Library of Congress image.
Wikipedia: Brownell enlisted as a member of the 11th New York Volunteers, the “Fire Zouaves,” and was assigned to Company A. In the first days of the war, as the 11th entered Alexandria, Virginia on May 24, 1861, Ellsworth took him and several other men to capture the telegraph office. On the way there, one of Ellsworth’s men spotted a Confederate flag atop the Marshall House inn. Ellsworth’s group entered the inn and quickly cut down the flag, but they encountered the proprietor, James Jackson, as they descended the stairs. Jackson killed Ellsworth with a shotgun blast to the chest, and Brownell responded in kind by fatally shooting the innkeeper. For this, he was rewarded with a commission in the regular army and served as an officer for the next two years, retiring in 1863 with the rank of first lieutenant.
