The Marshall House Flag

“Made by an Alexandria sailmaker and his family, the flag was patterned after the ‘Stars and Bars,’ with red and white bars and a circle of seven stars on a blue field. An eighth star was added in the center for Virginia.” — The Fort Ward Museum

Mrs. Sibby Padgett, wife of Alexandria sailmaker John W. Padgett, is generally credited with creating the flag at James Jackson's request.

This picture, published in Harper's Weekly on June 15, 1861, shows the 8-star flag flying over Marshall House.

The Museum at Fort Ward has one of the stars torn from the flag that Ellsworth died to lower.

The New York State Museum in Albany owns what's left of the Marshall House Flag.

This 2013 HMdb photo by Howard C. Ohlhous shows the flag on display in Albany.

---

When the first Confederate national flag was adopted on March 4, 1861 it had seven stars — there were seven states in the Confederacy: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.

Virginia officially seceeded on May 23rd 1861. When the Union army moved into Alexandria on the 24th, a nine-star flag had already been adopted on May 21, representing the addition of Virginia and Arkansas.

The Confederate Flag would eventually have 13 Stars representing: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Kentucky and Missouri. Although Kentucky and Missouri were officially Union States. (See Ask A Historian)