Union Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth was killed in Alexandria, Virginia, on May 24, 1861, for removing the Confederate flag from the roof of The Marshall House Inn. The tragic new layer to this event is that Ellsworth was a deeply personal friend and former law clerk of Abraham Lincoln, making his death the very first high-profile casualty of the American Civil War. The massive Confederate banner had been intentionally flown so high that Lincoln could see it from the windows of the White House using a spyglass. When Ellsworth was shot dead by the innkeeper while carrying the flag down the stairs, a devastated Lincoln wept openly, ordered an honor guard for his young friend, and had Ellsworth’s body lie in state in the East Room of the White House.