Existing comment:
Pistol carried by Colonel Elmer Ellsworth:
Colonel Elmer Ellsworth was carrying this Colt revolver when he entered a hotel in Alexandria, Virginia, in the predawn hours of May 24, 1861, to remove a Confederate flag from a flagpole atop the hotel's roof. On his way back down the stairs, with the flag in his grasp, Ellsworth was taken by surprise by the secessionist innkeeper, who instantly killed him with a blast from a shotgun. The innkeeper in turn was instantly shot and killed by one of Ellsworth's fellow officers, Francis Brownell, who donated this pistol and other artifacts related to Ellsworth's death to the Smithsonian. |