Fort Ellsworth (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this roadside historical marker:

Fort Ellsworth
Fort Ellsworth, one of 68 earthen forts built to protect Washington during the Civil War, was constructed in 1861. When completed, the fort had a perimeter of 618 yards and was an irregular Vauban-type star design of French origin. The fort was garrisoned by many regiments in the course of the war. The largest of its guns, a 100-pound Parrott, had a maximum range of 8,428 yards. The fort was named for Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth, Commander of the 11th New York Fire Zouaves and a friend of President Lincoln. Colonel Ellsworth was the first Union officer to be killed in the Civil War. He was shot at Marshall House, Alexandria, after removing a Confederate flag from the tavern roof, and lay in state at the White House. He is buried in Mechanicville, New York.

Erected by Fort Ellsworth Condominiums.


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Here follows an excerpt about Fort Ellsworth from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Fort Ellsworth was a timber and earthwork fortification constructed west of Alexandria, Virginia, as part of the defenses of Washington, D.C. during the American Civil War. Built in the weeks following the Union defeat at Bull Run, Fort Ellsworth was situated on a hill north of Hunting Creek, and Cameron Run, (which feeds into it). From its position on one of the highest points west of Alexandria, the fort overlooked the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, the Little River Turnpike, and the southern approaches to the city of Alexandria, the largest settlement in Union-occupied Northern Virginia.

Occupation of Alexandria:
The occupation of Northern Virginia was peaceful, with the sole exception of the town of Alexandria. There, as Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth, commander of the New York Fire Zouaves (11th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment), entered a local hotel to remove the Confederate flag flying above it, he was shot and killed by James Jackson, the proprietor. Ellsworth was one of the first men killed in the American Civil War. Throughout the remainder of the war, Alexandria would lean strongly towards the Confederate government, necessitating continued occupation by a Union garrison.

Washington D.C. fortifications:
Over the seven weeks that followed the occupation of northern Virginia, forts were constructed along the banks of the Potomac River and at the approaches to each of the three major bridges (Chain Bridge, Long Bridge, and Aqueduct Bridge) connecting Virginia to Washington and Georgetown.

While the Potomac River forts were being built, planning and surveying was ordered for an enormous new ring of forts to protect the city. Unlike the fortifications under construction, the new forts would defend the city in all directions, not just the most direct route through Arlington. In mid-July, this work was interrupted by the First Battle of Bull Run. As the Army of Northeastern Virginia marched south to Manassas, the soldiers previously assigned to construction duties marched instead to battle. In the days that followed the Union defeat at Bull Run, panicked efforts were made to defend Washington from what was perceived as an imminent Confederate attack. The makeshift trenches and earthworks that resulted were largely confined to Arlington and the direct approaches to Washington.

On July 26, 1861, five days after the battle, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan was named commander of the military district of Washington and the subsequently renamed Army of the Potomac. Upon arriving in Washington, McClellan was appalled by the condition of the city's defenses.

In no quarter were the dispositions for defense such as to offer a vigorous resistance to a respectable body of the enemy, either in the position and numbers of the troops or the number and character of the defensive works... not a single defensive work had been commenced on the Maryland side. There was nothing to prevent the enemy shelling the city from heights within easy range, which could be occupied by a hostile column almost without resistance.

To remedy the situation, one of McClellan's first orders upon taking command was to greatly expand the defenses of Washington. At all points of the compass, forts and entrenchments would be constructed in sufficient strength to defeat any attack.[6] Alexandria, which contained the southern terminus of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and one of the largest ports in the Chesapeake Bay, was an object of "anxious study."

Planning and construction:
In August 1861, General McClellan assigned General J.G. Barnard to take charge of construction to begin creation of a really complete system of defenses.

Gen. Horatio Wright, oversaw the construction of Fort Ellsworth, and Gen. John Newton, who was in charge of the forts south of Four Mile Run, supervised the construction and managed the flow of men and material. The Fort was constructed on Shuter's Hill to the east of Samuel Cooper's Cameron plantation house.

Construction began on May 25, 1861. The perimeter was 618 yards, with room for 29 guns, including one 100-pound Parrott gun.

Wartime use
On June 26, 1861, 30 – 10 Pounder Rifled Cannon were tested at Fort Ellsworth.

Col. J. Howard Kitching with the 6th New York Artillery occupied Fort Ellsworth:
Now we are in Fort Ellsworth...It is a very fine piece of work on a splendid commanding position, overlooking Washington, Alexandria, and all the surrounding country, for fifteen or twenty miles. When we came in here...it was occupied by four hundred 'man -of-war's men:' in fact, a complete frigate's crew – and they have been spending the past two months in putting the fort in order, just as sailors do, sodding and whitewashing everything, and planting evergreens, until the inside of the works is the very picture of neatness.

They moved on to Fort Worth, on Wednesday, November 27, 1861.

Fort Worth, Va., December 3, 1861.
My dearest L: I received your lovely letter, and would have answered it immediately, but that I was taken sick the day after I got it, and have been sick ever since. We received orders late Wednesday night to move our two companies which had been guarding Fort Ellsworth to Fort Worth, the next morning, Thanksgiving Day. So we were obliged to give up our comfortable quarters, and take up our line of march for an unfinished earthwork, on the outskirts of our line of fortifications; where instead of spending our time drilling on the guns, and teaching our men something useful, we are forced to take up our axes and shovels, and go to work upon the Fort.

In Ellsworth we had very nice quarters within the works, and everything convenient, and were able to crib a little time every day to ourselves.

In 1862, Nathaniel Hawthorne visited the Fort, as detailed the Atlantic:
We paid a visit to Fort Ellsworth, and from it[s] ramparts (which have been heaped up out of the muddy soil within the last few months, and will require still a year or two to make them verdant) we had a beautiful view of the Potomac, a truly majestic river, and the surrounding country. The fortifications, so numerous in all this region, and now so unsightly with their bare, precipitous sides will remain as historic monuments, grass-grown and picturesque memorials of an epoch of terror and suffering: they will serve to make our country dearer and more interesting to us, and afford fit soil for poetry to root itself in: for this is a plant which thrives best in spots where blood has been spilt long ago, and grows in abundant clusters in old ditches, such as the moat around Fort Ellsworth will be a century hence.

In September, 1864, Company F, 1st Wisconsin Heavy Artillery Regiment was assigned to the Fort.
The George Washington Masonic National Memorial was built on Shuter's hill, the site of the fort.


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Here follows an excerpt about the Marshall House from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

The Marshall House was an inn that stood at 480 King Street (near the southeast corner of King Street and South Pitt Street) in Alexandria, Virginia. At the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861, the house was the site of the killing of Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth during the Union Army's takeover of Alexandria. Ellsworth was a popular and highly prominent officer and a close friend of President Abraham Lincoln.

Ellsworth was the first conspicuous Union Army casualty and the first officer killed in battle during the war. He was shot by the inn's proprietor James W. Jackson after removing a Confederate flag from the roof of the inn. Jackson was immediately killed after he killed Ellsworth. Ellsworth's death became a cause célèbre for the Union, while Jackson's death became the same for the Confederacy.

History:
Ellsworth, a young Illinois lawyer who was a friend of the Lincoln's and 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 Army's take-over of Alexandria. During the month before the event, the inn's proprietor, James W. Jackson, had raised from the inn's roof a large Confederate flag that President Lincoln and his Cabinet had reportedly observed through field glasses from an elevated spot in Washington. Jackson had reportedly stated that the flag would only be taken down "over his dead body".

Before crossing the Potomac River to take Alexandria, soldiers serving under Ellsworth's command observed the flag from their camp through field glasses and volunteered to remove it. Having seen the flag after landing in Alexandria, Ellsworth and seven other soldiers entered the inn through an open door. Once inside, they encountered a man dressed in a shirt and trousers, of whom Ellsworth demanded what sort of a flag it was that hung upon the roof.

The man, who seemed greatly alarmed, declared he knew nothing of it, and that he was only a boarder there. Without questioning him further, 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 E. 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 double-barreled gun 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 shot, hitting Jackson in the middle of his face. Before Jackson dropped, Brownell repeatedly thrust his bayonet through Jackson's body, sending Jackson's corpse down the stairs.

Ellsworth became the first Union officer to die while on duty in the Civil War. Brownell, who retained a piece of the flag, was later awarded a Medal of Honor for his actions.

Ellsworth's body was taken back across the Potomac to Washington, D.C. and was laid in state in the East Room at the White House. Immediately after the incident, thousands of Union supporters rallied around Ellsworth's cause and enlisted, and "Remember Ellsworth" became a patriotic slogan. The 44th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment called itself the "Ellsworth Avengers" as well as "The People's Ellsworth Regiment". Confederates meanwhile hailed Jackson as a martyr to their cause.

Soldiers and souvenir hunters carried away pieces of the flag and inn as mementos, especially portions of the inn's stairway, balustrades and oilcloth floor covering. After the war ended, the Marshall House served as a location for a series of small businesses, but still attracted tourists from both the North and the South. Largely reconstructed after an 1873 fire that an arsonist caused, the building was torn down around 1950.

The City of Alexandria has erected a wayfinding sign near the southeast corner of King Street and South Pitt Street. The sign relates the history and significance of the Marshall House, together with historical photographs and other information.

Historical marker:
The Marshall House plaque, within a blind arch near a corner of the Hotel Monaco, before its removal. (2009)
In 1999, sociologist and historian James W. Loewen noted in his book Lies Across America that the Sons of Confederate Veterans had placed a bronze plaque on the side of a Holiday Inn that had been constructed on the former site of the Marshall House. Loewen reported that the plaque described Jackson's death but omitted any mention of Ellsworth. Adam Goodheart further discussed the incident and the plaque (which was then within a blind arch near a corner of a Hotel Monaco) in his 2011 book 1861: The Civil War Awakening.

The plaque called Jackson the "first martyr to the cause of Southern Independence" and said he "was killed by federal soldiers while defending his property and personal rights ... in defence of his home and the sacred soil of his native state". In full, it read:

THE MARSHALL HOUSE stood upon this site, and within the building on the early morning of May 24, JAMES W. JACKSON was killed by federal soldiers while defending his property and personal rights as stated in the verdict of the coroners jury. He was the first martyr to the cause of Southern Independence.
The justice of history does not permit his name to be forgotten. Not in the excitement of battle, but coolly and for a great principle, he laid down his life, an example to all, in defence of his home and the sacred soil of his native state. VIRGINIA

In 2013, WTOP reported that some Alexandria residents were advocating the removal of the plaque, but that city officials had no control over the matter as the plaque was on private property. However, in December 2016, Marriott International purchased The Monaco, added it to its boutique Autograph Collection and renamed it as "The Alexandrian". By October 2017, the plaque was removed from The Alexandrian and had given it to the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Artifacts:
During and after the Marshall House incident, relics associated with Ellsworth's death became prized souvenirs. President Lincoln kept the captured Marshall House flag, with which his son Tad often played and waved. The New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center in Saratoga Springs now holds in its collections most of the flag, as well as Ellsworth's uniform. The uniform contains a hole through which a slug apparently entered.

The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. holds in its collections a fragment of the flag, a blood-stained piece of oilcloth and a scrap of red bunting that remain from the encounter at the Marshall House. Bates College's Special Collections Library in Lewiston, Maine holds another fragment of the flag.

In 1894, Brownell's widow was offering to sell small pieces of the flag for $10 and $15 each. A fragment of the flag that Brownell had given to an early mentor at the time of Ellsworth's funeral was sold during the 21st century after being retained by the mentor's family for many years.

The Fort Ward Museum and Historic site in Alexandria displays the kepi that Ellsworth wore when he was killed, patriotic envelopes bearing his image, most of a star from the flag that is still stained with Ellsworth's blood, and the "O" from the Marshall House sign that a soldier took as a souvenir.


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Here follows an excerpt about Elmer E. Ellsworth from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth (April 11, 1837 – May 24, 1861) was a United States Army officer and law clerk who was the first conspicuous casualty and the first Union officer to die in the American Civil War. He was killed while removing a Confederate flag from the roof of the Marshall House inn in Alexandria, Virginia.

Before the war, Ellsworth led a touring military drill team, the "Zouave Cadets of Chicago". He was a close personal friend of Abraham Lincoln. After his death, Ellsworth's body lay in state at the White House. The phrase "Remember Ellsworth" became a rallying cry and call to arms for the Union Army.

Early life:
Born as Ephraim Elmer Ellsworth in Malta, New York, Ellsworth grew up in Mechanicville, New York, and later moved to New York City. In 1854, he moved to Rockford, Illinois, where he worked for a patent agency. In 1859, he became engaged to Carrie Spafford, the daughter of a local industrialist and city leader. When Carrie's father demanded that he find more suitable employment, he moved to Chicago to study law and work as a law clerk.

In 1860, Ellsworth moved to Springfield, Illinois, to work with Abraham Lincoln. Studying law under Lincoln, he also helped with Lincoln's 1860 campaign for president, and accompanied the new elected president to Washington, D.C. Ellsworth stood 5 ft 6 in (168 cm) tall; the six-foot-four Lincoln called him "the greatest little man I ever met". After the election, Mary Todd Lincoln's youngest half-sister, Catherine "Kittie" Todd (1841–1875), visited Springfield and became infatuated with Ellsworth and they had a brief flirtation.

Career:
In 1857, Ellsworth became drillmaster of the "Rockford Greys", the local militia company. He studied military science in his spare time. After some success with the Greys, he helped train militia units in Milwaukee and Madison. When he moved to Chicago, he became Colonel of Chicago's National Guard Cadets.

Ellsworth had studied the Zouave soldiers, French colonial troops in Algeria, and was impressed by their reported fighting quality. He outfitted his men in Zouave-style uniforms, and modeled their drill and training on the Zouaves. Ellsworth's unit became a nationally famous drill team.

Following the fall of Fort Sumter to Confederate Army troops in mid-April 1861, and Lincoln's subsequent call for 75,000 volunteers to defend the nation's capital, Ellsworth raised the 11th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment (the "Fire Zouaves") from New York City's volunteer firefighting companies, and was then commissioned as the regiment's commanding officer.

Death:
Ellsworth was killed at the Marshall House on May 24, 1861 (the day after Virginia's secession was ratified by referendum) during the Union Army's take-over of Alexandria. During the month before the event, the inn's proprietor, James W. Jackson, had raised from the inn's roof a large Confederate flag that President Lincoln and his Cabinet had reportedly observed through field glasses from an elevated spot in Washington. Jackson had reportedly stated that the flag would only be taken down "over his dead body".

Before crossing the Potomac River to take Alexandria, soldiers serving under Ellsworth's command observed the flag from their camp through field glasses and volunteered to remove it. Having seen the flag after landing in Alexandria, Ellsworth and seven other soldiers entered the inn through an open door. Once inside, they encountered a man dressed in a shirt and trousers, of whom Ellsworth demanded what sort of a flag it was that hung upon the roof.

The man, who seemed greatly alarmed, declared he knew nothing of it, and that he was only a boarder there. Without questioning him further, 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 E. 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 double-barreled 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. Before Jackson dropped, Brownell repeatedly thrust his bayonet through Jackson's body, sending Jackson's corpse down the stairs.

Ellsworth became the first Union officer to die in the Civil War. Brownell, who retained a piece of the flag, was later awarded a Medal of Honor for his actions.

Lincoln was deeply saddened by his friend's death and ordered an honor guard to bring his friend's body to the White House, where he lay in state in the East Room. Ellsworth's body was then taken to the City Hall in New York City, where thousands of Union supporters came to see the first man to fall for the Union cause. Ellsworth was then buried in his hometown of Mechanicville, in the Hudson View Cemetery (see: Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth Monument and Grave).

Thousands of Union supporters rallied around Ellsworth's cause and enlisted. "Remember Ellsworth" became a patriotic slogan. The 44th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment called itself the "Ellsworth Avengers" as well as "The People's Ellsworth Regiment".

Simultaneously, Jackson became a celebrated martyr for the Confederate cause. A plaque that the Sons of Confederate Veterans placed within a blind arch near a corner of a prominent hotel that stood on the former site of the Marshall House commemorated Jackson's role in the affair for many years. However, Marriott International removed the plaque in 2017 shortly after it purchased the hotel (see: Marshall House historical marker).

Legacy:
After the Marshall House incident, soldiers and souvenir hunters carried away pieces of the flag and inn as mementos, especially portions of the inn's stairway, balustrades, and oilcloth floor covering. Relics associated with Ellsworth's death became prized souvenirs.

President Lincoln kept the captured Marshall House flag, with which his son Tad often played and waved. The flag apparently passed to Brownell, and upon his death in 1894, his widow offered to sell small pieces of the flag for $10 and $15 each. She presented one fragment to "an early mentor" of her husband's; his descendants apparently sold it more than a century later.

Today, most of the flag is held by the New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center in Saratoga Springs, which also has Ellsworth's uniform with an apparent bullet hole. Another fragment is held by the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, along with a blood-stained piece of oilcloth and a scrap of red bunting from the Marshall House. Yet another fragment is held by Bates College's Special Collections Library. A fragment bearing most of a star is on display at the Fort Ward Museum and Historic site in Alexandria, along with the kepi that Ellsworth wore when he was killed, patriotic envelopes bearing his image, and the "O" from the Marshall House sign that a soldier had taken as a souvenir.

Artifacts collected during the construction of the Hotel Monaco were preserved by local archeologists. They may be seen in the Torpedo Factory Art Center's third floor exhibit (the Alexandria Archaeology Museum), three blocks away on King Street.

The new county seat of Pierce County, Wisconsin, located in the undeveloped center of the county to settle the controversy between two established cities, was named Ellsworth, Wisconsin, in his honor. He is also the namesake of Ellsworth, Michigan; DC's Fort Ellsworth, and possibly Ellsworth, Iowa; Ellsworth, Kansas; and Mount Ellsworth near Green River, Utah. A street in the Bronx, New York is named in his honor (Ellsworth Avenue).

In 1936, the Greenwich Village Historical Society installed a flagpole honoring Ellsworth at the eastern end of Christopher Park at the intersection of Christopher Street and Waverly Place. It sits directly across Waverly Place from the historic Northern Dispensary building and across Christopher Street from the Stonewall Inn. The flagpole is within the boundary of the Stonewall National Monument, but the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation maintains responsibility for the flagpole. Since 2017, New York City has flown a Rainbow flag (LGBT) on the flagpole.

Song: "Brave Men, Behold Your Fallen Chief" on IMSLP by Joseph Philbrick Webster

He is a character in the 2012 film Saving Lincoln, in which his death is portrayed.

Ellsworth only recently (2021) became the topic of a full-length book by Meg Groeling entitled First Fallen: The Life of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, the North’s First Civil War Hero (Savas Beatie, 2021).


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Here follows an excerpt about Francis Brownell from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Francis Edwin Brownell (July 18, 1840 – March 15, 1894) was a Union Army soldier who received a Medal of Honor for his actions during the American Civil War. Brownell received the award for killing James W. Jackson after Jackson shot Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth, colonel of the 11th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Although Brownell did not receive the award until 1877, twelve years after the war had ended, his actions were the earliest in the war that resulted in the receipt of the award.

Life:
Francis Edwin "Frank" Brownell was born in Troy, New York to Charles Brownell and Lucy Adams, where, prior to the Civil War, he worked as a clerk in the law office of attorney John A. Millard. He enlisted as a private in the 11th New York Volunteers, the "Fire Zouaves", in April 1861, and was assigned to Company A.

In the first days of the war, as the 11th entered Alexandria, Virginia on May 24, 1861, Ellsworth led Brownell and several other men into the heart of the city. On the way there, the men spotted a large Confederate flag atop the Marshall House inn. Ellsworth's group entered the inn and quickly cut down the flag but as they descended the stairs they encountered the proprietor, James Jackson. Jackson killed Ellsworth with a shotgun blast to the chest and Brownell responded by fatally shooting and bayonetting the innkeeper. For this, he was rewarded with a commission in the Regular Army. He served as an officer in the 11th Infantry Regiment (United States) for the next two years, retiring in November 1863 with the rank of first lieutenant.

After the war, Brownell requested an award of the Medal of Honor in recognition of his actions in killing Jackson but was denied. He made a second request which was also denied. A third attempt with the assistance of his congressman was granted and Brownell was awarded the Medal in 1877, inscribed with his name and regiment. A request to have his action described on the medal resulted in its being returned to the War Department and a second medal being issued. It was inscribed: "The Congress to Sergt Frank E. Brownell, 11th N.Y. Vol Inf’y for gallantry in shooting the murderer of Col. Ellsworth at Alexandria, VA, May 24, 1861."

Following the war, Brownell lived in Washington, D.C. where he worked as a clerk with the Pension Office. He was member of the Grand Army of the Republic and a companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. He is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.

A fragment of the Marshall House flag that Brownell gave to Millard while on the way to Ellsworth's funeral near Troy remained in Millard's family for many years. The fragment was sold during the 21st century.

Medal of Honor citation:
Rank and organization: Private, Company A, 11th New York Infantry. Place and date: Alexandria, Va., May 24, 1861. Entered service at: Troy, N.Y. Birth: New York. Date of issue: January 26, 1877.

Killed the murderer of Col. Ellsworth at the Marshall House, Alexandria, Va. First Civil War deed to merit Medal of Honor.


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