Marshall House (Alexandria, Virginia)

Marshall House
The Marshall House Inn (photo 1861)
General information
Coordinates	38°48′16.90″N 77°2′40.45″W / 38.8046944°N 77.0445694°W / 38.8046944; -77.0445694
Demolished	1950s

The Marshall House was a hotel that stood on the corner of King Street and South Pitt Street in Alexandria, Virginia. At the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861, it was the site of the killing of Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth during the Union army takeover of Alexandria. Ellsworth was a popular and highly prominent officer and a close friend of Abraham Lincoln. He was the first conspicuous casualty and the first officer killed in battle in the war, and his death became a cause célèbre for the Union. He was shot by the hotel proprietor James W. Jackson after removing a Confederate flag from the roof of the hotel, and Jackson was then killed immediately after he killed Ellsworth.

On the other side, Jackson was celebrated for flying the flag and dying while defending the Confederate cause. At the current Hotel Monaco Alexandria, which was built on the site where the Marshall House once stood, a plaque at the corner of the building commemorates the death of Jackson, who it calls the "first martyr to the cause of Southern Independence" and says "was killed by federal soldiers while defending his property and personal rights". The plaque makes no mention of Jackson's shotgun slaying of Col. Ellsworth.

Ellsworth, founder of the 11th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment known as the "Fire Zouaves", was killed at the Marshall House on May 24, 1861 (the day after Virginia's secession was ratified by referendum) during the Union take-over of Alexandria. He was shot by the hotel proprietor James W. Jackson, who was then immediately killed by Corporal Francis E. Brownell, one of the four soldiers accompanying Ellsworth. Ellsworth, a young Illinois lawyer and friend of the Lincolns, became the first Union officer to die in the Civil War. Brownell later received the Medal of Honor for his action.

Ellsworth was killed as he descended the stairs of the hotel after removing a Confederate flag from its roof. Jackson had raised the flag over the hotel, which was at a prominent location visible from the White House, and he had said the flag would only be taken down "over his dead body".