lines with Ellis are found in the writings of two popular New York Tribune war correspondents and Salisbury Prison escapees:
Browne, Junius Henri. Four Years in Secessia: Adventures Within and Beyond the Union Lines. Hartford: O.D. Case, 1865 (and numerous reprints): 403-428.
Richardson, Albert D. The Secret Service, the Field, the Dungeon, and the Escape. Hartford, CT: American Publishing Co., 1865 (and numerous reprints): 487-505.
The most comprehensive source may be
Ellis, Allen. "Yankee Captain Daniel Ellis: The Old Red Fox of East Tennessee." Blue & Gray Magazine 9, no. 4 (April 1992): 28-32, 34.
A compilation of most found references is:
Ellis, Allen. "Captain Daniel Ellis: An Annotated Bibliography." Bulletin of Bibliography 53, no. 4 (December 1996): 369-377 (an update is in progress).
The best military history of the Civil War in East Tennessee is:
Fisher, Noel Charles. War at Every Door: Partisan Politics and Guerrilla Violence in East Tennessee, 1860-1869. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997: 64-66, 83-85.