Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Charles III ELLET
Ellet, Charles, engineer, was born in Penn's Manor, Bucks county, Pa., Jan. 1, 1810; son of Charles Ellet, a farmer. He worked on the farm, attending school winters and in 1826 was sent to Bristol academy where he studied mathematics and civil engineering. He was then an assistant in the engineer corps surveying the Chesapeake [p.418] and Ohio canal, was assistant surveyor of Maryland in 1828, and in 1881 studied in the Ecole polytechnique, Paris. He was then employed on various railroads and became chief engineer of the James River and Kanawha canal. In 1841-42 he constructed the wire suspension bridge across the Schuylkill at Fairmount, and in 1847 designed and built the suspension bridge at Niagara Falls and the suspension bridge at Wheeling, W. Va. He was president of the Schuylkill navigation company, 1846-47, and assisted in surveying the Baltimore & Ohio railroad. He made a survey of the Northern Pacific, coast for the government, 1850-52, and while in Europe in 1854 he first conceived of the availability of the light draft steamer armed with a ram for forcing the blockade of harbors. He submitted his plan to the Czar of Russia as the means for raising the English blockade of Sebastopol, but it was not adopted. He then forwarded his plans to the United States naval department but with as little success. His claim was that swift light-draft steamers would prove more effective than those of heavy draft and tonnage, which was an original idea in naval construction. In 1861 the secretary of war commissioned Mr. Eliot colonel of engineers and directed him to purchase suitable boats and equip a fleet of iron-clad rams. He secured five heavy tow-boats and four side-wheel steamers, and strengthening them with heavy oak railroad iron and stout timbers, he painted them black and named the steamers the Queen of the West flagship, Col. Charles Ellet commanding, the Monarch, Lieut.-Col. Alfred W. Ellet, the Switzerland and the Lancaster, Capt. John A. Ellet. Proceeding down the river from Cincinnati, where they had been refitted, he reached Fort Pillow, after its evacuation, July 4, 1862, and early in the morning of the 5th he accompanied Flag-officer Davis and took possession of the abandoned works, Colonel Ellet hoisting the Stars and Stripes over the fort. On June 6, the fleet reached Memphis, Tenn., and here Colonel Ellet found the Confederate fleet drawn up in line of battle ready to oppose the advance. He at once dashed ahead of the gunboats, making for the fleet. The first antagonist was rammed and sunk, the second disabled, and then the Confederates used the same methods of warfare and turned on their antagonists, but only succeeded in ramming each other. Of the nine gunboats opposing the ram fleet only one escaped destruction. Colonel Ellet was wounded in the knee by a pistol shot, the only casualty on the ram fleet. He refused to have his leg amputated and was carried to the shore, leaving the fleet with the injunction to his brother, Alfred W., who succeeded to the command: "Alfred, stand to your post." He was carried to Cairo, Ill., where he died. He published: Physical Geography of the Mississippi Valley (1851); An Essay on the Laws of Trade (1839); and Coast and Harbor Defences, or the Substitution of Steam Battery rams for Ships of War (1855). He died on board the Switzerland near Cairo, Ill., June 21, 1862.
| HOME | EMAIL | SURNAMES |
Return to The Pennocks of Primitive Hall website.
The information in this database may contain errors. If you find any questionable data, or if you have something to add my findings, please feel free to e-mail me by clicking on the "E-MAIL" link above. Thank you!
Page built by Gedpage Version 2.21 ©2009 on 07 July 2020