Fort Ward Museum Hosts Marshall House Incident Exhibition

The deaths of Union Col. Elmer Ellsworth and secessionist James Jackson at the Marshall House Hotel on King Street during the federal occupation of Alexandria on May 24, 1861, stirred patriotic fervor in both the North and South.

Now, items from that incident on are display at Fort Ward Museum & Historic Site, 4301 West Braddock Road. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

The show runs through the end of the year, said museum Assistant Director Wally Owen.

“It honors the first Union officer killed in the Civil War,” he said. “And that event was in Alexandria, and that has been an interesting event for many people interested in the Civil War.”

This exhibit at Fort Ward features objects from the museum collection, like a star from the flag that had flown over Marshall House and is stained with Ellsworth’s blood, and loan items from the Mary Custis Lee Chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy. Some items were taken by soldiers from the Marshall House as souvenirs, Owen said, including wallpaper fragments and an “O” from the word “House” taken from the front of the building by a Rhode Island soldier.

Other items include a drum that was taken from the First Battle of Manassas from the 11th New York Fire Zouaves, patriotic envelopes that honor Ellsworth’s death and one of Ellsworth’s Civil War kepis, a type of hat.

The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. For more information, visit www.fortward.org or call 703-746-4848.