(from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated History of the Civil War…, edited by Louis Shepheard Moat, Published by Mrs. Frank Leslie, New York, 1895)
“Colonel Ellsworth was passing the Marshall House in Alexandria, Va., when he saw a Confederate flag waving above it. On the spur of the moment he entered the hotel, and ascending to the roof with two or three friends, cut the halyards and took possession of the flag. As he descended the stairs be was fired at by James W. Jackson, proprietor of the hotel. Colonel Ellsworth fell to the ground mortally wounded.”