Civil War Union Brevet Brigadier General. Born in New York City, New York, he graduated from Columbia University, and became a lawyer in his native city. During the 1850s he resided in California, where he assumed a number of occupations before becoming a merchant sea captain (and allegedly became a captain of the Kingdom of Hawaii navy after befriending King Kamehameha III). When the Civil War began he was back in the east, residing in Orange County, New York. He enlisted in the Union Army, and was commissioned on May 3, 1861 as Captain and commander of Company I, 71st New York Volunteer Infantry, a three-month enlistment unit formed out of federalized New York militia. His regiment was heavily involved in the combat on July 21, 1861 during the First Battle of Bull Run, taking sixty-two casualties. When he was mustered out at the end of that month he was requested by Congressman Charles H. Van Wyck to help train the forming 56th New York Volunteer Infantry, which Van Wyck had been commissioned it’s Colonel. After that regiment was sent to the Army of the Potomac, Augustus V.H. Ellis set about helping to recruit another regiment, this time from Orange County. After recruitment and training, that regiment was mustered into federal service as the 124th New York Volunteer Infantry, and he was commissioned it’s Colonel and commander on September 10, 1862. His troops did not see any fighting until the May 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville, where they sustained the loss of 204 men out of 550 engaged, and where Colonel Ellis gave the unit the sobriquet “Orange Blossoms”. The greatly reducing regiment participated in the pursuit of General Robert E, Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia as it invaded Pennsylvania, and on the Second Day of the Battle of Gettysburg (July 2, 1863) found themselves positioned on the rocky heights of Houck’s Ridge, near the area known as Devil’s Den. When Texans and Arkansans under Lieutenant General James Longstreet made their assault on the extended Union lines at Houck’s Ridge, Colonel Ellis pitched his men forward in a counter attack in an area that became known as the Triangle Field. Riding conspicuously on horseback, his men broke the initial Confederate line, but were confronted unsupported by the next Confederate wave, and Colonel Ellis was shot in the head and killed instantly. The remnants of the 124th New York retreated to Cemetery Ridge, and in the process were able to bring their Colonel’s body with them. His remains were eventually transported back to Manhattan, New York City, where they were interred in the family vault. He was posthumously brevetted Brigadier General, US Volunteers for his bravery at Gettysburg. Today a statue of him stand atop the 124th New York Infantry Monument on Sickle’s Avenue, Houck’s Ridge in the Gettysburg National Military Park.