Charles Ellet, Jr.

Charles Ellet, Jr.
Born	January 1, 1810(1810-01-01) Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Died	June 21, 1862(1862-06-21) (aged 52) Battle of Memphis
Occupation	Engineer
Known for	Championing suspension bridges and other engineering endeavors in United States

Charles Ellet, Jr. (1 January 1810 – 21 June 1862) was a civil engineer and a colonel during the American Civil War, mortally wounded at the Battle of Memphis.

Biography

Ellet was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, brother of Alfred W. Ellet, also a civil engineer and a brigadier general in the Union Army during the war.^[1]

Charles studied civil engineering at École nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris, France, and in 1832 submitted proposals for a suspension bridge across the Potomac River.^[2] In 1842, he designed and built the first major wire-cable suspension bridge in the United States, spanning 358 feet over the Schuylkill River at Fairmount, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.^[3] He designed the record-breaking Wheeling suspension bridge over the Ohio River at Wheeling, West Virginia in 1848, and a 770-foot suspension footbridge at Niagara Falls at the same time.^[4]

His other civil engineering accomplishments include supervising both the James River & Kanawha Canal in Virginia and the Schuylkill Navigation improvements in Pennsylvania, and also constructing railroads in those states. Ellet developed theories for improving flood control and navigation of mid-western rivers.^[5] In 1849 he had advocated the use of reservoirs, built in the upper reaches of drainage basins, to retain water from the wet season that could be released during periods of low water to improve navigation;^[6] to some degree this also would tend to lessen the level of flooding during high flow. In 1850, the Secretary of War, conforming to an Act of Congress, directed Ellet to make surveys and reports on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers with a view to the preparation of adequate plans for flood prevention and navigation improvement. His report was very complete, and it exercised considerable influence on later engineering thought and navigation improvements.^[7]

In March 1861, the Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton appointed him colonel of engineers and tasked him with developing the United States Ram Fleet.

A plaque placed in honor of Charles Ellet, Jr. on the Wheeling Suspension Bridge in Wheeling, West Virginia.

He was mortally wounded during the Battle of Memphis while on board Queen of the West, dying fifteen days later.^[8]

Ellet published a Report of the Overflows of the Delta of the Mississippi River, which helped to reshape New Orlean's waterfront. George Perkins Marsh published Man and Nature fourteen years later, but it was Ellet who first noted in writing that the artificial embankments created an overflowing delta. It would be decades later that his assertions were taken seriously and used in flood control decisions.^[9]

His son Charles Rivers Ellet was a colonel in the Union Army.

Namesake

USS Ellet (DD-398), which was in service in 1939-46, was named in honor of Charles Ellet, Jr. and other members of his family.

See also

	Biography portal
	United States Army portal
	American Civil War portal

References

1. ^ Eicher, John H.; Eicher, David J. (2001). Civil War High Commands. Stanford University Press. p. 224. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3. 
2. ^ Lewis, Gene D. (1968). Charles Ellet Jr. The Engineer as Individualist. niversity of Illinois Press. p. 20. 
3. ^ Steinman & Watson, p. 210
4. ^ Steinman & Watson, p. 211
5. ^ Lewis, Gene D. (1968). Charles Ellet Jr. The Engineer as Individualist. niversity of Illinois Press. pp. 36, 92,. 
6. ^ Timeline: Development of US Inland Waterways System from Coosa-Alabama River Improvement Association, Inc.
7. ^ Federal Participation in Waterways Development
8. ^ Eicher, David J. (2001). The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War. Simon & Schuster. p. 253. ISBN 0-684-84944-5. 
9. ^ Kelman, Ari (2003). A River and Its City: The Nature of Landscape in New Orleans. University of California Press. p. 162. ISBN 0-520-23432-4. 

Additional reading

• Fowler, William M. 1990. Under Two Flags: The American Navy in the Civil War. Norton and Company. ISBN 0-393-02859-3

External links

• "Charles Ellet, Jr.". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=5772. Retrieved March 20, 2010. 

Persondata
Name	Ellet, Charles, Jr.
Alternative names
Short description	United States Army officer
Date of birth	1 January 1810
Place of birth	Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Date of death	21 June 1862
Place of death	Battle of Memphis