Image ID: AIAF

Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book Of The War. Vol. 1, No. 1. Marshall House, Alexandria, Virginia. August, 1862. The Marshall House, at the commencement of the war, was a dingy old hotel, kept by a man generally known in that section by the name of Jim Jackson. It was in this building that Col. Ellsworth of the New York Fire Zouaves was killed, in May, 1861. Our troops had surprised and captured the city just before daylight, and as Col. Ellsworth was posting his troops about the town, he discovered a Confederate flag waving from the roof of the Marshall House. Accompanied by Private Brownell, the Colonel went up through the building after the flag, and on coming down was shot on the stair-case by the proprietor, Jackson. Brownell instantly killed Jackson, and with others hurried to Washington with Ellsworth’s remains. The intelligence of his death was kept from the Zouaves for several hours, until measures could be taken to prevent them from destroying the city, which it was feared they would attempt in revenge for the killing of their commander. Brownell was shortly after appointed a lieutenant in the regular army. Relic hunters soon carried away from the hotel everything moveable, including the carpets, furniture, and window shutters, and cut away the whole of the staircase and door where Ellsworth was shot. Finally Northern men took possession of the building, and fitted it up for business, so changing the interior as to be scarcely recognizable by those who visited it in 1861.

Library of Congress says: Photograph shows Marshall House at corner of King Street at Saint Asaph Streets. Col. Elmer Ellsworth of The New York Zoaves was killed after pulling down the Confederate flag in 1861.