WASHINGTON, DC.- The National Portrait Gallery will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, fought from 1861 to 1865, with seven exhibitions, many of which draw heavily on the permanent collection. These rotating presentations, which mark each year of the war, complement the installation of objects from the Civil War that are on long-term display in the exhibition “American Origins.” In addition, the building that houses the museum at Eighth and F Streets N.W., served as a Civil War barracks and hospital to Union soldiers and hosted Lincoln’s second inaugural ball March 6, 1865, as the war was nearing its conclusion. Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth, the first Union officer to be killed in the Civil War, commanded a volunteer regiment that participated in the invasion of northern Virginia May 24, 1861.