The Marshall House stood on the corner of King Street, and South Pitt Street Alexandria, Virginia

Alexandria, Virginia

Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...

.

History

James W. Jackson

James W. Jackson

James W. Jackson was an ardent secessionist and the proprietor of the Marshall House, an inn located in the City of Alexandria during the time of the Civil War. During the capture of Alexandria Jackson used an English-made double-barrel shotgun to kill Col...

 was killed by Union troops after he shot and killed Col. Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth

Elmer E. Ellsworth

-External links:* * * * * *...

. Jackson's promise that the Confederate flag he raised over the hotel would be torn down "over his dead body" was fulfilled.
Ellsworth, a young Illinois lawyer and friend of the Lincolns, became the first Union officer to die in the Civil War.

It was torn down in the 1950s.
Today the site of the Marshall house is occupied by the Hotel Monaco.
A plaque at the corner commemorates the death of James W. Jackson, killed "for defending his property," but makes no mention of his shotgun slaying of Col. Ellsworth. Thus the text has a decidedly southern bias.
No mention or monument to the fallen colonel of the famous New York "Fire Zouaves" is present.
Artifacts collected during the construction process were preserved by local archeologists and may be seen in the Old Torpedo Factory's third floor exhibit (the Alexandria Archaeology Museum), three blocks away on King Street.