E. John Ellis

Born in Covington, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, son of Ezekiel Parke Ellis and Tabitha Emily Warner, Ellis attended private schools in Covington and Clinton, Louisiana, and Centenary College of Louisiana (when it was located in Jackson, Louisiana) from 1855 to 1858. In 1861 he graduated from the law department of the Louisiana State University at Pineville (now at Baton Rouge), Louisiana.[1]

During the Civil War he joined the Confederate States Army and was commissioned a first lieutenant. Ellis was promoted to captain in the Sixteenth Regiment, Louisiana Infantry, and served two years until he was captured at the Battle of Missionary Ridge, Tennessee, about November 25, 1863. He was held as a prisoner of war on Johnson's Island in Lake Erie until the end of the war. While a prisoner, wrote a diary entitled A Retrospect.[2]

He was admitted to the bar of Louisiana in 1866 and commenced practice in Covington, Louisiana. He served as member of the State senate 1866-1870.

Ellis was elected from Louisiana's 2nd congressional district as a Democrat to the Forty-fourth and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1875 – March 3, 1885).

He served as chairman of the Committee on Mississippi Levees (Forty-fourth Congress) but declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1884.

He resumed the practice of his profession in Washington, D.C..

He died there April 25, 1889 and was interred in the Ellis family cemetery at "Ingleside," near Amite, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana.

• United States Congress. "E. John Ellis (id: E000134)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved on 2009-04-10

• "E. John Ellis". Find a Grave. Retrieved April 10, 2009.