Charles Ellet, Jr., was born on January 1, 1810, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, to Charles and Mary Ellet. He grew up and attended school in Bristol, Pennsylvania, and he began working as a surveyor and assistant engineer on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in 1828. In the early 1830s, he travelled to Paris, France, to study civil engineering at the École nationale des ponts et chaussées. He married Elvira Daniel on October 30, 1837, and they had at least four children: Mary, born around 1839; Charles, born around 1843; Cornelia, born around 1850; and William, born around 1855.

 

He became a prominent engineer, and in 1842, he built a 358-foot-long bridge over the Schuylkill River, which was the first major wire-cable suspension bridge in the United States. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1843, and he served as president of the Schuylkill Navigation Company during the mid-1840s. In 1848, he built the 1,000-foot-long Wheeling Suspension Bridge, which was the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world. That same year, he built the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge, which was the first railway suspension bridge over the Niagara Gorge.

 

During the Crimean War, he proposed building a fleet of ram ships for the Russian navy, but the plan never came to fruition. He proposed a similar plan for the United States Navy, but he was unable to persuade naval officials in the 1850s. He continued working as a civil engineer in Washington, D.C, and by 1860, he owned $75,000 of real estate and $20,000 of personal property.

 

During the Civil War, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton appointed him colonel of engineers and authorized him to organize the United States Ram Fleet. He commanded the USS Queen of the West during the Battle of Memphis in June 1862, managing to ram and sink the Confederate flagship CSS Colonel Lovell. During the battle, however, Ellet was wounded in the knee. The wound became infected, and he died of a blood infection in Cairo, Illinois, on June 21, 1862.

 

Image: Charles Ellet, Jr. (courtesy Wikicommons)

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