Charles Ellet Jr. (1 January 1810 – 21 June 1862) was an American civil engineer from Pennsylvania who designed and constructed major canals, suspension bridges and railroads. He designed and supervised construction of the Wheeling Suspension Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the world, from 1849 to 1851. He conducted the first Federal survey of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers as part of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Ellet published multiple books and essays on wide ranging topics including macroeconomic theory, suspension bridge construction, railroad construction, river flood control and steam powered battery rams.
During the American Civil War, Ellet received a commission as colonel and created and commanded the United States Ram Fleet, a Union Army unit of ram ships converted from commercial steamers. His ram ships played a critical role in the Union naval victory at the First Battle of Memphis. He was wounded during the battle (the only casualty on the Union side) and died soon after.
Early life and education
Ellet was born on January 1, 1810, at Penn's Manor in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He was the sixth child of 14 born to Charles Ellet Sr. and Mary Israel. He studied at the Bristol school and worked as a rodman, measuring for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and making drawings. Benjamin Wright promoted him to Assistant Engineer of the Fifth Residency, but in 1830, he resigned to continue his studies in Paris, where he studied civil engineering at École nationale des Ponts et Chaussées.
Family
Both Ellet's maternal and paternal grandfathers served in the American Revolutionary War. His father was a Quaker and a descendant of Samuel Carpenter, who served as Deputy Governor of colonial Pennsylvania.
Ellet's maternal grandfather, Israel Israel, descended from a family of Jewish diamond cutters from Holland and was a member of Pennsylvania's Committee of Safety and a recognized active patriot. His maternal grandmother, Hannah Erwin, was from a Quaker family. Ellet's younger brother, Alfred W. Ellet, served as a brigadier general in the Union Army during the Civil War, and succeeded Charles as commander of the United States Ram Fleet following his death. Another relative, nephew John A. Ellet, served as a lieutenant colonel, commanding the ram USS Lancaster.
Ellet married Elvira Augusta Stuart Daniel on November 7, 1837, in Lynchburg, Virginia. Her father was Virginia lawyer and soon-to-be judge William Daniel and her mother was Margaret Baldwin. She could trace her descent among the First Families of Virginia and owned enslaved persons, although Ellet himself never did. Judge Daniel's father (also a lawyer and judge of the same name William Daniel Sr.) had served as an ensign during the Revolutionary war under Captain Arda Allen, and his wife's maternal grandfather, Dr. Cornelius Baldwin, had served as a surgeon for the patriot cause throughout the conflict. Their son Charles Rivers Ellet also served as a colonel in the Union Army and commander of the United States Ram Fleet. Their daughter Mary Virginia Ellet Cabell (1839–1930) would become the second wife of William Daniel Cabell in 1867 and became a founding member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Engineering career
After returning from Europe, Ellet worked on the Utica and Schenectady Railroad and was appointed to conduct a survey of the Western New York section of the New York and Erie Railroad. In 1832, he submitted a proposal to Congress for a suspension bridge across the Potomac River, but it was rejected. 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. He was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1843.
Ellet supervised construction of the James River and Kanawha Canal in Virginia. From 1846 to 1847, he worked as president of the Schuylkill Navigation Company in Pennsylvania and supervised improvements to the canal used for transporting anthracite coal. He also constructed railroads in those states. Ellet developed theories for improving flood control and navigation of Mid-western rivers.
In 1848, Ellet built the record-breaking Wheeling suspension bridge over the Ohio River at Wheeling, West Virginia, with a span over 1,000 feet. In the same year, he erected the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge, the first ever railway suspension bridge over the Niagara Gorge with a 770-foot span.