Marshall House

In the early morning hours of May 24, 1861, the day after a public referendum in Virginia supported secession from the United States, Union forces crossed the Potomac and invaded Alexandria. Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth, the young commander of the 11th New York Fire Zouaves and a close confidant and friend of President Abraham Lincoln, arrived in the city and attempted to remove a secessionist flag from the rooftop flagpole of the Marshall House. After he successfully took down the flag and started down the stairs, proprietor James W. Jackson emerged from the shadows and killed Ellsworth with a gunshot to the chest at point blank range. Jackson was then immediately shot and bayoneted by Corporal Francis Brownell of Troy, New York, who later received the Medal of Honor for his actions while accompanying Ellsworth that day. These became the first two deaths from violence, representing each side of the national conflict, during the American Civil War. In the days and months afterward, both Ellsworth and Jackson were treated as martyrs to the defense of their country on native soil. Cries of "Remember Ellsworth!" and "Remember Jackson!" were used by Northern and Southern leaders to recruit enlistments and support, and both men were immortalized as heroes in popular culture and commemorative wares of the period. In the years after their deaths, their first or last names were often chosen for newborn boys throughout the country by those loyal to each man's cause.

Alexandria, Virginia · United States