The Marshall House

“In 1861 Jackson was 37 years old. His biographer described Jackson's face as “remarkable” in its expression…Grim, stern, obstinate determination was stamped emphatically on every feature. The forehead was low, and on it the hair, always slightly short, stood up defiantly.“ — Fort Ward Museum.

In this ca. 1862 painting by Alonzo Chappel, James W. Jackson shoots Elmer Ellsworth at the Marshall House; Corporal Brownell in the center is about to shoot Jackson in turn. On the stair behind Ellsworth is NY Tribune reporter Edward H. House. On display at the Fort Ward Museum.

“Alexandria innkeeper James Jackson raised the city's first Confederate flag over the Marshall House in April of 1861 after hearing news of the Virginia Convention's act to adopt a state ordinance of secession. Made by an Alexandria sailmaker and his family, the flag was patterned after the “Stars and Bars,” with red and white bars and a circle of seven stars on a blue field. An eighth star was added in the center for Virginia. Can you see the stain on a portion of the star? It is believed to be Elmer Ellsworth's blood. The largest section of the Marshall house flag is in the historical collections of the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs.” — Fort Ward Museum.

“The Marshall House became a mecca for souvenir hunters after the deaths of Ellsworth and Jackson. A Union soldier from Rhode Island documented in a letter how he had taken a portion of the building's exterior sign “…I got in Alexandria at the Marshall House where Ellsworth was killed (took) the letter “O” of the sign off the house. They are built of gilt letters…” The soldier also obtained pieces of the stairway and banister as mementos. This practice was so common that by 1862 when the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne visited the Marshall house, he wrote “The memorial-hunters have completely cut away the original woodwork…thus it becomes something like a metaphysical question whether the place of the murder actually exists.” — Fort Ward Museum.

“Col. Elmer Ellsworth was celebrated in the early days of the Civil War as a Union hero whose death in Alexandria, Virginia claimed him as the North's First Martyr. Ellsworth popularized the Zouave movement in America by organizing the Chicago Zouave Cadets in 1859. At the beginning of the Civil War, he raised the 11th New York “Fire” Zouaves, a regiment which participated in the Federal occupation of Alexandria on May 24, 1861. Zouave officers usually wore red kepis, a color typical of Zouave uniforms. Ellsworth's kepi reflects how officer' caps were often decorated with rows of gold braid, which indicated rank, and a Hungarian know design on the crown. The three vertical gold stripes on the sides of the cap's crown signified a field officer.” — Fort Ward Museum

Today the site of the Marshall House at King and Pitt Streets is occupied by the Hotel Monaco.

Strangely, “Jackson 20”, the bar at the Hotel Monaco, is named for Andrew Jackson, not James W. Jackson.

Full title:Ellsworth. Memorial Col. E.E. Ellsworth, the patriot martyr. The Marshall house, Alexandria, Va. Francis E. Brownell, the avenger of Ellsworth.

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. -- Library of Congress

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