A Fragment of the Original Confederate Flag Cut Down by Col. Elmer Ellsworth at the Marshall House, and For Which He Lost His Life

Ellsworth the first Union soldier killed in the Civil War and the flag likely the first captured Confederate flag of the war

On May 24, 1861, the day after Virginia seceded from the union, a huge 14 by 24 foot Confederate flag could be seen flying in Alexandria, Virginia just a mile from Washington. It was big enough to be visible from the Executive Mansion. Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, a friend of Lincoln's who had clerked in his law office in Illinois, determined to take his New York Fire Zouave's and remove the flag. Entering Alexandria unopposed, the men first captured the telegraph office. Then Ellsworth marched them to the location of the Confederate flag, the "Marshall House Inn”, and Ellsworth went up and cut it down. As he descended the stairs Ellsworth encountered the hotel proprietor, James Jackson, who fired a shotgun and killed him instantly. Private Francis E. Brownell immediately fired his rifle and killed Jackson, running him through with the bayonet as he fell to the floor. Brownell took possession of the flag, thus likely making it the first Confederate flag captured in the Civil War.

Brownell was from Troy, New York, where he was a clerk in the law office of attorney John A. Millard. When the war broke out, he enlisted as a member of Ellsworth’s regiment, and was assigned to Company A. After killing Jackson, he was rewarded with a promotion, eventually receiving a commission in the regular army, and served as an officer for the next two years, retiring in November 1863 with the rank of first lieutenant. Following the war he received the Medal of Honor.

Being the first officer killed on the Union side, and indeed arguably the first casualty of the Civil War, the death of Ellsworth was a public sensation; patriotic envelopes were printed with his image, and streets were named after him. His body lay in state at the White House, and a New York unit was formed in the name of "Ellsworth Avenger’s”. For his part, Brownell was an immediate national hero, and everyone wanted relics of the Marshall House incident and the gallant martyred officer. Brownell gave out some fragments of the flag; today one is in the Smithsonian, another in the Ward Museum in Alexandria, there are some in other institutions, and a few in private hands. The full flag was given to Mrs. Lincoln after her husband’s assassination, but it is now in the New York State Museum.

Ellsworth was from Mechanicsville, New York, which is north of Brownell’s home town of Troy, and he was taken home for burial. The funeral party, which included Brownell, passed through Troy on its way to Mechansville. Brownell stopped to see his mentor John Millard, and handed him a patriotic Ellsworth envelope which had Brownell signed and on which he had written “Flag”, and then labeled it as a “present”. He addressed it to “John A. Millard, Troy, NY.” Inside was a piece of the Ellsworth flag mounted to a page inscribed “Compliments of Frank E. Brownell”. Years later the Millard family obtained a 7 by 9 inch photograph of Brownell wearing his medals, inscribed and signed, “With the kind regards of your friend, Frank E. Brownell”. The group – flag fragment, signed and addressed envelope, and signed photograph -remained in the Millard family for generations, along with a note from Millard’s granddaughter [which is present] saying, “Francis E. Brownell ‘The Ellsworth Avenger” was afterwards made a lieutenant in the Regular Army. While on the way passing through Troy during the funeral of Col. Ellsworth, he handed my grandfather this envelope enclosing with his compliments a piece of the flag to capture which Ellsworth lost his life at Alexandria, Va.”

This is an extremely rare artifact, the first such that we have had. We obtained it from a collection that had been in one family for generations, so this has not been offered for sale in many decades at least.