Elmer E. Ellsworth

[4][5] He was killed while removing a Confederate flag from the roof of the Marshall House inn in Alexandria, Virginia.

[6][7] Before the war, Ellsworth led a touring military drill team, the "Zouave Cadets of Chicago".

Ellsworth had studied the Zouave soldiers, French colonial troops in Algeria, and was impressed by their reported fighting quality.

[10] Ellsworth was killed at the Marshall House on May 24, 1861 (the day after Virginia's secession was ratified by referendum) during the Union Army's take-over of Alexandria.

[4][7] Before crossing the Potomac River to take Alexandria, soldiers serving under Ellsworth's command observed the flag from their camp through field glasses and volunteered to remove it.

Once inside, they encountered a man dressed in a shirt and trousers, of whom Ellsworth demanded what sort of a flag it was that hung upon the roof.

[4][7][20] A plaque that the Sons of Confederate Veterans placed within a blind arch near a corner of a prominent hotel that stood on the former site of the Marshall House commemorated Jackson's role in the affair for many years.

However, Marriott International removed the plaque in 2017 shortly after it purchased the hotel (see: Marshall House historical marker).

President Lincoln kept the captured Marshall House flag, with which his son Tad often played and waved.

[22] Today, most of the flag is held by the New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center in Saratoga Springs, which also has Ellsworth's uniform with an apparent bullet hole.

[23] Another fragment is held by the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, along with a blood-stained piece of oilcloth and a scrap of red bunting from the Marshall House.

They may be seen in the Torpedo Factory Art Center's third floor exhibit (the Alexandria Archaeology Museum), three blocks away on King Street.

It sits directly across Waverly Place from the historic Northern Dispensary building and across Christopher Street from the Stonewall Inn.

Song: "Brave Men, Behold Your Fallen Chief" on IMSLP by Joseph Philbrick Webster He is a character in the 2012 film Saving Lincoln, in which his death is portrayed.

National Portrait Gallery , Washington, D.C.
Portrait of Elmer Ellsworth by unknown artist after Mathew Brady photograph (2011)
Last letter written by Elmer Ellsworth (dated May 23, 1861)
The Marshall house where Col Ellsworth was shot
The Hotel Monaco, now The Alexandrian, on the site of the Marshall House, seen in 2009.
Private Francis Brownell
Library of Congress
Death of Col. Ellsworth
( Currier and Ives engraving, 1861)
United States National Archives
Coat and Pants of Colonel Ellsworth (paired images)
The grave of Elmer E. Ellsworth, located in Hudson View Cemetery, Mechanicville , NY
Photographs show Colonel Elmer Ellsworth of Field and Staff, 11th New York Infantry Regiment; Marshall House at the corner of King and Pitt Streets, Alexandria, Virginia, the scene of the assassination of Col. Ellsworth on May 24, 1861; and Lieutenant Francis Brownell of Co. A, 11th New York Infantry Regiment, who killed James Jackson after he murdered Col. Ellsworth. From the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress . Photographs by Mathew Brady [ 1 ]