Private Francis Edwin Brownell, Medal of Honor recipient for his swift actions on the 24th of May, 1861. Francis' regiment, the 11th New York Zouaves (Called the 'Fire Zouaves'), had entered the city of Alexandria, Virginia, to retrieve a Confederate flag flying atop an inn.br/br/The story goes that President Abraham Lincoln looked out from the White House across the Potomac River and spotted a large Confederate flag displayed over the town of Alexandria, the day after Virginia's secession was ratified.br/br/Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth offered to retrieve the flag, and he led the 11th New York across the Potomac and in to the streets of Alexandria uncontested. He sent some men to take the railroad station, and Ellsworth himself led some others to take the telegraph office, and to retrieve the Confederate flag, flying atop the Marshall House Inn. Ellsworth went upstairs with four men, and cut down the flag, but when Ellsworth came downstairs with the flag, the owner of the inn, James W. Jackson, put a shotgun round in his chest, and immediately killed him; Jackson himself was immediately killed by Brownell, and Brownell was awarded the Medal of Honor for this action.