Description
Litho carte view of Civil War martyr, Colonel Elmer Ellsworth. Ellsworth was killed at the Marshall House on May 24, 1861. During the month before the event, the inn’s proprietor, James Jackson, had raised from the inn’s roof a large Confederate flag. Colonel Ellsworth and seven other soldiers entered the inn through an open door determined to remove the flag. Ellsworth sprang up the stairs followed by his soldiers, climbed to the roof on a ladder and cut down the flag with a soldier’s knife. The soldiers turned to descend, with Private Francis Brownell leading the way and Ellsworth following with the flag. As Brownell reached the first landing place, Jackson jumped from a dark passage, leveled a shotgun at Ellsworth’s chest and discharged one barrel directly into Ellsworth’s chest, killing him instantly. Jackson then discharged the other barrel at Brownell, but missed his target. Brownell’s gun simultaneously fired, hitting Jackson in the middle of his face. Ellsworth would be the first Union officer to be killed during the war. This one is back marked by Anthony.
